John Davidson condemns racial slur he ticked at the BAFTAs

John Davidson set the record straight on the \

John Davidson is setting the record straight on the "offensive words" he said at the BAFTAs, which included a racial slur.

Davidson, who is 54 and has lived with the nervous system condition Tourette Syndrome for almost 40 years, felt "shame and embarrassment" when "my tics ramped up" during the Feb. 22 U.K. award ceremony, he said in an interview with Variety that was conducted over email and published Feb. 24. Davidson also called out the BBC for failing to prevent his verbal tics from ending up in the broadcast, which was aired on a two-hour delay.

"Tourette’s can make my body or voice do things I don't mean, and sometimes those tics land on the worst possible words," Davidson wrote. "I want to be really clear that the intent behind them is zero. What you're hearing is a symptom — not my character, not my thought, not my belief."

Describing his tics as an "involuntary neurological misfire," Davidson opened up about initially experiencing symptoms that manifested as "noises and movements," but "the more nervous I got, the more my tics ramped up."

He continued, "When my coprolalia tics came out, my stomach just dropped. As always, I felt a wave of shame and embarrassment hit me all at once."