Lauren Evans, who won the Best Casting BAFTA for her work on the film ‘I Swear’, said her incredible achievement has been “overshadowed” by the controversy. The incident occurred when John Davidson, the Tourette’s campaigner whose life the film is based on, had an involuntary tic that included a racist slur while two black actors were on stage.
The BBC has since admitted it aired the slur in error and that a second slur was edited out of the coverage. In an email to staff, the corporation’s chief content officer Kate Phillips apologised for the failure.
Speaking to BBC Radio Wales, Ms Evans said the situation was “really upsetting” for everyone involved.
“It’s really upsetting I feel for for John and Michael B Jordan and Delroy Lindo that the whole evening has sort of been overshadowed by this conversation,” she said. “There must be more education and more understanding about the base-guarding of things like this, and the tics and the language and what comes out.”
Her comments highlight the complexities of Tourette syndrome, a condition where only a small percentage of sufferers, between 10% and 30%, experience tics that involve swearing or socially unacceptable language.
Viral Acceptance Speech
Ms Evans’ viral acceptance speech, in which she declared she had no speech prepared and that her kids “will not give a damn” about her win tomorrow, was celebrated as a refreshingly honest moment. However, the subsequent controversy has shifted the focus from her success and that of the film, which also saw its lead actor Robert Aramayo win a BAFTA.
Llanelli MS Lee Waters had praised her win on social media, calling it “the most Hendy ever acceptance speech.”
New BBC Comedy Project
Despite the controversy, Ms Evans is already working on her next project – casting for an upcoming BBC comedy series starring Welsh favourites Ruth Jones and Steve Speirs. She is currently looking to cast a nine-year-old boy with a Merthyr Tydfil accent to play Speirs’ grandson.
Her win was for her work on ‘I Swear’, a film about the life of Scottish campaigner John Davidson. She told the BBC that casting the role was a “unique” process that required looking beyond acting skills to find someone with the right commitment and tenacity for the low-budget film.
Ms Evans, whose impressive CV includes casting for Netflix‘s ‘Sex Education’, ‘Gavin & Stacey’, and ‘Paddington 2’, said she felt “privileged” to work on projects that “make a difference and prompt a discussion.”
