Robert Aramayo stunned Hollywood heavyweights Timothée Chalamet and Leonardo DiCaprio by winning Leading Actor at this year’s EE BAFTA Film Awards for his brilliant performance as John Davidson in I Swear.
It was thought that if anybody could cause an upset at this year’s BAFTAs, it’d be Aramayo as the ceremony has a history of awarding local talent. It happened early on in the night as Wunmi Mosaku won Supporting Actress for Sinners, but Aramayo was arguably the biggest shock with Chalamet widely expected to win for Marty Supreme.
Aramayo was in tears and speechless when he won, saying: “I can’t believe I’ve won.”
The actor went on to thank director Kirk Jones and the cast and crew of I Swear, adding that everybody in the category “blows me away”, recalling how Ethan Hawke came to give a talk when he was at school.
If it wasn’t going to be Chalamet, it was thought that DiCaprio could win his second BAFTA. Instead, it was Aramayo winning his first-ever BAFTA over Chalamet, DiCaprio, Ethan Hawke, Michael B Jordan and Jesse Plemons.
Stuart Wilson/BAFTA/Getty Images for BAFTA
Related: EE BAFTA Film Awards winners list in full
Aramayo was also a double winner on the night as he won the EE Rising Star Award, the only BAFTA award voted for by the public. The other nominees in the category were Miles Caton, Chase Infiniti, Archie Madekwe and Posy Sterling.
I Swear also won the Casting BAFTA with casting director Lauren Evans collecting the award. Other nominees in the category were Marty Supreme, One Battle After Another, Sentimental Value and Sinners.
The movie did, however, miss out on Outstanding British Film to Hamnet, but we’re pretty sure they’ll take that with Aramayo providing the biggest BAFTA shock on the night (in a good way).
If you haven’t seen the movie yet, I Swear is coming to Netflix next month. It’s also available to buy or rent right now from Prime Video, AppleTV and more.
The new edition of Living Legends, a 100-page all-colour celebration of Taylor Swift, is here! Buy Taylor in newsagents or online, priced at just £8.99.
Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.