Delroy Lindo shared what went through his mind during the racial slur incident at the 2026 BAFTA Film Awards. The well-publicized incident involved Tourette John Davidson, who has Tourette syndrome, yelling the N-word at Lindo and Michael B. Jordan, who were on stage.
Appearing on NPR’s Fresh Air with host Tonya Mosley, he shared what he was thinking at the now-infamous moment.
”Can I stop you for one second? With all due respect, I’m actually not going to talk about this,” Lindo laughed.
“I’m laughing because in the intro when you said, ‘Oh, yes, we’ll be talking about what happened with BAFTA,’ I chuckled because I said, ‘No, we’re not.”
Lindo went on to explain that he and Jordan “both had similar responses.”
“You have to understand, we had jobs to do. We were the first presenters of the evening,” Lindo said. “And we had to read that teleprompter, and we both did exactly that. Now, a couple of people who know — my wife says that I adjusted my glasses. She said she knew when I adjusted my glasses that something was happening internally. But there was a nanosecond when I’m thinking, ‘Wait, did I just hear what I thought I heard?’ “
“But then, and it truly was a nanosecond, one had to read the teleprompter and get on with presenting the award,” he continued. “So, you know, there was no time at all. I processed in the way that I processed in a nanosecond. Mike did similarly, and we went on and did our jobs.”
A week after the incident, Alan Cumming, the host of the event, apologized for the massive amount of harm that was caused.
“It’s now a week since I hosted the BAFTAs,” Cumming shared on Instagram. “What should have been an evening celebrating creativity as well as diversity and inclusion turned into a trauma-triggering s—show.”
“I’m so sorry for all the pain Black people have felt at hearing that word echoed around the world,” Cumming continued. “I’m so sorry the Tourette[‘]s community has been reminded of the lack of understanding and tolerance that abounds regarding their condition.”