{"id":2311434,"date":"2026-03-04T02:29:52","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T02:29:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2311434"},"modified":"2026-03-04T02:29:52","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T02:29:52","slug":"alan-cumming-breaks-silence-on-baftas-issues-an-apology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/alan-cumming-breaks-silence-on-baftas-issues-an-apology\/","title":{"rendered":"Alan Cumming breaks silence on BAFTAs, issues an apology"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<div id=\"videoWrap\" class=\"spacer-large videoWrap\" style=\"position:relative\">\n<div id=\"uwVideoPlaceholder\" slot=\"placeholder\" style=\"z-index:19;width:100%;padding-bottom:56.25%;position:relative\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"position:absolute;top:0;left:0;right:0;bottom:0;width:100%;height:100%;z-index:2\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/authoring\/authoring-images\/2026\/02\/23\/USAT\/88817685007-2263000972.jpg?crop=6335,3565,x0,y329\"\/><\/p>\n<div class=\"vidplaybtn\" style=\"display:-moz-box;display:-ms-flexbox;display:-webkit-flex;display:flex;background-color:rgba(0,0,0,.4);border:2px solid #fff;border-radius:80px;cursor:pointer;height:80px;width:80px;position:absolute;top:50%;left:50%;transform:translate(-50%,-50%);z-index:10\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"vidplayicon\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/appservices\/universal-web\/universal\/icons\/icon-play-alt-white.svg\" alt=\"play\" style=\"height:40px;margin:auto 18px auto 27px;width:40px\"\/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div slot=\"videoDetails\" id=\"videoDetails\" class=\"videoDetails\" style=\"padding-top:8px;padding-bottom:8px\">\n<div id=\"videoDetailsContainer\" class=\"videoDetailsContainer\" hidden=\"\">\n<p>Alan Cumming responds to John Davidson tic outburst during BAFTAs<\/p>\n<p>Alan Cumming briefly paused the BAFTAs on two occasions to address expletives and racial slurs yelled by Tourette&#8217;s syndrome advocate John Davidson.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Alan Cumming broke his silence on the controversial moment at the 2026 BAFTA Film Awards.<\/p>\n<p>The actor hosted the Feb. 22 award show, where Tourette&#8217;s advocate John Davidson\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/entertainment\/movies\/2026\/02\/22\/john-davidson-tourette-syndrome-outburst-racial-slur-baftas\/88817429007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">hurled a racial slur<\/a>\u00a0while\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/entertainment\/movies\/2026\/01\/22\/oscar-nominations-2026-full-list\/88252832007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">&#8220;Sinners&#8221;<\/a>\u00a0stars\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/entertainment\/movies\/2026\/02\/23\/baftas-bbc-michael-b-jordan-delroy-lindo-controversy\/88822108007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo<\/a>\u00a0were onstage presenting an award. During the ceremony, Cumming<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/entertainment\/movies\/2026\/02\/22\/john-davidson-tourette-syndrome-outburst-racial-slur-baftas\/88817429007\/\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/entertainment\/movies\/2026\/02\/22\/john-davidson-tourette-syndrome-outburst-racial-slur-baftas\/88817429007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"> briefly paused the show t<\/a>o address Davidson&#8217;s involuntary tics.<\/p>\n<p>In an <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DVZsG7igh3S\/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&amp;igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA%3D%3D&amp;img_index=1\" data-type=\"link\" data-id=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DVZsG7igh3S\/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&amp;igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA%3D%3D&amp;img_index=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Instagram post<\/a> on Monday, March 2, the &#8220;Traitors&#8221; star spoke about the incident and apologized to the Black and Tourette&#8217;s communities.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;What should have been an evening celebrating creativity as well as diversity and inclusion turned into a trauma triggering (expletive) show,&#8221; Cumming said. &#8220;I&#8217;m so sorry for all the pain Black people have felt at hearing that word echoed around the world.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m so sorry the Tourettes community has been reminded of the lack of understanding and tolerance that abounds regarding their condition,&#8221; he added.<\/p>\n<p class=\"related-link\"><span class=\"exclude-from-newsgate\"><strong style=\"margin-right:3px\">2026 BAFTAs: <\/strong><a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/entertainment\/movies\/2026\/02\/22\/john-davidson-tourette-syndrome-outburst-racial-slur-baftas\/88817429007\/\" rel=\"noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">Alan Cumming addresses tic outburst from John Davidson<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<h2 class=\"presto-h2 wp-block-heading\">Cumming: &#8216;We were all let down&#8217; that the slur was broadcast<\/h2>\n<p>The racial slur was audible on the BBC television broadcast, which was aired on a two-hour delay. It sparked backlash and <a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/entertainment\/movies\/2026\/02\/23\/baftas-bbc-michael-b-jordan-delroy-lindo-controversy\/88822108007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">prompted apologies<\/a>\u00a0from the BBC, the BAFTAs, and Davidson, who condemned the slur.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The only possible good that could come of this is a reminder that words matter, that rushing to judgement about things of which we are not fully cognisant is folly, that all trauma must be recognised and honoured,&#8221; Cumming wrote. &#8220;We were all let down by decisions made to both broadcast slurs and censor free speech.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Days after the BAFTAs, on Feb. 28, Lindo expressed gratitude at the 57th NAACP Awards, while presenting the best supporting actress in a movie award alongside director\u00a0<a rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/story\/entertainment\/celebrities\/2025\/11\/18\/elle-women-in-hollywood-ryan-coogler-sinners-michael-b-jordan\/87332512007\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Ryan Coogler<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I\u2019d just like to officially say, I appreciate, we appreciate all the support and love we have been shown in the aftermath of what happened last weekend. It means a lot to us,&#8221; he said at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium.<\/p>\n<p>Jordan, who was also in attendance, did not address the moment during the broadcast but said, &#8220;I love being Black&#8221; when he accepted the award for best actor in a movie. He dedicated the honor to his late &#8220;Black Panther&#8221; costar Chadwick Boseman.<\/p>\n<p>Contributing: Anthony Robledo, USA TODAY<\/p>\n<p>Taylor Ardrey is a news reporter for USA TODAY. You can reach her at tardrey@usatodayco.com.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n<p><em> \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.usatoday.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Alan Cumming responds to John Davidson tic outburst during BAFTAs Alan Cumming briefly paused the BAFTAs on two occasions to address expletives and racial slurs yelled by Tourette&#8217;s syndrome advocate John Davidson. Alan Cumming broke his silence on the controversial moment at the 2026 BAFTA Film Awards. The actor hosted the Feb. 22 award show, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2311435,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25173],"tags":[39915,22220,415838,25507,21751,239390,354372,354378,6297,21741,21799,373031,354373,22270,22491,311141,21739,298114,309642,347327,21912,74947,48142,239457,21738,239343,239420,354374,354375,354379,354376,24734,21913,239344],"class_list":["post-2311434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artists","tag-affiliate","tag-arts","tag-b","tag-bbc","tag-celebrities","tag-celebrities-u0026-entertainment-news","tag-discrimination","tag-discrimination-u0026-identity-relations","tag-eamotion","tag-entertainment","tag-film","tag-film-u0026-tv-industry","tag-identity","tag-industry","tag-instagram","tag-jordan","tag-local","tag-local-affiliate-arts-u0026-entertainment","tag-michael","tag-michael-b-jordan","tag-movies","tag-negative","tag-network","tag-network-trending","tag-news","tag-overall","tag-overall-negative","tag-relations","tag-sensitive","tag-sensitive-subjects","tag-subjects","tag-trending","tag-tv","tag-u0026"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Alan-Cumming-breaks-silence-on-BAFTAs-issues-an-apology-scaled.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2311434","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=2311434"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2311434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2311436,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2311434\/revisions\/2311436"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2311435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2311434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2311434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2311434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}