‘I Swear’: Actor Robert Aramayo on the most inspirational British film of the year

The name John Davidson might not ring any initial bells, but it’s more than likely you’ll have heard of the man behind the story of I Swear, which arrives in cinemas this Friday and might just be the most inspirational and indeed tear-jerking film you’ll see all year.

Davidson is one of the UK’s most influential campaigners for Tourette Syndrome, having lived with the condition since he was a teenager. There’s every chance you may have seen two separate BBC documentaries – filmed twenty years apart – which showed the challenges and indeed triumphs of daily life in the Scottish border town of Galashiels, where he still lives to this day.

In the biopic it’s rising British star Robert Aramayo, known for his role as Elrond in Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, who delivers an astonishingly good performance as Davidson. 32-year-old Aramayo began his career at Hull’s Truck Theatre, before finding himself drawn to New York where he trained at the prestigious Juillard School. He might still live in New York, but it feels like this most grounded of British films could be the making of him. You’d be best advised to take a healthy handful of tissues into the cinema, but can also prepare to have the core of your very soul lifted.

“There’s been people who have watched the film so far and they’ve called me up and it’s led to conversations not just about Tourette’s, but neurodiversity in general,” says Aramayo as we meet in a central London cafe.

“I got a text from a friend the other day saying I’m just on the bus and somebody clearly has Tourette’s and now I have more of an understanding of what is going on. Obviously we don’t know if that person did or not, but certainly if this film leads to a higher level of empathy and understanding about neurodiversity and conversations about Tourette’s then it’s a brilliant thing.”

You wouldn’t bet against that, here’s a film that feels like it could really go the distance. You can read our whole Q&A with Robert Aramayo below.

How did you first come on board to tell this amazing story?

It was pretty quick. My agent told me about this amazing script and I watched Kirk Jones [director]’s film Waking Ned Devine which was incredible and when I met him I got an idea of the strong vision he had for the film. But I knew it was going to be a lot of real work and a real challenge and that was something I was thinking about after I met John for the first time. I just thought, if I’m gonna do it, I need to keep authenticity at the front of my mind and you know there’s a lot of balls to spin when you’re playing this character, so I knew it was gonna be a really big challenge.

It’s an amazing performance from yourself and one that really captures what John is like. Did that come from the time you spent with him before filming?

It was amazing meeting John. He’s a really funny guy and what I just wanted to do was create an image of this man where it’s not just about Tourette’s. Because he’s got a wicked sense of humour and he’s a really charismatic person.

He’s been quite open about his life, experiences and he’s quite articulate about it too and that was brilliant, spending that time with him because he’s an educator.

It was interesting seeing him as an adult too, being a man in his fifties and how he deals with having ticks. It was an incredible education, but I also wanted to meet all kinds of different people with Tourette’s, young and old, you know, in order to try and learn as much as I could about it and gain a sort of 360 degree viewpoint of a life spent with Tourette’s. Tourette’s Scotland were great for that. They allowed me to sit down with people who are living with the condition and learn about their experiences. Because there’s a lot of education that’s still needed and a lot of people who don’t know about it in 2025.

In recent years there’s been a lot of debate about actors who portray characters with a condition they very much don’t have. I wondered what your take on that is?

It makes you feel like you have a lot of responsibility to do the project justice. I mean I’m an actor and I read a really challenging role and I wanted to do it. I knew that if I was going to do it, the authenticity should be the thing I focused on the most and I ran with that, right to the edge of what was possible for me, because I really believed in doing that.

Kirk [Jones, director] has an amazing answer to this as well. We tried to use John for the latter part of the film and Kirk came to the realisation that at a certain point you’d be asking an actor to fake their own condition, which would be a real challenge.

There is actors with Tourette’s in film as well. There’s that amazing scene where John gives advice to the teenage girl played by Andrea Bisset, who lives with the condition in real life.

That scene with Andrea was probably one of the most amazing experiences of the film for me. Because we have a scene where we’re in the alleyway and a lot of that is improvised, and a lot of it is Andrea’s actual experience and so I felt very lucky. It was an incredibly amazing thing to be part of and to showcase Andrea’s experience. She herself is an amazing actor, you know, she’s got an agent now, I think, and it’s really exciting to be a part of that at the beginning of her career. Me and Andrea just vibed well. We just got on, we had a good working relationship and we supported each other.

And it seems like John is happy with the film too…

Yes and I only ever wanted to do that, which makes me happy. He’s my friend now and when I’m not busy I try to spend as much time with those brilliant people in Galashiels, like Dottie [played by Maxine Peake]. The last time I went up we had Sunday dinner and didn’t even talk about the film. That’s been an absolute gift from this project for me.

We see John’s landmark campaigning and MBE ceremony later in the film. Do you think this film will go some way in educating people and delivering an understanding that perhaps they didn’t before?

I really hope so and there’s a huge spectrum as well. There’s ticks you cannot see and as we say in the film, only 10 percent of people with Tourette’s sweat. There’s many others that happen and hopefully people will now talk about Tourette’s in a more 360 degree view, and say that the film was a big eye opening moment for me.

It does feel like a film that could have an huge impact though and I wouldn’t be surprised to see awards on the horizon. Are you prepared for that?

No, definitely not! We were just working really hard to build this authentic story and I think it would be amazing for John if lots of people saw this and it highlighted how incredible that man is. That would be awesome. We’re a tiny movie, I just hope that people come and enjoy this incredible story.