Delroy Lindo Stars In 'Romeo' Update
Actor Delroy Lindo won rave reviews for his portrayal of an incestuous father in The Cider House Rules. Now, he's starring in a new film that has him playing a gang leader in the soon-to-be-released Romeo Must Die. He spoke Monday to The Early Show anchor Bryant Gumbel.
The movie could be characterized as a hip-hop version of Romeo and Juliet.
"There was a challenge involved with seeing if I could create a character that was emotionally compelling for an audience in the context of an action film, in the context of a film that is structured, has a heavy, as you said, hip-hop element, and a very heavy action element," Lindo says.
In other words, he didn't want to play the stereotypical black gangster.
He describes his character of Isaak O'Day as, "a businessperson who is at a point in his life where he's trying to change some things and trying to repair his relationship with his daughter played by Aaliyah (Haughton), from whom he has been estranged."
He gets involved with a business deal. "Isaak feels if he successfully can complete this business transaction, he will be able to leave something for his kids," he adds.
His movie character Isaak is a poor golfer.
Lindo took up golf to prepare for his role. "I'm not an addictive personality, or my golf game is that poor," he explains. "I'm not sure. But I've always been told that, you know, once you pick up a club, that's it; you're hooked. I took a few lessons in preparation for the film." Lindo says rather bluntly: "Once the film was over, so was my golf career."
The actor is quite frank about revealing he was "deeply, deeply disappointed" to not receive an Oscar nomination for his role in Cider House Rules. "Frankly, there are two pieces of work that I have done in the past that kind of generated Oscar talk, so I've kind of been there before," he says.
"I got to a point where I thought, well, maybe I have a shot this time around. And when it didn't happen, yeah, I was - I'd be lying if I said I was not disappointed," he adds.
"And it's still a good thing to be associated with a film that is getting that kind of attention," Lindo says.
Lindo admits he is not getting all the work he wants: "One gets offered some things. And I say 'no' not infrequently, and so you have to accept the consequences of saying 'no,' and you don't work as much."