Gator Delroy Lindo tells students humanity is at the heart of his acting
The actor came to campus to speak to students about his career
- By Jamie Oppenheim
Award-winning actor and alumnus Delroy Lindo (B.A., ’04) recently spoke to Cinema and Project Rebound students about his career, higher education and much more. He emphasized to both groups the importance of humanity in his work — the biggest drivers in his professional life and what ultimately helped him complete his college degree at San Francisco State University.
Dozens of Cinema students gathered inside SFSU’s Coppola Theatre on Monday, Nov. 3, to listen to the actor answer questions posed by George and Judy Marcus Endowed Chair in African American Cinema Studies Artel Great and fellow Cinema students. He shared anecdotes, reflected on what draws him to certain roles and shared how he prepares for a job.
Third-year Cinema student Brooklynn Filstrup found the talk informative. “Students can benefit from hearing from professionals in the field,” especially ones like Lindo who have gained success in the industry, she adds.
A veteran actor, Lindo has appeared in films, television shows and on the stage since the 1970s. During his visit to campus, he discussed his big screen roles, including four Spike Lee films — “Malcolm X” (1992), “Crooklyn” (1994), “Clockers” (1995) and “Da 5 Bloods” (2020), for which he won a New York Film Critics Circle Award. He also appeared in the films “The Cider House Rules” (1999), “Gone in 60 Seconds” (2000) and many more. His most recent Hollywood picture was playing Delta Slim in Ryan Coogler’s 2025 horror film “Sinners.”
Filstrup was one of the many students in the crowd who planned to enter the entertainment industry after graduation, so Lindo’s answers provided insight into their chosen futures. One student wanted to know what it took to make an actor successful, to which Lindo replied: practice.
“Learn the craft. Become as conversant with the craft as you can become, because there are no guarantees,” Lindo said. “This is an absurdly unfair industry. That’s the playing field that you’re in. ... You better understand it, because if you don’t, you will soon find out. But the way to traverse this hill is to have as much craft at your disposal.”
When Lindo signs on to a project, he does extensive research, he told students. He played Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in the TV biopic “Strange Justice” (1999). He read the book the film was based on and visited Thomas’ hometown in Georgia, where he sat down and chatted with one of Thomas’ childhood friends.
In Spike Lee’s film “Clockers,” Lindo played a drug kingpin named Rodney Little who sold crack cocaine. Rodney was based on an actual person. Before filming began, Lindo went out to Jersey City to repeatedly hang out with the real Rodney. “Now, the point of my doing that was not because I wanted to do an impersonation of this man. No, I needed to get a feel for that world,” Lindo said. “The fact of the matter is Rodney, the character that Spike was asking me to play, I’m nothing like that. I’m not that person and I didn’t know very much about that whole crack world.”
What drew him to that role was the character’s complexity, Lindo says. “This was the central question that I asked myself: ‘Why does a man like Rodney become a father figure to these kids to the point where he can have them on the block selling drugs?’” he said. “That’s what interested me. ... The father figure component. So, I approached the part from the standpoint not of being a drug dealer. I approached the part from the standpoint of being a father figure to these kids and all the kids who I had working for me on the block.”
It’s his mission to show the human condition, he told Project Rebound students in a separate talk. “My job, in all of the work that I have done, is to try to present to the audiences the human being that is inside of that person,” he said. “Human beings who are flawed so that audiences say, ‘Well, yeah, I’ve done that’ or ‘I could do that.’ It’s not about being perfect. It’s about being human with all the flaws that come with being human.”
Acting was always Lindo’s first love, he said. Even though he’s garnered success, his mother was disappointed that he didn’t choose education first. His mom, who grew up in Jamaica, never attended college but wanted that for her son. Although she passed away in 1996, she and Lindo’s own son were the driving forces behind his decision to earn his degree from SFSU. At 50, Lindo graduated with a degree in Cinema and has since maintained a close relationship with the University. He currently serves as a director on SFSU’s Foundation board, in 2021 he spoke at the School of Cinema’s valediction ceremony and that same year he was inducted into the SFSU Alumni Hall of Fame.
“[SFSU] worked with me so that I could do the classes, and I will always have a profound gratitude and appreciation for what State provided me,” he said. “I knew that whenever [it] came time for me to discuss with my son the importance of education, I wanted to be able to be authentic. SF State provided me that opportunity.”
More information about SFSU's School of Cinema can be found online.