BAFTA Awards: David Tennant Draws Applause With Donald Trump Joke in Opening Monologue
U.S. President Donald Trump got a bit of a roasting during the BAFTA Film Awards ceremony in London on Sunday, courtesy of host David Tennant.
The Scottish star (Doctor Who, Inside Man) during his opening monologue mentioned The Brutalist, lauding it as “as film of incredible architecture, the boldest architecture in film this year” with the exception of the hairdo of Donald Trump, played by Sebastian Stan, for The Apprentice.
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“Donald Trump said he hasn’t seen The Apprentice — because it’s a 15 [British film rating]. It’s not on Nickelodeon,” Tennant continued before joking he had said Trump’s name three times. “It’s like Beetlejuice – I’ve summoned him.”
He followed up with: “Speaking of villains…” which drew much laughter and applause from the crowd.
The BBC broadcast of the ceremony later in the evening, which is always a shorter, edited version of the BAFTAs, included the hair and villains comments but not the other Trump jokes.
Contacted for comment by THR, a BBC representative said: “The nature of the show is that it’s broadcast with a short delay, and edits have to be made due to time constraints.”
The Edward Berger-directed Vatican drama Conclave, starring Ralph Fiennes and Stanley Tucci and based on the novel by Robert Harris, leads this year’s BAFTA nominations with 12, ahead of the Jacques Audiard-directed Emilia Pérez‘s 11 and the Brady Corbet-directed The Brutalist‘s nine.
With his Irish hip-hop biopic on Belfast-based rap trio Kneecap, Rich Peppiatt also made BAFTA history by tying the record for nominations for a debut filmmaker with six nods.
Tennant welcomed an excited crowd to the BAFTA Awards for the biggest night in British film for the second year in a row.
Notably missing from Sunday’s BAFTA Awards attendees list was Emilia Pérez star Karla Sofía Gascón, who earned a leading actress nomination. However, her awards campaign imploded following the discovery of controversial posts made on her X (previously Twitter) account. The star — the first trans actor to be nominated for an Oscar — apologized, but tensions are said to be high between Gascón and streamer Netflix for hindering the film’s Oscar hopes. As a result, she was phased out of its awards campaign entirely.
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