The unusual reason Will Smith was not removed from the Oscars ceremony

caused and left the Academy of the Oscars very angry after going on stage and slapping the face of the comedian – and presenter of the event. However, he was not withdrawn from the ceremony afterward and even took the Best Actor award for King Richard. This, in fact, has a reason and refers directly to the .

, one of the producers of the ceremony, stated that Will Smith was not withdrawn from the awards at the time because of a request from the comedian. In an interview with VarietyPacker said he spoke to Rock shortly after it all happened.

“I asked him if it was a real slap. He looked at me and said, ‘Yeah man, I just got punched by Muhammad Ali.’ He went into ‘joke mode’ right away, but you could tell that was still in shock“, said the producer.

Talking to the presenter, Will Packer left the decision in the hands of Chris Rock, who, in turn, preferred that nothing happen. So Will Smith didn’t get kicked out like the other producers were thinking of doing.

“I said, ‘Chris Rock doesn’t want this.’ He made it clear to me that he didn’t want to make an already bad situation worse. That was Chris’ energy in that moment. His tone was neither retaliatory nor angry, so I went over to the leadership of the Academy and advocated for what he wanted in that moment. He didn’t want them to take Will out of there.“, commented.

In his speech onstage at the awards, Chris Rock made an unfortunate comment about the hair of the actor’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith. He said he would like to see her in the sequel to GI Jane (To the Edge of Honor, in Portuguese), 1997 film in which Demi Moore is bald. It turns out that Jada has an autoimmune condition that causes hair loss, alopecia.

“Keep my wife’s name out of your mouth”, said Will Smith before punching Chris Rock. Keyed up!