Delroy Lindo Shares First Public Comments On BAFTA’s Tourette’s Incident At NAACP Image Awards: “It’s A Classic Case Of Something That Could Be Very Negative Becoming Very Positive”

Delroy Lindo took a few moments at Saturday night’s NAACP Image Awards to thank everyone for their support following last week’s incident at the BAFTA Film Awards, when an audience member with Tourette’s syndrome shouted a racial slur.

via: Variety

It didn’t take long for the NAACP Image Awards to show “Sinners” stars Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo some love following an incident at last weekend’s BAFTA Awards. During the international ceremony, the BBC broadcast an outburst from a Tourette’s campaigner that included a racial slur, which was uttered while the actors were on stage.

While presenting the first award of the NAACP ceremony on Saturday, “One Battle After Another” star Regina Hall asked the audience to “take a moment for the two kings who are in this audience,” gesturing toward Jordan and Lindo seated inside the Pasadena Civic Auditorium, where the awards ceremony is being held.

“[I] just send you so much love for your class,” Hall told the actors while the well-heeled crowd jumped to their feet to salute them.

The BAFTA incident has dominated headlines for the past week, as representatives for BAFTA and John Davidson, the Tourette syndrome campaigner at the center of the controversy, issued statements and apologies. In an exclusive interview with Variety, Davidson said he “felt a wave of shame” in the moment he realized the crowd could hear his involuntary tics and questioned why he was seated so close to a microphone. However, further questions about why the BBC aired the moment in a tape-delayed broadcast — and after “Sinners” studio Warner Bros. requested for the moment to be edited out — continue to keep the situation in the news.

Hall’s call for the impromptu ovation followed a pointed joke by comedian Deon Cole, who returned as host of the Image Awards telecast. Cole framed his opening monologue like a prayer, with jokes about Teyana Taylor’s relationship status, 50 Cent’s pettiness and Nicki Minaj’s politics.

Cole finished the bit by saying, “Lord, if there are any white men out here in the audience with Tourette’s, I advise you to tell them they better read the room tonight.”

After Hall and Cole’s shoutouts, “Abbott Elementary” star Quinta Brunson — who won the NAACP Image Award for outstanding actress in a comedy series — also took a moment to celebrate the “Sinners” cast and crew. “We see you. We are behind you,” Brunson said. “We support you, and we love you.”

Coogler’s vampire thriller “Sinners” is the most-nominated project at this year’s Image Awards, with Jordan also vying for the Entertainer of the Year prize.

Later in the ceremony, LIndo took the stage to present an award with “Sinners” filmmaker Ryan Coogler, welcomed by another standing ovation.

“Before we start, I’d just like to officially say, we appreciate — I appreciate — we appreciate all the support and the love that we have been shown in the aftermath of what happened last weekend. It means a lot to us,” Lindo began, while the crowd clapped and cheered.

“It is an honor to be here amongst our people this evening,” he continued. “Among so many people who have shown us such incredible support. And it’s a classic case of something that could be very negative becoming very positive.”

Coogler, too, acknowledged the importance of being among the Black community at the Image Awards. “There’s something powerful about standing in this room — a room where we don’t have to explain ourselves, or our stories aren’t footnotes,” he said. “They’re the main text.”

“A room where being fully seen is not rare, it is expected,” Lindo chimed in, as the two began to trade lines of the presenters’ copy.

“And that matters, because so much of what we do on screen and behind the scenes is about fighting to be understood,” Coogler continued, as Lindo added: “To be layered. Complex. To be human.”

“Nights like this remind us that when we tell our stories truthfully, we show up as we are. We create space for each other,” Coogler said. “Space to grow. Space to lead. Space to shine,” Lindo said.

“So it’s an honor to stand here together, not just as collaborators, not just as Oakland residents,” Coogler quipped, never missing a moment to shout out his Bay Area roots. “But as part of a community that continues to move culture forward.”

Just a few minutes later, Jordan took the stage to accept the award for outstanding lead actor and reflected on why he’s always placed importance on attending the Image Awards — even going so far as sneaking in earlier in his career. “Man, I love being Black,” he declared, raising the trophy triumphantly.