Oscars Producer Will Packer Explains Why Will Smith Was Not Removed From the Show

Will Packer is shedding light on what happened behind the scenes at the Oscars after Will Smith slapped Chris Rock onstage in one of the most shocking moments in Academy Awards history.

The producer of the 2022 telecast sat down with Good Morning America for an interview airing five days after the show, in which he responded to swirling questions about why Smith wasn’t escorted out of the show following the onstage assault and shared his backstage conversations with Rock and the LAPD.

The first-time Oscars producer said that in the live moment he, too, thought Smith smacking Rock was a bit, until Rock came backstage and confirmed that he had really been hit by Smith, who would also go on to win the best actor trophy of the night to a standing ovation.

Packer, speaking to T.J. Holmes, confirmed that the joke Rock made about Jada Pinkett Smith that spurred Smith to take the stage (a G.I. Jane jab referencing her shaved head; the actress has alopecia) was unscripted.

“He didn’t tell one of the planned jokes. He was immediately freestyling,” says Packer of Rock. But Packer wasn’t concerned. Even when he saw Smith come onstage, Packer says he, like everyone in the audience, assumed it was a bit.

“Once I saw Will yelling at the stage with such vitriol, my heart dropped. And I just remember thinking, ‘Oh no, oh no. Not like this,'” recalls Packer. “Chris was keeping his head when everyone else was losing theirs. My heart was just in my stomach because of everything about it and what it represented and what it looked like and who was involved. All of that. I’ve never felt so immediately devastated like I did in that moment.”

When Rock walked offstage after presenting the best feature documentary Oscar (which went to Questlove), Packer confirmed with Rock that Smith had really hit him.

“I just took a punch from Muhammad Ali,” Packer says Rock joked, despite being “very much in shock.”

Packer says that once he confirmed the physical assault, Rock insisted to him that he was fine. LAPD officers came into Packer’s office and were “laying out very clearly what Chris’ rights are. They were saying: ‘This is battery. We will go get him. We’re prepared. We’re prepared to get him right now. You can press charges. We’ll arrest him.'”

But Packer says Rock was being “very dismissive” of those options, reiterating he was fine. “Even to the point where I said, ‘Rock, let him finish.'”

When they asked if Rock would like them to take action, he said no.

EXCLUSIVE: #Oscars producer Will Packer tells @GMA what happened behind the scenes after actor Will Smith slapped host Chris Rock live on stage. @tjholmes https://t.co/AeoYcGkM32 pic.twitter.com/xe9E2cFo8N

— Good Morning America (@GMA) April 1, 2022

Earlier this week, the Academy began disciplinary action against Smith and issued a statement saying Smith was asked to leave the show following the slap, but that he refused. The statement didn’t provide details, but also acknowledged that the Academy “could have handled the situation differently.”

During Wednesday’s board of governors meeting following the incident, which is now under formal review by the Academy, one board member told The Hollywood Reporter that it still wasn’t made clear who asked Will Smith to leave, or what the sequence of events was. Board members are awaiting further clarity.

Smith announced in a statement issued Friday that he has resigned from the Academy following the incident with Rock. Smith said he is “heartbroken” but will accept all further consequences for his “shocking, painful, and inexcusable” actions at Sunday’s ceremony.

Speaking on GMA, Packer said that, before the best actor award, Shayla Cowan, who produced the show alongside Packer, told him that “they” were about to physically remove Smith.

Packer says he was not a part of those conversations.

“I immediately went to the Academy leadership that was on site and I said, ‘Chris Rock doesn’t want that.’ I said, ‘Rock has made it clear that he does not want to make a bad situation worse.’ That was Chris’ image. His tone was not retaliatory, his tone was not aggressive and angry. And so I was advocating for what Rock wanted at that time, which was not to physically remove Will Smith at that time. Because, as it has now been explained to me, that was the only option at that point. It has been explained to me that there was a conversation that I was not a part of to ask him to voluntarily leave.”

Smith reached out to Packer personally the following morning to apologize, ahead of his public apology to Rock that would come later that day on Instagram. “[Smith] said, ‘This should have been a gigantic moment for you. And he expressed his embarrassment, and that was the extent of it.”

EXCLUSIVE: #Oscars producer Will Packer tells Good Morning America about the frenetic aftermath of actor Will Smith slapping host Chris Rock live on stage on Hollywood’s biggest night. https://t.co/AeoYcGkM32 pic.twitter.com/8z35t8TPFw

— Good Morning America (@GMA) April 1, 2022

Following criticism aimed at the show for continuing on without seriously addressing the incident (co-host Wanda Sykes called the response “gross”), and for the industry audience giving Smith a standing ovation during his subsequent best actor speech, Packer says, “I don’t think these were people applauding anything at all about that moment. And all these people saw their friend at his absolute worst moment and were hoping that they could encourage him and lift him up, and that he would somehow try to make it better.”

When Smith accepted the award, he did apologize to the Academy and to his fellow nominees, but he did not offer an apology to Rock.

“I think what many of us were hoping is that he would go on that stage and make it better. It couldn’t be made right in that moment, because of what happened,” he says. “But I think we were hoping that he would stand on that stage and say, ‘What just happened minutes ago was absolutely and completely wrong. Chris Rock, I’m so sorry. Please forgive me.’ That’s what I was hoping for. I felt like he was going to win, and I was hoping that if he stayed, he [would say] that.”

Because of what Smith did say in his speech, however, Packer says he regrets Smith staying.

“Now, you don’t have the optics of somebody who committed this act, didn’t nail it in terms of a conciliatory acceptance speech in that moment, who then continued to be in the room.”

Smith could face disciplinary action, which may include suspension, expulsion or other sanctions permitted by the Academy’s Bylaws and Standards of Conduct. The next board meeting takes place April 18.

Rock, meanwhile, performed to his own standing ovation when he returned to the comedy stage for his first post-Oscars show, where he briefly addressed the slap, saying, “I’m still kind of processing what happened. … So at some point I’ll talk about that shit. And it’ll be serious, and it’ll be funny.”

Packer praised Rock for how he handled the slap, noting on GMA that it felt like the energy of the night was instantly sucked out of the room, but that Rock’s onstage composure saved the show.

“It gave us license, in a way, to continue the show, which is what we were trying to do,” he says of Rock. “He certainly saved what was left of [the show].”

April 1, 5:53 p.m. Updated with Smith’s resignation from the Academy.