Sunday was supposed to be a night of celebration for the team behind Sinners. Instead, Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo were insulted by a man at the British Academy Film Awards, who yelled the N-word at the two stars.
The actors had just taken the stage to present the trophy for best visual effects, when Scottish Tourette’s syndrome activist John Davidson shouted “n—er” and “b–h.”
Jordan and Lindo appeared startled by the outburst, but they continued to present the award.
Davidson was the subject of the film I Swear. Moments after his outburst, BAFTAs host Alan Cumming apologized to the audience and said the racial slur was a verbal tic caused by Davidson having Tourette’s syndrome.
“You 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,” Cumming said, according to published reports.
Here in the U.S., Black Hollywood insiders criticized Davidson and said Cumming’s apology wasn’t enough.
Jamie Foxx commented under an Instagram post by The Neighborhood Talk, and called the slur “unacceptable.” He added about Davidson, “Nah he meant that shit.”
Wendell Pierce, who starred in a revival of Death of a Salesman in London back in 2019, also addressed the incident.
“It’s infuriating that the first reaction wasn’t complete and full throated apologies to Delroy Lindo and Michael B. Jordan. The insult to them takes priority. It doesn’t matter the reasoning for the racist slur,” Pierce wrote on X.
Many others commented under the same social media post as Foxx and asked why there was no tape delay to prevent the slur from airing.
“Don’t live shows have a 30 second delay for these EXACT scenarios? How wasn’t this censored or bleeped?” one person asked.
“They edited out someone saying free Palestine but not this. Very telling,” someone else said.
Hannah Beachler, the Oscar-winning production designer for Sinners, said the situation was worse than what was shown on TV. She said she had a racial slur directed at her as well, during the BAFTAs.
“I keep trying to write about what happened at the BAFTAs, and I can’t find the words,” Beachler wrote on X.
“The situation is almost impossible, but it happened 3 times that night, and one of the three times was directed at myself on the way to dinner after the show,” she continued.
Beachler said the other person Davidson shouted at was also a Black woman.
“I understand and deeply know why this is an impossible situation. I know we must handle this with grace and continue to push through. But what made the situation worse was the throw away apology of ‘if you were offended,'” she wrote. “Of course we were offended… but our frequency, our spiritual vibration is tuned to a higher level than what happened. I am not steal, this did not bounce off of me, but I exist above it. It can’t take away from who I am as an artist.”
As the backlash intensified, the BBC issued an apology.
“Some viewers may have heard strong and offensive language during the Bafta Film Awards 2026. This arose from involuntary verbal tics associated with Tourette’s syndrome, and was not intentional. We apologise for any offence caused by the language heard,” a spokesperson for the network said in a statement.
Despite the racist outbursts, Sinners made history at the BAFTAs when writer-director Ryan Coogler became the first Black person to win the British academy’s best original screenplay award. The film also won the best supporting actress trophy for Wunmi Mosaku, and the best original score award for Ludwig Göransson.
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