Delroy Lindo addressed the controversy surrounding last week’s Baftas ceremony while onstage at the NAACP Image Awards on Saturday (28 February).
At the Baftas, Sinners stars Lindo and Michael B Jordan were presenting an award when audience member John Davidson, a Tourette’s campaigner whose life inspired the Bafta-winning film I Swear, experienced a tic that caused him to shout the “n-word”.
Davidson had been ticcing throughout the evening, with most of his outbursts removed from the televised footage. However, the BBC’s failure to edit out the slur in question – despite a two-hour delay between the ceremony and the TV broadcast – has attracted heavy criticism.
Appearing at the NAACP Image Awards alongside Sinners director Ryan Coogler, Lindo acknowledged the outpouring of support he had received following the Baftas.
“I’d just like to officially say, 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,” the Oscar-nominated actor said.
“It is an honour to be here amongst our people this evening, amongst so many people who have shown us such incredible support. And it's a classic case of something that could be very negative becoming very positive.”
At the ceremony, Lindo was also announced as the winner of the Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture award.
Davidson opened up in an interview this week about how “upset and distraught” he had been following the incident, claiming that he had been assured ahead of the event that offensive involuntary tics would be cut from the broadcast.
“I have made four documentaries with the BBC in the past, and feel that they should have been aware of what to expect from Tourette’s and worked harder to prevent anything that I said... from being included in the broadcast,” he said.
He stated that there had been a microphone situated “just in front” of him, adding: “With hindsight I have to question whether this was wise, so close to where I was seated, knowing I would tic.”
Davidson has a type of Tourette’s known as coprolalia, which causes involuntary cursing or socially inappropriate remarks.
Bafta apologised for the incident, stating it is taking “full responsibility”, while the BBC has fast-tracked an internal investigation into what it describes as a “serious mistake”.
Lindo is nominated for a Best Supporting Actor prize at this year’s Academy Awards, taking place in two weeks’ time.
Sinners – a genre-bending blockbuster set in the Mississippi Delta in 1932 – is also up for awards in 15 other categories, having broken the record for the most nominations for a single film.
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