Oscar producer Will Packer talks about Will Smith’s smack Chris Rock: “I thought it was a little bit, like everyone else”

Oscar producer Will Packer said he didn’t understand host Chris Rock physically beating Will Smith until he heard it straight from the comedian’s mouth.

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“I thought I was a bit like everyone else,” Packer told him. Good morning America In his first public comment Sunday evening after Shock. Smith, shortly before winning an Oscar for Best Actress, criticized Rock for a joke she made about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, who shaved her head. You have spoken publicly about the fight against alopecia, a condition that causes hair loss.

Check out the full interview above.

Packer told correspondent TJ Holmes that he watched behind the scenes as Rocky walked into his mini set before handing out the award for best documentary. “He didn’t tell planned jokes,” Packer said. “I thought that was what Chris and Willie were doing independently. I thought it was a little bit. “We don’t do it.”

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As soon as he found out what was happening, Packer said, “I was heartbroken. I remember thinking, ‘Oh no. not like this I have never felt so devastated as in that moment. “

Holmes pressed Packer to optics to get Smith on his way, to standing ovations. “The people in the room who stood up were supporting someone they knew: he was a partner, a friend, a brother,” he said. “He has a career that has spanned more than three decades to be the opposite of what we saw at the time. These people saw a person they knew and hoped that somehow, somehow, it was an aberration. “

Smith’s inability to apologize to Rock is unfortunate, Packer agreed. “If he wasn’t going to give the speech that made him better, then yes” it would have been better if Smith hadn’t stayed. “Since you don’t have the perspective of the person who committed this act, he didn’t use the word of reconciliation at the time he was still in that room.”

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After Rocky left the stage, Packer said he asked him, “Did you really hit me?” And he looks at me and says, “Yes. I just hit Muhammad Ali. He was joking right away, but you could tell he was completely in shock.”

The academy has given Smith a great deal of fervor not only to stay in the theater, but also to take the stage and give a speech aloud. Packer argued that the decision not to remove Smith from Dolby Theater was made by Rock. Packer said the comedian was a strong supporter of Will Smith not being arrested by the police.

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“They were going to physically eliminate Will Smith,” he said. “I was not part of this conversation. Rock made it clear that he didn’t want the situation to get worse. “

The academy’s board of directors is investigating the incident and plans to discuss possible sanctions against Smith at a meeting later this month.

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