BAFTA hopeful I Swear: ‘We were told to take swearing out of Tourette’s film to make it commercial’

Producing an independent film is, by any definition, not an easy endeavour. I feel qualified to say that as I have more than 30 films under my belt as a producer. When writer / director Kirk Jones approached me with his idea to make I Swear, a biopic on John Davidson, a British writer and campaigner best known for speaking publicly about living with Tourette’s syndrome, it was not a difficult decision.

I said an instant ‘Yes’ – based on the fact that I was a big fan of Kirk’s work as a film maker – his hit film Waking Ned Devine was probably included in every pitch deck over the last 20 years as a fantastic independent film success story. I also have two members in my family who have Tourette’s so have an understanding of the condition and have long been aware of John Davidson’s life and work.

As the screenplay was being developed, Kirk would send 20 pages of the script through at a time and as I read each instalment, I could really sense that there was great potential. I was also very aware that in the hands of the wrong writer / director, the film would not have worked. Kirk was telling an authentic and real version of John’s story in a commercial way without dumbing it down. He also, as did I, feels a massive responsibility to John and his life story but also to the wider Tourette’s community at large. 

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As we were getting more excited about the creative potential of the film, the realities of the independent film world and especially financing started to bite. I remember our first meeting with a sales company and the advice was to ‘take the swearing out to make the film more commercial…’ 

At that point Kirk and I both realised that we were going to have to make the film outside of the traditional industry model and then sell it. The difficulty of financing was compounded by the fact that Kirk is a commercial film maker (Nanny McPhee etc) so the BFI, Film4, BBC Films, who traditionally can help fund UK independent film, were not really an option. We didn’t want to take the edges off the script and felt it was imperative to keep it honest to John’s story.

We decided to make the film for the lowest possible budget and take no fees and Kirk rather rashly, and with full support from his wife and executive producer Cindy, decided to get a loan secured against their house sale to fund the film and thereby give him full creative control. This was a very ballsy move. All our cast and crew were amazing and understood the budget restraints.

At my company Tempo Productions we brought in our wider team and all our relationships and contacts to help deliver the best possible film, including the brilliant Kirsten Lane, our music supervisor who was able to work wonders on the soundtrack deals for the film and the Post Republic who gave us a fantastic deal for post-production. The team at Tempo, Georgia, Lauren and Ellie worked incredibly hard to help get the film made.

Traditionally, when putting a film together, the actors determine the ‘value’ of a film. With our model we were free to cast the best actor for the role and Kirk felt that Robert Aramayo was unequivocally the best person to play John Davidson.

Rob’s performance was extraordinary and kudos to his agent Molly Cowan and our casting director Lauren Evans. It’s also extraordinary that Rob is up against Leonardo De Caprio, Michael B Jordan, Timothée Chalamet, Jesse Plemons and Ethan Hawke for the Best Actor BAFTA this year.  I am very proud he is the only UK actor on the list and, bearing in mind that our budget was less than the One Battle After Another catering budget, it’s a great achievement.

The studios spend millions on the awards campaigns so having Rob on the list based solely on merit is an incredible tribute to his performance, regardless of who wins.

I Swear has been an incredible experience for myself and Georgia as producers and we are looking forward to the film coming out around the world later this year. We firmly believe an authentic British story about kindness and acceptance will resonate internationally, as it has with UK audiences and be a great reminder of humanity at its best in these turbulent times.

I Swear is coming to Netflix in the UK on March 10 2026 and is nominated in five categories at the Bafta film awards. The 2026 EE BAFTA Film Awards take place on 22 February.

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