Delroy Lindo opens up about Baftas racial slur incident: “A nano of a nanosecond”
Delroy Lindo has opened up about the unfortunate incident at the Baftas, which saw Tourette’s campaigner John Davidson shout the N-word at Lindo and Michael B Jordan, who were on stage presenting the first award of the night.
Davidson was in attendance at the ceremony as he inspired the movie I Swear, which saw Robert Aramayo take home the coveted ‘Best Actor’ award on the night.
Following the incident, Davidson removed himself from the ceremony, and has since said he is “mortified” by the uncontrollable tic.
In a short statement made after the night, Lindo criticised Bafta for their handling of the situation, explaining that he’d have liked it if “someone from Bafta spoke to us afterward”.
However, he told Vanity Fair that he and Jordan “did what we had to do” by carrying on with their jobs by presenting the award.
In an echo of this sentiment, Lindo touched on the evening further in a new appearance on NPR’s Fresh Air podcast, adding to his initial comments: “You have to understand, we had jobs to do.”
He elaborated, “We were the first presenters of the evening, and we had to read that teleprompter … There was a nanosecond, a nano of a nano of a nanosecond, when I’m thinking: ‘Wait, did I just hear what I thought I heard?’”
Lindo added, “But then, and it truly was a nanosecond, one had to read the teleprompter and get on with presenting the award.”
The Sinners star also revealed that he discussed the situation with Jordan, who he claims had a “similar response”. He added gracefully, “We went on and did our jobs”.
The incident caused a gargantuan wave of backlash to hit the BBC, after the organisation failed to edit out the slur from the recording, which was uploaded online approximately two hours after the ceremony.
Since then, the BBC and Bafta have announced that they will undertake reviews into exactly what happened at the awards. The BBC’s executive complaints unit announced that an official “fast-tracked investigation” had been launched into the “serious mistake”.
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