And I just remember thinking, ‘Oh no, oh no. “Once I saw Will yelling at the stage with such vitriol, my heart dropped. I thought okay, he’s going to say something or come at him, something funny is going to happen because that’s the nature of Chris, and that’s the nature of Will so let’s see what happens,” Packer said. Pinkett Smith has been open about having alopecia, a hair loss condition. He was just immediately freestyling,” he said of the Pinkett Smith comment, where Rock compared her shaved head hairstyle to G.I. Rock “didn’t tell one of the planned jokes. Packer added that he thought the Smith-Rock moment was a bit at first too. This is the Academy covering itself,” that source said. All I want to do is leave.’ He was never asked if he wanted Will removed. “Chris told Packer ‘I’m not pressing charges. It has been explained to me that there was a conversation that I was not a part of to ask him to voluntarily leave.”Ī source close to Rock told TMZ this morning that Packer saying Rock objected to Smith leaving the Oscars isn’t true. Because, as it has now been explained to me, that was the only option at that point. And so I was advocating for what Rock wanted at that time, which was not to physically remove Will Smith at that time. His tone was not retaliatory, his tone was not aggressive and angry. “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’ image. The Academy’s Board of Governors is investigating the incident between Smith and Rock, and will discuss potential sanctions for Smith at a meeting later this month.Packer was not aware that others had asked Smith to leave the Oscars.Ĭo-producer Shayla Cowan “told me that they were about to physically remove Will Smith, and I had not been a part of those conversations,” he said. "If the involved party desires a police report at a later date, LAPD will be available to complete an investigative report," the statement continued. On Sunday night, the Los Angeles Police Department released a statement, noting that "investigative entities were aware" of the incident between Rock and Smith at the Oscars, but "the individual involved has declined to file a police report." He was like, 'No, I'm fine.' He was like, 'No, no, no.'" They were laying out the options, and as they were talking, Chris was being very dismissive of those options. The producer said police told Rock, "You can press charges. "They said we will go get him we are prepared. "They were saying, you know, this is battery was the word they use in that moment," Packer recalled. Packer also shared that police were ready to arrest Smith after the incident. These people saw the person that they know and they were hoping that somehow, some way, this was an aberration."ĮXCLUSIVE: #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. He has a three-decades-plus career of being the opposite of what we saw in that moment. Not like this.’ … I’ve never felt as immediately devastated as I did in that moment."Īs for why Smith was allowed to stay and accept an Oscar for his role in King Richard, to which he earned a standing ovation, Packer said, "The people in that room who stood up stood up for somebody that they knew - he was a peer, a friend, a brother. Once it became clear that this was not a bit, Packer said "my heart dropped." "I thought this was something that Chris and Will were doing on their own," he shared. Packer recalled being just off-stage when Rock started telling jokes, and revealed that the comedian "didn’t tell one planned joke." "I thought it was a bit, like everybody else," he said. Packer, who led the first all-Black production team, told GMA that he did not speak directly to Smith, and he initially thought the slap was staged like many viewers and audience members. He was right away in joke mode, but you could tell that he was in complete shock." I just got took a punch from Muhammad Ali. Holmes, which aired in full on Friday, Packer said he spoke to Rock just after the incident and asked, "Did he really hit you? And he looks at me and goes, ‘Yeah. In an interview with Good Morning America's T.J. Will Packer, producer of the 94th annual Academy Awards, is speaking out nearly a week after Will Smith shocked audiences by storming the stage and slapping Chris Rock across the face after he made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |