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Following last year’s tragic event in which Will Smith smacked Chris Rock, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences formed a crisis team.
Bill Kramer, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ chief executive officer, stated that the award presentation will be “prepared for everything” with its new crisis squad.
The announcement follows last year’s controversial Oscar incident, in which Will Smith smacked Chris Rock during the telecast of the ceremony.
‘Because of last year, we’ve opened our minds to the many things that can happen at the Oscars,’ Academy CEO Bill Kramer told TIME on Tuesday.
Kramer stated that the school has organized a group focused on dealing with emergency scenarios at the yearly event.
The Academy’s “crisis team,” according to Kramer, consists of communications teams that can “assemble very fast” to function as a spokesperson or release remarks.
“Therefore it is our aim that we will be prepared for anything that we may not predict right now but that we are planning for just in case,” the CEO stated.
The Academy’s president, Janet Yang, expressed remorse about last year’s response to the unexpected slap during the Oscars luncheon on Feb. 17.
“I’m sure you all remember we experienced an unprecedented event at the Oscars,” Yang told a crowd that included Tom Cruise, Angela Bassett, Cate Blanchett, and Steven Spielberg during her opening remarks. “What happened onstage was wholly unacceptable and the response from our organization was inadequate.”
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences did little in the immediate wake of Smith storming the stage and slapping Rock during last year’s show. It took nearly two weeks for the Academy’s board of governors to vote to bar Smith from attending the Oscars and all other academy functions for ten years. Smith had previously resigned as a member of the school.
Yang, who was not president at the time of the occurrence, was halted by a small wave of applause and did not elucidate further, instead shifting the conversation to lighter matters.
The 95th Academy Awards will be held on March 12 at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood. The ceremony will begin at 8 p.m.
