- My name is Delroy Lindo, I play Paul.
- My name is Clark Peters and I play Otis.
- My name is Norm Lewis and I play Eddie.
- This is Jonathan Majors, I play David.
- I'm Isiah Whitlock Jr, I play Melvin in "Da 5 Bloods."
(gentle music)
- When one is given the luxury, and the opportunity
of pursuing what one really wants to do
that can be the difference between saving one's life
versus struggling.
- What acting has taught me about humanity,
and something that I got from my father actually,
was that it takes all kinds of people to make up this world.
- Acting has taught me in many facets of humanity,
you know what is to be a villain,
what it is to be a hero,
what it is to be a coward,
what it is to be a friend.
In that you can acknowledge
that all those things are in you,
therefor they are in other people.
(gentle music)
- Even though I had not,
Spike and I had not worked together in over 20 years,
his creative objectives
are as sharp as they ever were.
What has been affirmed for me
as a result of working on the film is that
when there is clarity of purpose
and I believe that between myself as actor
and Spike Lee as director,
there is a clarity of purpose in terms of
the story that Spike as filmmaker wants to tell.
It cannot help but enriching the final product.
- With Spike I knew that
we were gonna be on set at six o'clock
and I knew that we were gonna wrap at six.
I knew that he knew every shot
he wanted to get for that day,
he had a roster, and he would make sure that we got them.
That meant you as the actor
would just have to make sure that you were on point
for what needed to be done
in that point in the storytelling.
- Everything you know, you know, and trust that
because Spike picks everyone for a reason,
and puts you in the film for a reason.
And you really have to trust that
The good parts about you and the bad parts about you,
the parts you really like, the parts you really dislike.
You really have to trust that.
When it's go time, you go,
you don't meditate on what it is you're going to do,
and you may not get another take.
So go.
- One of the things that I learned working with Spike Lee
is the power of improvisation.
Whenever I would reach an impasse,
I would always start to improvise my way out of it.
Not trying to be cute or anything like that,
but using that improvisation to my advantage
to kind of get myself back on track.
Spike allowed me to do that,
and that's where I get a lot of those honest moments.
- It's so many surprises
because I've admired him for so so many years
in so many films,
but finally getting a chance to work with him
and work with him on such an epic piece.
He is very structure oriented.
He knows what he wants when he wants it and how he wants it.
But within that structure, he gives you so much freedom
and he's very compliant with what the actor has to give.
And in some cases, he changes things up,
he'll give dialogue and then he'll say,
"Take that away and try it this way,
"and make something up, improv."
So I've learned to trust this giant of a man,
and I'm so honored to be in this movie.
(gentle music)
- An actor years ago,
taught me how to play various emotions
and he, I remember him saying,
"It has to start about maybe 10,12 pages back.
"You can't get to that moment
"and expect things to happen."
- Listen, really listen, be in the present.
That's on-stage.
On film, it's smaller, stiller
quieter, introspective,
because that camera picks up every little nuance
in your face,
and your face is broadcasting what's on your mind.
- The language will tell you where you're going next.
And your instrument and concert of language
will tell you where you're going next
and that you can't really rush a performance.
You can't really rush an attitude.
You can't just give it away.
You've gotta get there.
- Many, many, many years ago
when my career was just starting and I was in New York,
I was thinking about leaving New York,
I was extremely despondent.
And a fellow actor said to me,
"Delroy don't eave, there's work for you're here,
"you're too good.
"Hang in because there is work for you as an actor."
(gentle music)
- Be honest and tell the truth.
I always thought I had to be doing something,
when he would say "Action,"
I always felt like compelled to do something
and he would always say, "Yes, do something,
"be honest and just tell the truth."
It sounds very, very simple,
but it's one of the hardest things to do.
- You wanna give them morsels, a bit at a time.
As a young actor you get excited about(mumbles)
Hurry up and share, hurry up and give everything away.
But the idea of morsels, you know,
giving just enough information to keep the story going.
(gentle music)
- Yes, I've had mentors,
they give me the advice to make rejection a companion.
When you're young, you come into this business
with great dreams,
and you get shut down, left, right and center.
Sometimes that can be defeating
but it's just part of the process.
It's like the business is testing you
to see if you really wanna do this.
You know, and if you really want to do this,
that rejection is something that you need to put
into your bag of tricks.
- I did have a guy who,
he wasn't even an actor or anything like that,
but he had seen me in a play,
and he really liked my work.
And he told me, he said,
"You know, you're gonna be very, very good,
"if you study psychology."
He said, "You've got to know what makes a human being tick."
And he said, "You're almost there.
"You just gotta study a little bit of psychology,
"and you'll be able to pick play a myriad of characters."
And that's what I did when I was in college,
I took two years of psychology.
I don't think there's a character
you can throw at me nowadays
that I haven't seen or study at some point.
And that was some of the best advice I ever, ever got.
- Obviously my first true mentor would have been,
you've been taught Thiago Hudson.
His rhythm and his understanding.
And he really brought in the idea of the ancestors for me.
Which is just something that was in the back of my head,
all through training
and that I now really think about,
and bring into my work.
- There are various individuals
who have helped me along the way as my career was unfolding,
but I can't really say I had a mentor per se.
And the fact that I didn't have a mentor per se,
is part of the reason
that I always try to help younger actors in particular
whenever, wherever I can.
(gentle music)
- Relax, take it easy,
and trust that I would reach a point in my career
where I would be satisfied.
- You're doing okay man.
And it's hard right now,
but don't stop believing in the thing that's in you.
You know, don't stop believing in the little thing
that makes you a little different.
Be patient with that.
- Understand that the entertainment industry
is not a meritocracy.
And to understand that in actuality,
the entertainment industry is relatively small
and that everybody speaks to everybody.
It all depends on how one says what one is saying.
You get more with sweets than you do with bitters.
My mom used to say that to me.
(gentle music)
- This profession is a collaborative effort.
There is not one person who can do it all.
You can't act, direct, produce, write.
You can't, of course you can go ahead and try,
but I don't think that you'll get very far.
- Pursue the craft of acting.
One is more assured of having some measure of success
if one trains and learns the craft of acting.
- I ask people why they wanna be an actor and they say,
"Oh, well, somebody said I was funny."
And that's not gonna get you all that far.
I always say you can do it but you gotta put the work in.
A lot of people just don't wanna work.
They just don't want to put the time in.
But I always try to remind them
that there's no such thing as a natural actor.
- It's about intention.
And the industry is one thing,
the craft of acting is something different.
And if you're lucky, if you're blessed,
those things come together.
(gentle music)
- These experiences only come
once in a lifetime, if even
and then I should enjoy it, I should enjoy it,
I should enjoy life.
- I learned that the bond and the connections
that we made off-screen
when we were sitting around talking
in the restaurant, in the hotel, or whenever,
could have an extraordinarily positive impact
on the work that we were doing on-screen.
- Vietnam was a place where there's still
a lot of tears being shed.
And you need to be around actors whom you trust
to allow yourself safely to go areas
that might feel uncomfortable for you.
And I think that what I learned
with coming out of "Da 5 Bloods" is how important that is.
(gentle music)
- I learned a little Thai,
as you shared Thailand, I learned a little bit(mumbles).
- Thai, crews work their asses off.
And I would also say the Vietnamese crew.
There was a depth of commitment
and a depth of a follow-up in terms of application,
the manner in which they went about doing their jobs.
That was deeply inspiring.
I marveled that their work ethic.
- This film has opened my eyes
to so much about Vietnam, about Thailand.
- Irregardless of which flag you're fighting for,
there's a shared hurt,
and there's a shared experience
in going to war with somebody.
That dust that settles on you is permanent.
- The Vietnam War for a lot of people is still going on,
that great machine of war is still functioning.
It's still a money making machine.
(gentle music)
- Hopefully, what we learn
and this is not a given, but hopefully what we learn
is not to make the same mistakes.
Hopefully what we learn is humility.
- Especially in this world right now,
I hope that we can learn from each other
and continue to grow in that way.
- Well, I think we learn by knowing our history
is which we're made out of
and also where you come from and who can come from,
the good and the bad.
Everybody's individual life feeds into
the life of our planet and the life of our species.
- What was heartbreaking was to learn
the percentages of minorities
that were on the frontline in that war in Vietnam.
Minorities who were fighting for their own rights
in the country that they were born.
- I had no idea about the history that was left out
of a major segment of our American history,
about the black culture that is
that was formed while we were there,
and about the camaraderie, about the Brotherhood.
(gentle music)
- I never asked whose cake it was,
I just went in and cut myself a piece.
That's my motto.
Comes from an old Clifford Odete's play.
It's kind of a funky way of saying
Carpe Diem, seize the day.
- Slow and steady.
If you're constantly moving in the direction of your dreams
of your hopes, of your mission,
you can hold on to it
and continue to plow through,
without fatigue, without exhaustion.
- I really do want to make the best
of what God has given me.
How I communicate with my family,
how I communicate at work,
the kind of human being that I am
as I walk through my life
and as I walked through the world.
- I am a soul, you are a soul,
a peaceful soul, a powerful soul, a loving soul.
- "Da 5 Blods" is now on Netflix.
(gentle music)