- Helen Bushby
- Entertainment Correspondent
Oscars president Janet Yang said the Academy’s response to Will Smith’s slap was “not adequate”.
This year’s Oscars will see a “crisis team” in place to handle any incidents that happen in real time, such as when Will Smith slapped Chris Rock during the 2022 ceremony.
Bill Kramer, the academy’s chief executive, told TIME that the new unit had “run through many scenarios” with the hope that it would be “prepared for anything”.
He added, “Because of what happened last year, we were aware of many things that might happen at the Oscars.”
Kramer noted that the new team members are now quicker to deal with such incidents.
Academy president Janet Yang previously said the response to Smith slapping Rock was not fast enough.
Smith slapped the comedian following he made a joke regarding the hair of Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett, who suffers from alopecia areata. Returning to his seat, Smith repeatedly shouted to Rock, “Put my wife’s name out of your mouth [كلمة بذيئة]”.
Despite this incident, Smith continued with the ceremony and later won the award for best actor for his role in the movie “King Richard”.
Although Smith later resigned from the Academy, it took several days for the Academy to decide on his membership. He was eventually excluded from the Academy Awards and from any other Academy events for 10 years.
Kramer said the new team will be able to assemble “very quickly” to deal with anything that might happen at the awards ceremony itself.
He added: “Let’s hope nothing happens and we never have to use these [الخطط]But we already have frameworks in place that we can adjust.”
Andrea Riseborough was nominated for Best Actress for her performance in To Leslie.
Crisis Team has already been published, following British actress Andrea Riseborough’s surprise nomination for Best Actress last month.
“Two Leslie”, which did not do much at the box office, was out of the Oscar race, but Riseborough was nominated for the award following receiving support from stars such as Gwyneth Paltrow, Courteney Cox, Jennifer Aniston and Edward Norton.
Questions have been raised as to whether these stars’ support for Riseborough contravenes the rules of the Academy Awards.
The Academy quickly responded that things “do not rise to the point where the film’s nomination should be rescinded.”
“You know, it happened on Tuesday, and six days later we were able to issue our official statement from the board of directors who really laid out a plan for us,” Kramer told TIME.
Bill Kramer: “Because of what happened last year, we were aware of a lot of things that might happen at the Academy Awards.”
Asked regarding being able to handle any “potential surprises” at this year’s ceremony, which will be held on March 12, Kramer said having TV presenter Jimmy Kimmel host the ceremony is a huge advantage.
“You want someone like Jimmy on stage who has a lot of experience handling live TV,” he said. “Things don’t always go as planned, so you have a presenter who can really handle and manage those moments well.”
