Oscar Producer Will Packer thought the slap was a joke…until it wasn’t

All eyes are now on Oscar producer Will Packer. This was his first foray into producing Hollywood’s biggest night and it all turned on its head when Will Smith stepped on stage to slap comedian Chris Rock for making a joke about his wife, Jada Pinkett-Smith. In a new interview with Good Morning America, Will Packer is detailing his thoughts on the slap heard around the world and he’s revealing he thought it was a joke…until he realized it wasn’t.

Will Packer honestly thought Will Smith and Chris Rock were doing an unrehearsed bit for the show when the soon-to-be Oscar winner stepped on stage to slap the comedian. During his chat with Good Morning America Packer said, “I thought it was a bit, like everybody else. He didn’t tell one planned joke. I thought this was something that Chris and Will were doing on their own. I thought it was a bit. … We hadn’t practiced it.” As the matter unfolded, and he realized this wasn’t a joke, Packer said, “My heart dropped. I remember thinking, ‘Oh no. Not like this.’ … I’ve never felt as immediately devastated as I did in that moment.”

The topic then turned to allowing Will Smith to stay at the ceremony following the incident. We learned yesterday that the Academy did tell the actor to leave but he refused. This has been a bone of contention since the reveal because it has bounced back and forth between it being a suggestion to leave or a firm you need to go. Whatever the case, Packer did speak on the optics of letting Smith stay to collect his Oscar for his performance in King Richard:

“The people in that room who stood up stood up for somebody that they knew — he was a peer, a friend, a brother. He has a three-decades-plus career of being the opposite of what we saw in that moment. These people saw the person that they know and they were hoping that somehow, some way, this was an aberration.”

Packer also agreed that it wasn’t in Smith’s best interest to not apologize to Chris Rock soon after the slap took place. When the actor took the stage to accept his award, he apologized to members of the Academy and his fellow nominees, and not Chris Rock. This is something that Packer thought was extremely regrettable:

“If he wasn’t going to give that speech which made it truly better, then yes” it would have been better had Smith not stayed. “Because then 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 continued to be in that room.”

Packer also claimed that Chris Rock didn’t want Will Smith removed from the ceremony but, according to TMZ, this is not true. They claim to have a well-placed source that says Chris Rock made it clear he didn’t want to press charges and that he wanted to leave. He was never asked if he wanted Will Smith removed. As the source puts it, “this is the Academy covering itself.”

Packer admitted that he wasn’t a part of the discussions to remove Will Smith from the ceremony but he was aware that was going to be the case at one point. Packer said, “They were about to physically remove Will Smith. I wasn’t part of those conversations. …Rock has made it clear that he didn’t want to make a bad situation worse.”‘

What are YOUR thoughts on Will Packer’s revelations from Oscar night?