On the eve of the BAFTA TV Awards, Alan Cumming has blamed “bad people who weren’t doing their jobs properly” for the film awards debacle that he oversaw as host.
Cumming was presenting the BAFTA Film Awards in February when tourette’s campaigner John Davidson yelled an involuntary racial slur at the stars of Sinners. He subsequently had to apologize and shepherd the rest of proceedings.
In an interview with The Times, Cummings lashed out at the organizers of the awards for a lack of preparation or pre-warning about Davidson’s condition.
“It was bad, bad, bad, bad leadership,” he said. “Bad people who weren’t doing their jobs properly, who really had not prepared and let people down..”
Cumming claimed he was told “there’ll be noise” but not specifically about Davidson’s outbursts, which he said came as a surprise given that he was subsequently informed Davidson had said the same word at a party the day before the event.
When Davidson yelled the slur, Cumming said he was “oblivious to what had just happened” and was still unsure when he read an apology from the teleprompter. “I watched myself back. I was very smiley, I didn’t do it with the gravitas and tone I would have used had I known. That pissed me off,” he added.
He laughed off the idea that he would return to host the biggest night in British film. “It’s a tough gig,” he said. “You’re trying to be funny for a bunch of people who are used to very generic, middle-of-the-road things, so you’re fighting against the quirky personality they want you to bring to it. That’s a battle.”
Cumming’s harsh words come as the BBC and BAFTA prep for their biggest test since the Film Awards, with the TV ceremony taking place Sunday. Our analysis can be found here.
BAFTA declined comment on Cumming’s remarks.