Topics: Will Smith, Oscars, Academy Awards
The Academy Awards has developed a 'crisis team' for this year's awards to prevent another Will Smith slap moment.
The world was utterly blown away last year when the actor yelled at host Chris Rock for making a joke about his wife Jada Pinkett Smith.
It certainly was an unexpected deviation from regular programming, but what happened next sparked headlines for months.
Will decided yelling at Chris wasn't enough and hopped onto the stage to slap the comedian square across the face.
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Moments later, he was back on the stage accepting the award for Best Actor.
It truly was a mind-blowing few minutes at the 2022 Academy Awards.
But, if you were hoping for something similarly explosive this year, think again.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences CEO Bill Kramer told TIME Magazine they have been proactive this time round.
“We have a whole crisis team, something we’ve never had before, and many plans in place,” Kramer said. “We’ve run many scenarios.
"So it is our hope that we will be prepared for anything that we may not anticipate right now but that we’re planning for just in case it does happen.”
He added: "Because of [the slap] last year, we’ve opened our minds to the many things that can happen at the Oscars.
"But these crisis plans — the crisis communication teams and structures we have in place — allow us to say this is the group that we have to gather very quickly."
The crisis team will consist of people who will be able to 'come together' and work quickly to resolve or address anything that's not on the script.
"Obviously depending on the specifics of the crisis, and let’s hope something doesn’t happen and we never have to use these, but we already have frameworks in place that we can modify," Kramer said.
The slap moment last year saw Will Smith resign from the Academy and he's now been banned from attending the Oscars gala and other Academy events for 10 years.
He admitted in an apology video to Chris Rock that violence is never the answer.
"Jokes at my expense are a part of the job, but a joke about Jada's medical condition was too much for me to bear and I reacted emotionally," he said.
"I would like to publicly apologize to you, Chris. 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."
