The British Academy has responded to the controversy surrounding the BAFTA Film Awards on Sunday night, where Tourette’s syndrome campaigner John Davidson made a number of offensive comments during the show.
Among his involuntary outbursts — caused by his condition — was the N-word, shouted when Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo presented the award for best visual effects to “Avatar: Fire and Ash.”
In a statement issued on Monday, BAFTA said that it took “full responsibility” for putting its “guests in a very difficult situation and we apologise to all.” It also said it wanted to “apologise unreservedly” to Jordan and Lindo. “We would like to thank Michael and Delroy for their incredible dignity and professionalism,” it said.
The situation was addressed in the BAFTA ceremony on the night, where host Alan Cumming made two statements, thanking the crowd for its “understanding” of Davidson’s disability and apologizing should anyone have been offended (a line later criticized on X by “Sinners” production designer Hannah Beachler, who described it as “throwaway”).
Davidson excused himself from the ceremony about halfway through, but the situation only escalated when the BBC kept the racial slur in its tape-delayed broadcast (something it too apologized for, before removing the program from its iPlayer streaming service).
In its new statement, BAFTA also took time to praise Davidson for choosing to leave the ceremony and thanked him for his “dignity and consideration of others, on what should have been a night of celebration for him.”