Men's Health May 1, 2026 0 Comments

Unlocking the Untold Reality: How Robert Aramayo’s I Swear Reveals the Hidden Strength of Living with Tourette’s

Ever wondered what it’s really like to live in a world where your own body sometimes betrays you in the most unexpected ways? Meet John Davidson, a Scottish advocate whose life story, brilliantly brought to the big screen in the British biopic I Swear, flips the script on our understanding of Tourette syndrome. Picture this: you’re about to be honored by Queen Elizabeth II, and suddenly, out of nowhere, a tic bursts through with an expletive so wild it stops the ceremony in its tracks—“Fuck the Queen!” Sounds unbelievable, right? But there’s more beneath that moment—the trials, triumphs, and raw human emotion behind John’s journey of awareness, acceptance, and connection. This film doesn’t just show tics; it dives deep into the emotional cadence of living with Tourette’s, the misunderstandings, and the moments of unexpected humor and humanity that make all the difference. Ready to see the world through John’s eyes—and perhaps rethink everything you thought you knew? Let’s dive in. LEARN MORE

8 min read

THE BRITISH BIOPIC I Swear begins by dramatizing a famous story from the life of its subject, Scottish Tourette syndrome advocate John Davidson. In 2019, he was entering a ceremony during which he would be honored by Queen Elizabeth II when he experienced a tic and shouted, “Fuck the Queen!” The film ends with real-life footage from later that day, played over the credits, in which the Queen places a medal around Davidson’s neck and the two enjoy some happy chitchat.

These bookends provide a snapshot of Davidson’s story: his accomplishments creating awareness of Tourette’s, the awkward reality of living with the condition, and the freedom of being in a room with people who understand it. Tourette syndrome is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by motor and verbal tics, and Davidson’s include complex verbal tics known as coprolalia, which only a small number of people with Tourette’s exhibit. Those with coprolalia unintentionally say or yell taboo words and phrases that can include slurs. At last year’s BAFTAs, where I Swear competed for multiple awards, Davidson shouted racial slurs at presenters Delroy Lindo and Michael B. Jordan. The incident, the subsequent discourse, and what people saw as the BBC’s mishandling of the situation exhibited the challenges that still exist when people with Tourette’s move through public spaces.

Robert Aramayo, who plays Davidson in the movie, won the award for Best Leading Actor that night. He’s spent a lot of time with Davidson and has seen his experience firsthand. “I have been in those situations with John,” Aramayo says. “I’ve walked away with a greater understanding of Tourette’s, and I’m constantly still learning. There’s nothing more gratifying than hearing from people in the community who saw the film and say it reflected their experience.” To prepare for the role, Aramayo focused on capturing Davidson’s experience of the world. “I worked with a movement coach, but we worked a lot on how John moves through the world, not really on the tics,” he says. The focus was not Davidson’s tics themselves, but the emotional experience of his relationship to the people around him: strangers on the street; his mother, who struggled with his condition; Dottie, a friend’s mom who became a maternal figure and fierce advocate for Davidson; and Tommy, the custodian of a local community center who employs Davidson and helps him develop a healthy and positive sense of his place in the world.

As I Swear rolls out in American theaters, Aramayo talked about his relationship with Davidson, bringing his experience to the big screen, and what he’s learned about Tourette’s.

MEN’S HEALTH: Tell me about the first time you met John.

ROBERT ARAMAYO: The first time I met John was in his kitchen. It was early on, within days of getting the part. The director, Kirk [Jones], and I were having a cup of tea with him, and John just sort of launched into the start of my education about Tourette’s. You know, he’s so articulate, he’s got so much to say. That was my first observation of him—how passionate he was about what we could do better, the ways we can help young people with Tourette’s, and how much it brings him joy to talk about it and to share what he knows.

MH: What did you take from that meeting and put into your performance?

RA: I was able to see who John becomes at the end of the film—the man who wants to share what he’s learned, his warmth, and his openness. There’s a lot of really healthy masculinity in John.

MH: How do you think he got to that place of being able to tap into a healthy masculinity?

RA: I do think Tommy had a big effect on him. And the way Peter [Mullen] plays the character reflects that. When I’m around Peter, I just want to talk to him. I want to pick his brain, I want to learn from him. He’s just got that grounded sort of wisdom. In our story, Tommy is that kind of figure in John’s life. Tommy and Dottie, in different ways, are on a journey with him and I think it’s all about understanding. It’s about people in his life understanding what he’s going through, but also understanding him, which helps his relationship to himself change and develop.

MH: One of the ways the film explores that is via John’s strained relationship with his mother, who tries to support him but ultimately fails to “cope,” as she puts it, with his condition. He could have chosen to see her with anger or resentment, but as time goes on, they both give each other some grace.

RA: In the story that we’re telling, he recognized—and I think in real life, John does recognize, I’ve spoken to him about it—that nobody really knew how to deal with it back then. There was just so much confusion around that time. They didn’t understand it, or what to do, who to see, where to go. John’s diagnosis mainly came from a really incredible guy called Oliver Sacks, a famous neurologist, later. That was an important factor in the story—that there was a lot of education that happened in between his childhood and where he is at the end of the film.

MH: How much of the performance is understanding the nuts and bolts of what Tourette’s is versus understanding the emotional experience around it?

RA: When I was preparing for it, it was important to learn as much as I could. But as an actor, the most important thing was to tap into his emotional experience, how he feels in the moment or right after, as well as what everybody else feels about what’s just happened [when he has a tic]. We’re all finding the moment together. So developing his emotionality and making sure to track it and how it changes as he gets older was really important.

Graeme Hunter/Sony Pictures Classics

MH: There’s a scene where John has a tic and yells the word “slut” at a woman. He explains that he has Tourette’s, but the incident leads to him being jumped and beaten by men who have a relationship to that woman. It really highlights that just putting a word to his condition isn’t enough if people don’t truly understand what it means.

RA: It’s difficult, isn’t it? It’s difficult for that woman to hear that word and not have a strong, negative response to it. Coprolalia only affects something like 10 to 15 percent of people with Tourette’s. It doesn’t represent an enormous segment of people with the condition, but those that do have it can obviously be quite misunderstood. It’s a difficult thing to get into your head—that [a tic] is not what a person with coprolalia actually thinks, but that the worst thing imaginable to say in that moment is going to come out of their mouth. It’s not a reflection of their actual thoughts and feelings. But it’s obviously an inflammatory word, and it would have an effect on someone who hears it, and that’s important to acknowledge as well. There’s a lot of nuance and complexity in that moment.

That’s why it’s important that we talk more about Tourette’s. I saw some statistics that said one in 50 kids in America live with a persistent tic disorder, one in 160 kids live with Tourette’s, and half of them live undiagnosed. And so like when you put all those figures together, you realize that, statistically, you’ve met or will meet somebody with Tourette’s.

MH: As the movie goes on and John spends more time with people like Tommy and Dottie, who understand and accept him, room begins to grow for them to add some levity about his tics. They can laugh after one of his tics or joke about it. At one point, John accidentally nut taps Tommy while the two are preparing the community center for the holidays, and Tommy immediately launches into a bit. “John…John! It’s Christmas!”

RA: Yeah, and John’s laughing too. I think that was a big part that we wanted to get into in terms of John’s experience. Sometimes John will see the humor in the tic, and sometimes he won’t, and sometimes it’s not interesting to him. With Tommy in particular, Peter was really keen to portray him as somebody who’s going to take the time to understand what’s going on with John.

MH: There’s a scene where John loses someone close to him, and at their funeral, he’s not at the service with the other family and friends, but in a corridor outside the room. He lost someone who accepted him, but that still didn’t mean everyone at the funeral would.

RA: That’s part of looking at his emotional experience. It’s a really heartbreaking moment for him because he wants so much to be in the room, but for many reasons, he can’t be. It’s a hard day for him, it’s a very ticky day for him. It shows a really important part of how his tics sometimes stop him from doing things that he really cares about.

Graeme Hunter/Sony Pictures Classics

MH: At last year’s BAFTAs, John’s tics, which were audible to people on stage and to audiences, led to controversy about how the awards show didn’t take enough care to create a safe space for John, the night’s presenters, or audiences. It seemed to lay bare in real life some of the challenges that the movie presents—that without proper awareness and proper care taken by social institutions, people with Tourette’s can have difficulty moving through the world.

RA: Obviously, the BAFTAs are a big evening for lots of people, but [that experience] is part of John’s daily life. When John walks out the door in the morning, he doesn’t know what environment he’s going to enter. He doesn’t know what that day is going to be like. He can encounter every different kind of reaction in a single day. I have been in those situations with John. I’ve been in situations with him where people just don’t understand what’s happening in that moment. And then sometimes there’s a discussion after. Sometimes it’s hostile. Sometimes it’s not. Because John has coprolalia, it’s sometimes something that people can identify and understand as Tourette’s. Some people get that what they’re hearing is Tourette’s. But there are a lot of people who live with Tourette’s who don’t have coprolalia, who don’t have that particular kind of tic, and sometimes it’s difficult for people to understand that [their vocal or motor tics] are Tourette’s. So when I’ve been with John in a day, I’ve seen a broad spectrum of reactions.

MH: The movie opens on a famous moment in John’s life, when he was being presented an honor by Queen Elizabeth II and yelled “Fuck the Queen!” when he entered the room. Did he tell you any more about that day?

RA: He told me that story, and he said that after he ticked, somebody patted him on the shoulder and said, “Don’t worry, John. The Queen understands.”

MH: Must be a hell of a thing to feel truly seen and understood by the Queen.

RA: What a fantastic honor for John, and really appropriate considering the work he’s done in his life.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Buy I Swear tickets here

Nojan Aminosharei is the Entertainment Director of Men’s Health and the Special Projects Editor of Harper’s Bazaar. He was previously the Entertainment Director of Hearst Digital Media, and before that a Senior Editor at GQ. Raised in Vancouver, Canada, Nojan graduated from NYU with a master’s degree in magazine journalism. The late Elaine Stritch once told him, “What the fuck kind of name is Nojan? I’m 89 years old, I don’t have time for that shit.”