The startling N-word incident that happened at the 2026 BAFTA Film Awards continues to send ripples throughout the entertainment industry. For Sinners actress, Wunmi Mosaku—who snagged the BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress—the moment “tainted” her win and “kept [her] awake at night.” While attending the Actor Awards (formerly the Screen Actors Guild Awards), the actress spoke with Entertainment Tonight on the red carpet, saying it was “incredibly painful” to have her celebration overshadowed by the incident.
During the ceremony, Tourette syndrome activist John Davidson yelled several slurs throughout the night, including the N-word, while Mosaku’s co-stars Michael B Jordan and Delroy Lindo were presenting an award. It took nearly a day for the BBC to remove the audio from the broadcast on its iPlayer. Davidson, who attended the ceremony in support of I Swear, a film based on his life, was reportedly “distraught” and was told any swearing would be immediately edited out of the broadcast.
“I can’t understand it. I can’t understand it, and I’m not sure I can forgive it,” Mosaku Says
Mosaku tells the outlet she has no hard feelings toward Davidson and appears to place the responsibility on the BBC and the BAFTAs. “He has a condition. I feel like Bafta has a lot of lessons to learn, but … it felt exploitative and performative to have someone there without the full protection of everyone, including him, and anyone in that audience.”
She added: “Then the BBC is a whole other thing … That’s the bit that really kind of kept me awake at night and brought tears to my eyes. I was like, you really chose to keep that in…I can’t understand it…I can’t understand it, and I’m not sure I can forgive it.” Since the incident, the BBC has issued two apologies. Reportedly, Chief Content Officer Kate Phillips told staff she was “so sorry that a racial slur was not edited out of our broadcast.” Phillips noted that an investigation had been launched to discover what led to the shocking moment.
