John Davidson, who is 54 and has lived with the nervous system condition Tourette Syndrome for almost 40 years, felt “shame and embarrassment” when “my tics ramped up” at the 2026 BAFTAs.
Alan Cumming responds to John Davidson tic outburst during BAFTAs
Alan Cumming briefly paused the BAFTAs on two occasions to address expletives and racial slurs yelled by Tourette’s syndrome advocate John Davidson.
John Davidson is setting the record straight on the “offensive words” he said at the BAFTAs, which included a racial slur.
Davidson, who is 54 and has lived with the nervous system condition Tourette Syndrome for almost 40 years, felt “shame and embarrassment” when “my tics ramped up” during the Feb. 22 U.K. award ceremony, he said in an interview with Variety that was conducted over email and published Feb. 24. Davidson also called out the BBC for failing to prevent his verbal tics from ending up in the broadcast, which was aired on a two-hour delay.
“Tourette’s can make my body or voice do things I don’t mean, and sometimes those tics land on the worst possible words,” Davidson wrote. “I want to be really clear that the intent behind them is zero. What you’re hearing is a symptom — not my character, not my thought, not my belief.”
Describing his tics as an “involuntary neurological misfire,” Davidson opened up about initially experiencing symptoms that manifested as “noises and movements,” but “the more nervous I got, the more my tics ramped up.”
He continued, “When my coprolalia tics came out, my stomach just dropped. As always, I felt a wave of shame and embarrassment hit me all at once.”
Tourette’s with Coprolalia, which involves involuntary outbursts of obscene words or socially inappropriate and derogatory remarks, according to the Tourette Association of America. The majority of people with Tourette syndrome do not have Coprolalia, with a prevalence of 10-33% of people, according to the National Library of Medicine.
John Davidson reached out to apologize to Michael B. Jordan, Delroy Lindo
Davidson explained that “the most offensive word that I ticked at the ceremony,” a racial slur that was heard during the BBC’s broadcast as Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo presented onstage, “is a word I would never use and would completely condemn if I did not have Tourette’s.”
Per Variety, Davidson has reached out to the studio behind “Sinners” to apologize to Jordan, Lindo and production designer Hannah Beachler, who said in a social media post that Davidson’s use of the racial slur “was directed at myself on the way to dinner after the show.”
Lindo told Vanity Fair at a Warner Brothers post-ceremony afterparty that he and Jordan “did what we had to do” by continuing to present, but that he also wished “someone from BAFTA spoke to us afterwards.”
Davidson was in attendance due to his executive producer role on the BAFTA-nominated film “I Swear,” which is based on his life story. Robert Aramayo, who portrayed Davidson, won in an upset in the leading actor category.
John Davidson ticked ’10 different offensive words’ at the BAFTAs
Davidson clarified that there were several occasions where he’d ticked while he was seated in the audience at the Royal Festival Hall.
“I would appreciate reports of the event explaining that I ticked perhaps 10 different offensive words on the night of the awards,” Davidson wrote. He added that the racial slur “was one of these, and I completely understand its significance in history and in the modern world, but most articles are giving the impression I shouted one single slur on Sunday.”
He explained the symptoms of his Tourette’s as he wrote, “I am often triggered by what I see and/or what I hear, and this part of the condition is called echolalia. For example, when the chair of BAFTA started speaking on Sunday, I shouted, ‘Boring.'”
He also acknowledged “homophobic tics” that “led to a shout of ‘pedophile'” during one of host Alan Cumming’s jokes about Paddington Bear, who was one of the presenters. This “was likely triggered because Paddington Bear is a children’s character,” Davidson said.
Davidson expected BBC to edit his swearing out of BAFTAs broadcast
“I Swear” film distributor StudioCanal was working “closely with BAFTA,” and the organization “made us all aware that any swearing would be edited out of the broadcast.”
As such, Davidson wrote, “I had an expectation that the BBC would physically control the sound at the awards on Sunday. I was so far from the stage. From the lack of response from the early presenters to my tics, and with no one turning around to look at me, I assumed, like everyone else, that I could not be heard on the stage.
He added, “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 — which, after all, was some 40 rows back from the stage — from being included in the broadcast.”
What happened during the BAFTAs was “just a heightened version of my everyday life,” Davidson explained. Incidents like what happened at the ceremony “are the reason why, for many periods in my life, I have been fearful of leaving the house — because I am so anxious and nervous about what I might tic and what people’s reaction might be,” he added.
BBC apologized to Michael B. Jordan, Delroy Lindo
The BBC previously apologized for the move, saying that a shout was audible, but the word would have been difficult to make out.
In a lengthy statement published by The Hollywood Reporter on Feb. 23, the award show’s leadership offered an apology for “putting our guests in a very difficult situation” and explained the events of the evening.
“Early in the ceremony a loud tic in the form of a profoundly offensive term was heard by many people in the room,” the organization said in part, apologizing “unreservedly” to Jordan and Lindo, as well as “to all those impacted.” They also thanked the actors “for their incredible dignity and professionalism.”
Contributing: Taijuan Moorman, USA TODAY