Sources Say Will Packer Is Wrong, Chris Rock Was Never Asked If He Wanted Will Smith To Leave

Comedian Chris Rocksaid he did not want Will Smith to be escorted out of the Oscars…

…at least that’s what producer Will Packersaid on “Good Morning America” on Friday afternoon.

However, only a few hours after the news broke, Deadline reported that sources have come forward to say that it isn’t true. They claim that Chris Rock was never asked if he wanted the “King Richard” actor to be kicked out of the ceremony shortly before he received his first-ever Best Actor Oscar.

As previously stated, Deadline has heard from “reliable sources” that Chris Rock was never asked if he wanted the “Pursuit of Happiness” actor to leave Sunday night’s Oscar ceremony.

“They were about to physically remove Will Smith,” Packer said in the interview. “I wasn’t part of those conversations. …Rock has made it clear that he didn’t want to make a bad situation worse.”

The sources allege that Packer was “conflating” this idea from a conversation that they had after the incident, when Rock told Packer that he did not want to press charges. If he did, the LAPD reportedly said that they would have immediately removed Smith from the ceremony and placed him under arrest.

Sources say the question of whether or not should stay and continue to receive his first-ever Best Actor Oscar was never floated by Rock. Many have turned the blame on Rock for not asking for Smith to be removed from the ceremony. However, sources want to make it clear that Rock was never asked if he wanted Smith to be removed from the ceremony.

In the interview, Packer also opened up on the conversation between Rock and LAPD, saying that Rock was “very dismissive” of the idea that Smith be arrested for “battery,” which is the term police officials used to describe the slap seen around the world.

Producer Will Packer explained that LAPD officers came to his office almost immediately after the slap occurred to discuss Rock's options and the possibility of pressing charges.

“They were saying, you know, this is battery, was the word they used in that moment,” Packer recalled. “They said we will go get him; we are prepared. We're prepared to get him right now. You can press charges. We can arrest him. They were laying out the options, and as they were talking, Chris was being very dismissive of those options. He was like, 'No, I'm fine.' He was like, 'No, no, no.'”

Packer apparently thought that Rock was too dismissive of the severity of the incident. “Even to the point where I said ‘Rock, let them finish,’” he recalls saying. It should be noted that although Rock chose not to press charges at that time, there is still the possibility that he could press charges in the future.

When asked about Will Smith’s standing ovation, Packer said, “The people in that room who stood up stood up for somebody that they knew — he was a peer, a friend, a brother.”

“He has a three-decades-plus career of being the opposite of what we saw in that moment,” he went on. “These people saw the person that they know and they were hoping that somehow, some way, this was an aberration.”

The Academy’s Board of Governors is investigating the incident and will discuss disciplinary actions for Smith later this month.