What happened backstage at the Oscars after Will Smith’s slap?

The producer of the Oscars 2022, is sharing what happened behind the scenes at the 94th edition of the awards after slapped the comedian and presenter for him telling a joke about Smith’s wife, .

Packer revealed in an interview with gives ABC Newson Friday (1), that the Los Angeles Police Department was on standby to arrest Smith following the incident.

“That’s an absolute fact,” Packer said. “The LAPD made it clear: ‘We’ll do whatever you want, and one option is we’ll arrest you right now.‘.” Packer, like many members of the audience, initially “thought it was a little too much” when Smith stood up from the audience and slapped Rock.

“Once I saw Will screaming on stage, [foi] so biting“, he recalled. “I remember thinking, ‘Oh, no, no, no, not like that. Not like that.’ But I have people, everybody’s still in my ear, you know, saying, ‘OK, what are we doing on camera two? Is he still up there? Are we doing the best documentary category?’ And Chris was keeping his head when everyone else was losing their minds.”

“But my heart at that moment was just in my stomach, because of everything about it and what it stood for and what it looked like and who was involved.“, he added. “All of that was just – I’ve never felt so immediately devastated as I did at that moment.”

When Rock left the stage after the performance, Packer asked if Smith had really just hit him, to which the comedian replied, “‘I just got punched by Muhammad Ali.’ That’s exactly what he said, as only Chris can, you know. He was immediately in joke mode, but you could tell he was still in shock..”

Officers were immediately on the scene, Packer said, and were willing to arrest Smith if Rock decided to press charges — a decision Packer also said he would have supported. “I made it clear, like, ‘Rock, you tell me, whatever you want to do bro‘” said the producer.

“The LAPD came and needed to speak with Chris. And then they came to my office and they were making it very clear what Chris’ rights were. They were saying, ‘This is drums. We’ll get it. him now, you can press charges, we can arrest him.'”

Rock insisted he was “fine”, and while Packer’s co-producer, , told Smith that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences was about to remove him from the ceremony, he declined. “I immediately went to the Academy leadership who was there and said, ‘Chris Rock doesn’t want this’“, shared Packer. “I said, ‘Rock has made it clear that he doesn’t want to create a bad situation.’“

Smith would go on to win the Best Actor award for his role in King Richard, tearfully apologizing in his acceptance speech to the Academy and his fellow nominees. The following day, the actor issued an apology on Instagram, publicly telling Rock that he was “out of line” and “wrong”.