Delroy Lindo says he’s done talking about the BAFTA incident, reveals plans to publish a memoir
TheGrio...
During a recent interview, actor Delroy Lindo said he has said all he has to say about the BAFTA slur incident.
Delroy Lindo has nothing more to say about the explosive 2026 BAFTA incident. During a recent interview with Tonya Mosley on NPR’s “Fresh Air,” the actor chuckled as the host suggested the two would discuss the moment at the BAFTAs when a racial slur was shouted from the audience.
“I’m laughing because at in the intro, when you said, ‘Oh yes, we’ll be talking about what happened with BAFTA,’ because I said no we’re not,” he said laughingly. “I have made two comments about what happened, and I feel that for me, that is all I need to say.”
Now while the “Sinners” star vowed not to make another comment about the situation, he reiterated his previous message of “It would have been nice if somebody from BAFTA had spoken to Mike, and I” and the immense gratitude he holds for the love and support the co-stars received following the incident at the NAACP Awards.
“The fact that I could stand there in a room predominantly of our people, and feel safe, feel loved, feel supported, and just simply affirm the love and the support that they have given us. And I just wanted to officially, formally say thank you to our people and to all of the people who have supported us as a result of that incident,” he explained. “It was an example of something that could have been that started out negatively, becoming a positive, from the standpoint of the love and support that we had received.”
In the moment, though, Lindo says he barely processed the moment. In fact, it was a conversation with his wife after the BAFTA awards that made him realize subtle details about his reaction.
“Mike and I spoke on Sunday for the first time, just amongst ourselves, after it happened,and
it was interesting, because we both ad similar responses, because you have to understand we had jobs to do. We were the first presenters of the evening, and we had to read that teleprompter and we both did exactly that,” he explained. “Now, my wife says that I adjusted my glasses. She said she knew when I adjusted my glasses that something was happening internally. I was not aware that I had adjusted my glasses, but there was a nanosecond, a nano of a nano of a nanosecond when I’m thinking, ‘Wait, did I see what I thought I heard?’”
During the interview, Lindo also reflected on his relationship with the “n-word’ and the first time he recalls feeling othered because of his race. Growing up in London, with a mother who immigrated from Jamaica in 1951 and was studying to be a nurse, the “Crooklyn” star revealed he grew up in a “loving” white family for a portion of his life.
“But as a result of living with this family in this all white neighborhood, I went to an all white elementary or primary school, and I was literally the only black child in an all white school,” he shared. “One afternoon after school had ended, I was playing with one of my playmates. And we had exchanged garments. I was wearing his sweater, had it tied around my neck, and he was wearing my sweater, tied around his neck. And we were pretending to be superheroes. We were on this patch of grass, and we had our hands out like Superman. We were flying and having great fun.”
He continued: “And at a certain point in our game, a car pulls up, and this kid that I was playing with goes over to the car and has a very short conversation with whoever was in the car, which I now know was his parent, his father. He comes back, and he throws my garment that he had been wearing around his neck, he throws it at me and grabs his garment that I’m wearing around my neck, and grabs it from me, and says, I can’t play with you,” he continued. “And that was the end of the game.”
So while the actor does not recall the first time he was called the n-word, he describes the moment as the “signal of my undesirability.” Lindo reportedly reflects on this story and more in the forthcoming memoir, set to be published in 2027.