Will Smith believed speech would make SLAP 'better' at Oscars, says Will Packer

Will Smith altercation was opposite of what his peers have seen in his three-decade long career, says Oscars producer.

While speaking to Good Morning America, Will Packer shares how Smith believed his public apology during the event might make things better. The King Richard star also received wide applause as he came up on the stage to accept his Best Actor Award.

“It wasn’t like this was somebody they didn’t know. Doesn’t make anything he did right or excuse his behavior at all,” said Packer “but I think the people in that room stood up stood up for somebody that they knew, who was a peer, who was a friend, who was a brother, who has a three-decades-plus career of being the opposite of what we saw in that moment.”

"I think that these people saw the person that they know and were hoping that somehow someway this was an aberration,” he continued.

“I don’t think that they were people applauding anything about that moment. All these people saw their friend at his absolute worst moment and were hoping they could encourage him and lift him up and he would somehow make it better.”

“If he wasn’t going to give that speech, which made it truly better, then yes, then yes, yes, because now you don’t have the optics of somebody who committed this act, didn’t nail it in terms of a conciliatory acceptance speech in that moment who then continued to be in the room,” Packer said.

The situation however was complex and shifted moods in the audience.

“[The energy] was sucked completely out of it,” Packer said. “It was like someone poured concrete in that room. It was this feeling of what just happened? Is this real? How am I supposed to react, so it sucked the life out of that room and it never came back.”