Tourette syndrome campaigner John Davidson intends to apologise directly to Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo about the racial slur he involuntarily uttered during the BAFTA Film Awards on Sunday.
The Scottish campaigner, who is portrayed by Robert Aramayo in the film I Swear, disrupted the ceremony on several occasions with his involuntary tics, and most notably, shouted the N-word when Sinners stars Jordan and Lindo presented an award.
In his first interview about the incident, Davidson's team told Variety that he has reached out to the studio handling Sinners in order to directly apologise to Jordan and Lindo.
He also intends to apologise to Sinners production designer Hannah Beachler, who wrote on X that Davidson uttered the racial slur three times that evening and "one of the three times was directed at myself on the way to dinner after the show".
In the interview, Davidson told the publication, "I want people to know and understand that my tics have absolutely nothing to do with what I think, feel or believe. It's an involuntary neurological misfire. My tics are not an intention, not a choice and not a reflection of my values.
"The most offensive word that I ticked at the ceremony, for example, is a word I would never use and would completely condemn if I did not have Tourette's."
The 54-year-old explained that executives at StudioCanal, the studio behind I Swear, worked closely with BAFTA about his attendance, and the BAFTA team assured them that his swearing would be edited out of the BBC's broadcast, which airs with a two-hour delay.
He also insisted that the BBC team could have "worked harder" to prevent his tics from being included in the broadcast, and questioned why "there was a microphone just in front of" him despite him being seated 40 rows back from the stage.
Davidson shared that he felt "a wave of shame and embarrassment" when his tics started becoming more offensive and socially unacceptable. He initially thought that nobody on the stage could hear him because none of the early presenters reacted.
"The only time I became aware that my tic had reached the stage was when Delroy and Michael B. Jordan appeared to look up from their role as presenters, and soon after that I decided to leave the auditorium," he stated, noting he didn't want to cause "any more upset".
Spokespeople for BAFTA and the BBC have apologised for their handling of the situation, particularly failing to edit the racial slur out of the broadcast despite the delay. It has since been removed from the coverage on BBC iPlayer.
