{"id":2296395,"date":"2026-02-23T22:38:21","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T22:38:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2296395"},"modified":"2026-02-23T22:38:21","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T22:38:21","slug":"john-davidson-baftas-interrupted-by-racist-slur-from-man-with-tourette-syndrome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/john-davidson-baftas-interrupted-by-racist-slur-from-man-with-tourette-syndrome\/","title":{"rendered":"John Davidson: BAFTAs interrupted by racist slur from man with Tourette Syndrome"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\n It was the clip heard around the world after Sunday night\u2019s BAFTA ceremony in London \u2014 a man yelling the n-word as two celebrated Black actors, Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo, presented an award on stage.\n <\/p>\n

\n The man was John Davidson, the subject of the British indie film \u201cI Swear,\u201d about a man with Tourette syndrome<\/a>. Davidson, who has long campaigned for awareness of the condition, told celebrity.land before the ceremony that he was worried about the involuntary tics that mark it.\n <\/p>\n

\n The actor Robert Aramayo, who plays Davidson in the film, went on to win the night\u2019s award for best actor<\/a>. Davidson said the young English actor studied him closely, asking questions like, \u201cWhen you have a tic do you know where it comes from? What about tic triggers?\u201d Speaking on the crowded red carpet, Davidson went on: \u201cCertain things \u2014 like today, lots of people around, I\u2019m feeling very, you know, more tics in case I lash out. Different situations can trigger different emotions and tics and stuff.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

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John Davidson before the BAFTA awards\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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John Davidson before the BAFTA awards<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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\n The audience had been warned before the ceremony that tics or involuntary swearing could occur, and Davidson received large applause inside the hall. After the incident, host Alan Cumming asked for \u201cunderstanding\u201d for the \u201cstrong and offensive language.\u201d He reminded the crowd that Tourette syndrome was a disability and tics were involuntary, and said: \u201cWe apologize if you are offended tonight.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Contacted by celebrity.land on Sunday, the BBC, which airs the ceremony with a long delay, reiterated that message. On Monday, a spokesperson apologized that the BBC did not edit the slur \u201cprior to broadcast and it will now be removed from the version on BBC iPlayer.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Lindo, in particular, looked stunned at the outburst, and then moved on with the ceremony, where he and Jordan presented the first award of the evening \u2014 for special visual effects to \u201cAvatar: Fire and Ash.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Hannah Beachler, the Oscar-nominated production designer on \u201cSinners,\u201d said in a thread on X<\/a> that another outburst during the night was directed at her.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI understand and deeply know why this is an impossible situation,\u201d Beachler wrote. \u201cI know we must handle this with grace and continue to push through. But what made the situation worse was the throw away apology of \u2018if you were offended\u2019 at the end of the show.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI am not steal (sic), this did not bounce off of me, but I exist above it,\u201d wrote Beachler, who won an Oscar for production design in 2019 for her work on \u201cBlack Panther,\u201d becoming the first Black person to do so.\n <\/p>\n

\n Later Monday, BAFTA also apologized for the incident, noting in a statement the \u201cvery offensive language that carries incomparable trauma and pain for so many.\u201d They apologized in particular to Jordan and Lindo and thanked them \u201cfor their incredible dignity and professionalism.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n They also thanked Davidson for his \u201cdignity and consideration of others,\u201d noting that he chose to leave the auditorium during the ceremony.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe will learn from this,\u201d the organization said.\n <\/p>\n

\n Davidson confirmed his departure in his own statement Monday, saying, \u201cI chose to leave the auditorium early into the ceremony as I was aware of the distress my tics were causing.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Davidson thanked BAFTA and \u201ceveryone involved in the awards last night,\u201d saying the announcements made and applause he received made him feel \u201cwelcomed and understood in an environment that would normally be impossible for me.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n His tics, he said, were \u201cinvoluntary and not a reflection of my personal beliefs,\u201d adding that he was and has always been \u201cdeeply mortified if anyone considers my involuntary tics to be intentional or to carry any meaning.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The question of apologies is raised in \u201cI Swear,\u201d which makes the case that Davidson cannot spend his life apologizing for words and actions he cannot prevent and has no control over. The screenplay draws a comparison to a blind man knocking someone over in a bar: should they be held responsible for their actions and made to apologize? One of the questions now is whether it was right for Cumming to apologize \u2014 clumsily, at that \u2014 to the room on Davidson\u2019s behalf.\n <\/p>\n

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\n \u201cI Swear\u201d has grossed $8 million at the UK box office<\/a> to date and will be out in US cinemas in April.\n <\/p>\n

\n Accepting his best actor win, Aramayo said, \u201cI can\u2019t believe I\u2019m up here looking at people like you,\u201d gesturing at Leonardo DiCaprio, who had been nominated for his role in One Battle After Another. Aramayo went on to tell an emotional Ethan Hawke, another nominee, how a talk the seasoned actor had given at Julliard had changed his own outlook as a student actor.\n <\/p>\n

\n British cinema\u2019s biggest night cleaved to some longstanding award season narratives while heading off-piste on others.\n <\/p>\n

\n It awarded best supporting actress to \u201cSinners\u2019\u201d Wunmi Mosaku (incidentally, one of few Brit actors nominated) over One Battle\u2019s Teyana Taylor. Stellan Skarsg\u00e5rd and Benicio del Toro, both winners of significant awards this season, lost out to Sean Penn for best supporting actor.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cHamnet\u201d was awarded outstanding British film, but the homegrown title, which took best motion picture drama at the Golden Globes last month, walked away with relatively little, its only other award Jessie Buckley\u2019s best actress win (this season\u2019s biggest lock).\n <\/p>\n

\n The biggest movie to walk away empty handed was \u201cMarty Supreme.\u201d Timoth\u00e9e Chalamet leaves London with an unread speech and another chance to confirm his greatness at next month\u2019s Oscars. With Aramayo out of the picture, there\u2019s nothing to suggest he won\u2019t.\n <\/p>\n

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\n Though BAFTA shared the love, handing three awards to \u201cSinners\u201d and three to \u201cFrankenstein,\u201d it couldn\u2019t deny the greatness of \u201cOne Battle After Another.\u201d The film\u2019s six wins, spanning best picture, best director, adapted screenplay, cinematography, editing and supporting actor is enough to entertain the possibility of a sweep at the Oscars.\n <\/p>\n

\n The BAFTAs and Oscars rarely agree about the year\u2019s best film, and should Paul Thomas Anderson\u2019s prevail it would be only the third film in a decade and change where the awards aligned (\u201cNomadland\u201d and \u201cOppenheimer\u201d are the others, for those keeping track).\n <\/p>\n

\n celebrity.land\u2019s Sandra Gonzalez contributed to this report.<\/em>\n <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.celebrity.land.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It was the clip heard around the world after Sunday night\u2019s BAFTA ceremony in London \u2014 a man yelling the n-word as two celebrated Black actors, Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo, presented an award on stage. The man was John Davidson, the subject of the British indie film \u201cI Swear,\u201d about a man with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2296396,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2296395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/John-Davidson-BAFTAs-interrupted-by-racist-slur-from-man-with.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2296395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2296395"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2296395\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2296397,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2296395\/revisions\/2296397"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2296396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2296395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2296395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2296395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}