After facing heavy criticism over how the "Oscars slap" was handled at the Academy Awards last year, new measures have been put into place to prevent similar incidents from happening at the ceremony moving forward. The story is well known, but as a refresher, last year's Oscars saw Will Smith slapping and screaming obscenities at Chris Rock over a Jada Pinkett Smith joke. While he would later be banned from attending the Oscars again for the next decade, the Academy was criticized for a lack of action that night. Many argued that Smith should have been removed from the building rather than going on to accept a Best Actor Oscar on the same stage he'd slapped Rock with no repercussions.
In a new interview with Time, Oscars CEO Bill Kramer spoke about the changes that have been made behind the scenes as a result of the "Oscars slap" scandal. He first notes how the decision to bring back Jimmy Kimmel as host was because the comedian is someone who knows how to handle unscripted moments that can happen on live television. From there, Kramer reveals how a "whole crisis team" has also been assembled to further help prevent any similar incidents from happening in the future. As Kramer says:
"That’s why you want someone like Jimmy on stage who is used to dealing with live TV: Things don’t always go as planned. So you have a host in place who can really pivot and manage those moments. But we have a whole crisis team, something we’ve never had before, and many plans in place. 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."
There Shouldn't Be Any More Slapping at the Oscars
When the slap happened, it was just as shocking to the Academy as it was to the viewers watching. There had been no preparations in place whatsoever for any such incident, and no one really knowing what to do in the moment is likely why Smith wasn't disciplined by the Academy until after the event. Now, with this new crisis team in place, Kramer says they've been brainstorming all kinds of other possible scenarios beyond a nominee attacking an award presenter, hoping to have contingency plans in place for other potential surprises.
"Because of 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. This is how we all come together. This is the spokesperson. This will be the statement. And 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."
The Academy Awards will happen on March 12, 2023.