LAPD was 'prepared' to arrest Will Smith for slapping Chris Rock, says Oscars producer Will Packer

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Published on March 31, 2022 08:55PM EDT

Will Packer, who produced this year's Oscars, is opening up about the now-infamous moment in which Will Smith slapped Chris Rock onstage during Sunday's awards show.

In a preview clip from an interview with Good Morning America airing in full on Friday, Packer said that Los Angeles police were on hand and "prepared" to arrest Smith, but Rock was "very dismissive" about pressing charges against him.

"They were saying, 'This is battery' — the word they used in that moment. They said, 'We will go get him. We are prepared to get him right now, you can press charges. We can arrest him.' They were laying out the options," Packer says in the clip.

"And as they were talking, Chris was being very dismissive of those options. He was like, 'No, I'm fine.' ... Even to the point where I said, 'Rock, let them finish.' The LAPD officers finished laying out what his options were, and they said, 'Would you like us to take any action?' And he said, 'No.'"

Packer also told GMA that he did not speak to Smith directly at all on Oscars Sunday. Packer's comments come after the Academy said Wednesday that it began disciplinary proceedings against the Best Actor winner. The awards body also claimed that Smith was asked to leave the ceremony after the assault, and that he refused, but other reports have refuted the claim that he was asked at all.

Smith released a formal apology on Monday, publicly addressing Rock, which he did not previously do in his Oscars acceptance speech. "I would like to publicly apologize to you, Chris," he wrote. "I was out of line and I was wrong. I am embarrassed and my actions were not indicative of the man I want to be. There is no place for violence in a world of love and kindness."

For his part, Rock had not commented on the incident — which occurred after the comedian had made a joke about Smith's wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, while presenting the award for Best Documentary — until Wednesday night. He addressed the matter briefly at his first comedy show since the Oscars. "I don't have a bunch of s--- about what happened, so if you came to hear that, I have a whole show I wrote before this weekend," Rock could be heard saying in leaked audio obtained by Variety. "I'm still kind of processing what happened. So, at some point, I'll talk about that s---. And it will be serious and funny."

The full interview with Packer airs Friday morning on ABC's Good Morning America at 7 a.m. ET.

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