Will Smith was ready to be arrested after slapping Chris Rock on the Academy Awards stage, according to Oscars producer Will Packer.
“They were saying, you know, this is battery,” Packer stated in a clip from an interview he gave to “Good Morning America” that was broadcast by ABC News Thursday night. “They said we’d go get him,” says the narrator. We have everything we need. We’re all set to capture him right now. You have the option of filing charges, and we have the option of arresting him. They were outlining the possibilities.”
Rock, on the other hand, was “extremely contemptuous” of the notion, according to Packer.
Packer recalled, “He was like, ‘No, no, no, I’m good.'” “I even urged, ‘Rock, let them finish,'” says the author. ‘Would you wish us to take any action?’ the LAPD officers asked after they had laid out his options. And he declined.”
After the ceremony on Sunday night, the LAPD issued a statement confirming that they were aware of the event and that Rock had declined to file a police report. The department will not comment on Packer’s interview, which will run in its entirety on Friday morning.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences convened on Wednesday to begin disciplinary procedures against Smith for violating the organization’s code of conduct. Smith might be suspended, expelled, or punished in some other way.
“Mr. Smith’s actions at the 94th Academy Awards were a very upsetting, painful event to watch in-person and on television,” the academy stated in a statement.
Without going into detail, the academy stated that Smith was asked to leave the Dolby Theatre event but refused.
After a joke Rock made about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, when he was on stage to present the Oscar for best documentary, Smith marched from his front row position up to the platform and smacked Rock.
Smith apologized to Rock, the Academy, and the public on Monday, stating, “I was out of line and I was wrong.”
Before the board meets again on April 18, Smith has the option to defend himself in writing, according to the academy.
Rock addressed the issue publicly for the first time, if briefly, at the start of a standup concert in Boston on Wednesday night, to a loud standing ovation. “I’m still absorbing what occurred,” he remarked.