Alan Cumming Steps In After Tourette Syndrome Campaigner Shouts Racial Slur While Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo Are on Stage at the BAFTAs

Michael Prieve Mon, February 23, 2026 at 12:40 PM UTC

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Tourette syndrome campaigner John Davidson shouted a racial slur and multiple expletives during the 2026 BAFTAs at London’s Royal Festival Hall, including while Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo were on stage presenting.

Host Alan Cumming twice addressed the audience, explaining Davidson’s tics are involuntary and apologizing to anyone who was offended.

Davidson is the real-life inspiration behind the BAFTA-nominated film I Swear, whose star Robert Aramayo won both the EE Rising Star award and Best Actor on the same night.

The 2026 BAFTAs had a lot going on Sunday night — royals in attendance, a history-making Best Actor upset, One Battle After Another steamrolling through six prizes — but the moment that’s already dominating the conversation didn’t involve a winner’s speech. It involved an audience outburst that stopped the show cold.

John Davidson, a Tourette syndrome campaigner and the real-life inspiration behind the BAFTA-nominated biopic I Swear, was seated in the Royal Festival Hall audience when his vocal tics — picked up by microphones throughout the room — became audible not just to the celebrity-packed crowd but to viewers watching on BBC One at home.

The outbursts ranged from shouting “boring” and “f**k off” during opening remarks from BAFTA chair Sara Putt to what became the night’s most jarring moment: Davidson shouting the N-word while Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo were on stage presenting the award for Best Visual Effects. Cameras stayed fixed on Jordan and Lindo, both of whom held their composure, though according to accounts from those in the room, the moment was genuinely difficult to watch. Jordan had just begun his remarks — “Good evening. Delroy and I are delighted to be presenting the first BAFTA of the night for a vital part of movie making” — when the outburst hit. Both men visibly froze before Lindo steadied the moment and pressed on: “We’re here to celebrate the artists who expand what’s possible on screen.”

Host Alan Cumming moved quickly to address the situation. Between prizes, he told the audience they “may have noticed some strong language in the background. This can be part of how Tourette’s syndrome shows up for some people as the film explores that experience,” and thanked the crowd for their understanding and for helping to create a “respectful space for everyone.”

Later in the evening, he made a second, more direct statement: “Tourette’s Syndrome is a disability and the tics you’ve heard tonight are involuntary, which means the person who has Tourette’s Syndrome has no control over their language. We apologise if you are offended tonight.”

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It’s worth noting that the BAFTA organization had not left any of this to chance. Before the ceremony began, the floor manager introduced Davidson to the audience, saying: “I’d like to welcome John Davidson MBE from one of our nominated films, I Swear. John has Tourette’s Syndrome so please be aware you might hear some involuntary noises or movements during the ceremony.” A source also told Variety that Davidson was an “invited guest” and that under no circumstances would he be asked to leave. He eventually left the auditorium, but of his own accord rather than at BAFTA’s behest.

John Davidson at the 2026 BAFTA Film Awards at Royal Festival Hall, London on February 22, 2026. Photo Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages

For viewers at home, though, much of that context was missing. Cumming’s early explanation did not make it into the broadcast, leaving viewers initially confused over the disturbances. Social media lit up with confusion, with one person writing on X, “I thought the heckling was planned but it appears not.”

Davidson, 54, has been a public advocate for Tourette awareness since the late 1980s, when the BBC documentary John’s Not Mad introduced his story to a wide audience. He was awarded an MBE by Queen Elizabeth II in 2018 for his work. “Tourette’s is such an awful condition that most of the time I don’t want to be the centre of attention,” he told BBC News last year. “I want to be able to walk down the street and not be noticed because I’m shouting or swearing.”

Michael B. Jordan at the 2026 BAFTA Film Awards at Royal Festival Hall, London on February 22, 2026. Photo Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages

The condition that has defined so much of his life is also the subject of I Swear, and the film had a triumphant night despite — or perhaps because of — its complicated backdrop. Robert Aramayo, who plays Davidson, took home both the EE Rising Star award and Best Actor. Accepting the Rising Star prize, Aramayo said, “John Davidson is the most remarkable man I ever met. He’s so forthcoming with education and he believes there should be still so much more we need to learn about Tourette’s… they need support and understanding.”

The BAFTAs ended with One Battle After Another as the night’s big winner, but the conversation around Jordan and Lindo’s on-stage moment isn’t going away quietly. The question some are already asking — loudly — is a fair one: even with the most charitable and medically accurate reading of what happened, who in that room was looking out for the two Black men standing at the mic?

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”