Delroy Lindo has revealed what went through his head in the split second after a racial slur was shouted at him on stage at the BAFTA Film Awards, and it turns out his first instinct was simple.
The Sinners star, 73, appeared on NPR’s Fresh air on Thursday, March 5, opening up about the moment John Davidson, 54, a Tourette syndrome advocate, involuntarily yelled the n-word while Lindo and co-star Michael B. Jordan presented an award at the Feb. 22 ceremony.
Lindo was alert and initially reluctant. When Mosley introduced the subject, he pushed back with a laugh.
“Can I stop you for a second? With all due respect,” he said. “With all due respect, I’m actually not going to talk about this. I’m laughing because in the intro, when you said, ‘Oh, yeah, we’re going to talk about what happened with BAFTA’, I laughed because I said, ‘No, we’re not’.”
However, he went on to describe what was happening internally at that moment, and the picture he painted was one of extraordinary calm under pressure.
“You have to understand, we had jobs to do. We were the first speakers of the evening,” he explained.
“And we had to read that teleprompter, and we both did. Now, a couple of people who know, my wife says I adjusted my glasses, and she said she knew when I adjusted my glasses that something was happening internally. But there was a nanosecond when I was like, ‘Wait, did I just hear what I thought I heard?'”
He added: “But then, and it was really a nanosecond, you had to read the teleprompter and start presenting the award. So, you know, there was no time at all. I treated the way I treated in a nanosecond, Mike did the same, and we went on and did our job.”
Davidson had been invited to the ceremony as a representative of the film I swearwhich is based on his own life and experiences with Tourette syndrome.
The film won BAFTA awards for Best Actor and Best Cast. In a March 1 Facebook post, Davidson addressed the fallout.
“While I will never apologize for having Tourette syndrome, I will apologize for any pain, disruption and misunderstanding it may cause,” he wrote, adding that the experience had reminded him how much work remains in raising awareness of “such a misunderstood condition.”
BAFTA formally apologized to both Lindo and Jordan on 23 February after the BBC broadcast the incident without editing it.
Lindo had previously spoken briefly about the episode at the NAACP Image Awards on February 28, thanking those who had shown support in the aftermath.
