Alan Cumming has come forward to apologize for how he handled the controversial incident at the BAFTA Film Awards as this year's host.
During the Feb. 22 award show, Tourette's advocate John Davidson involuntarily shouted a racial slur while Sinners stars Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo were onstage presenting an award.
Following the BAFTAs, Cumming responded to the backlash that he and the BBC faced by posting an apology to the Black and disabled communities on Instagram.
"What should have been an evening celebrating creativity as well as diversity and inclusion turned into a trauma triggering shitshow," Cumming said. "I'm so sorry for all the pain Black people have felt at hearing that word echoed around the world."
He added: "I'm so sorry the Tourettes community has been reminded of the lack of understanding and tolerance that abounds regarding their condition."
The racial slur was one of a handful of inappropriate tics that Davidson shouted during the award show because one of the symptoms of Tourette’s is coprolalia, which causes involuntary outbursts of “obscene words or socially inappropriate and derogatory remarks,” according to the Tourette Association of America.
During the BAFTAs, Cumming took time to address Davidson’s involuntary tics, which also included swear words, but both people who attended the event and disability advocates felt this wasn’t enough.
“You may have noticed some strong language in the background,” he said during the award show. “This can be part of how Tourette’s syndrome shows up for some people as the film explores that experience. Thanks for your understanding and helping create a respectful space for everyone.”
The racial slur aired on the BBC television broadcast despite a two-hour delay, and sparked a backlash which prompted apologies from the BBC, the BAFTAs, and Davidson, who had been told his tics would be edited out of the broadcast and intentionally sat 40 rows back.
“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 said in an interview with Variety after the BAFTAs. “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.”
In his post, Cumming pointed out that this incident highlighted the intersection of race and disability and also said “we were all let down” not just by the slur being aired, but by other comments being censored. Filmmaker Akinola Davies Jr.’s “Free Palestine” comment made during his acceptance speech was cut from the broadcast.
"The only possible good that could come of this is a reminder that words matter, that rushing to judgement about things of which we are not fully cognisant is folly, that all trauma must be recognised and honoured," Cumming wrote. "We were all let down by decisions made to both broadcast slurs and censor free speech."
