Oscars Producer Says Will Smith Wasn’t Removed Because Chris Rock Didn’t Want To Make A Bad Situation Worse

The fallout from Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the 2022 Oscars continues. The producer of the 94th Academy Awards, Will Packer, is now breaking his silence on the incident, in a new interview. One of the biggest insights that Packer has been able to offer is why exactly Will Smith was allowed to remain at The Oscar’s ceremony after committing what amounts to assault in front of millions of viewers. As Packer tells it, the only reason that Will Smith wasn’t removed by police is that Chris Rock didn’t “want to make a bad situation worse.” 

In his interview with GMA, Will Packer had the following to say about why Will Smith got to stay at the Oscars:

“It happened to be right before the Best Actors award. Shayla [Cowan] told me that they were about to physically remove Will Smith. And I had not been a part of those conversations,” Packer explained. And so 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’s energy.” 

Chris Rock has been praised for his composure in the heated moment. Packer goes on to echo the sentiment that Rock was nothing but graceful and gracious in his handling of Smith’s violent outburst: 

“His tone was not retaliatory; his tone was not aggressively angry. And so I was advocating what Rock wanted in 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.” 

The more we learn about what happened in the aftermath of the “Slap Heard ‘Round the World” the more confusing things seem. There have been conflicting reports about forces within the Academy trying to remove Smith (or not); whether Smith himself resisted attempts to remove him (or not); and whether or not Smith and Rock have settled things. The Academy is currently in the process of investigating the incident, and will eventually share its results with the public. Will Smith has issued a public apology to Rock, but Rock said at a recent stand-up comedy show that he is “still processing” the incident. Packer says that Will Smith also apologized to him the next morning. 

Packer was the first black producer of The Oscars – an achievement that has now been overshadowed entirely, as his installment of the show will forever be looked at as a debacle, due to Will Smith’s actions.