Actress Jayme Lawson is speaking out about the racial slur that was heard during the BAFTA Awards, an incident stemming from guest with Tourette’s syndrome whose involuntary verbal tic included the N-word. The Sinners star addressed the moment while speaking with The Hollywood Reporter at the NAACP Image Awards on Saturday.
What did Jayme Lawson say about the incident at the BAFTA Awards?
Lawson first praised her Sinners co-stars Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo, who remained composed when the slur was shouted as they presented an award at the British ceremony. The slur was also not edied out of the airing of the ceremony on the BBC, despite it being a two-hour delay to air and the fact that a “Free Palestine” statement from winner Akinola Davis Jr. was removed.
“I’ll first say a big shout-out to Mike and Delroy; let’s continue to honor them for how they handled that in real time,” Lawson told The Hollywood Reporter. “The grace and the dignity that they exercised and the whole team, everybody that was out there really carried themselves well.”
While she said the moment was disturbing, Lawson framed it as an example of how institutions misunderstand inclusion.
“I think the events this weekend exposed a couple of things,” Lawson said. “Institutionally, we still don’t understand what inclusion means. Just because you invite someone into a space, but you don’t provide the necessary resources to keep them and everyone else in that room safe by them being there, that’s not inclusivity. That’s exploitation.”
What happened at the BAFTA Awards?
Jordan and Lindo were onstage presenting the first award of the night when the slur was heard from the audience. The man who said it was John Davidson, a Tourette’s advocate whose condition can cause involuntary verbal outbursts. He is the subject of the film I Swear, which won Robert Aramayo the Best Actor in a Leading Role award.
Lawson acknowledged that Davidson’s disability became part of the public conversation following the moment, but she directed her criticism at BAFTA and the BBC for allowing the slur to air in the broadcast.
“That man’s disability got exploited that night, and it led to multiple offenses,” she said. “That’s the BAFTAs fault. And then the BBC to air what they aired is careless — and not like some haphazard accident — a real lack of care was exercised for those two Black men…And we know the BBC knows how to take care of what they care about because they censored a bunch of other [words]. They went so far as to make sure certain things weren’t topics of conversation. They censored Akinola [Davies Jr. ]’s speech, the director of My Father’s Shadow, which is an amazing film, by the way. So you censored one Black man. You failed to protect two others, and our production designer, Hannah [Beachler]. You do not care for our dignity, our humanity. You want to celebrate our art, but you won’t protect [us]. And that’s why we celebrate Sinners. That’s why we celebrate Ryan [Coogler]. That’s why we show up to the NAACP because those are spaces where we felt safe, where we feel safe.”