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, 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 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.”
