The Oscars executive producer said he was “advocating what Rock wanted in that time,” which was for Smith not to be “physically removed” from the ceremony.
After the incident, fellow producer Shayla Cowan approached him and said they were about to “physically remove Will Smith” but because he hadn’t been included in those discussions, he prevented it from happening.
“I immediately went to The Academy leadership that was on site and said, ‘Chris Rock doesn’t want that,'” Packer recalled “I said, ‘Rock has made it clear that he does not want to make a bad situation worse. That was Chris’ image,’ so I was advocating what Rock wanted in that time, which was not toremove Will Smith at that time because as it has now been explained to me that was the only option at that point.”
Packer also said there was another conversation that he was “not part of” where people had asked Smith, 53, to “voluntarily leave” the ceremony. Smith apologized to Packer the following morning for ruining the producer’s “gigantic moment” and expressed his “embarrassment,” which the “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” alum also did in a
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