Fans, celebs, and news outlets around the world continue to express their thoughts on the Oscars controversy. On Wednesday night (March 30), Chris Rock made his first public appearance since then at his “Ego Death World Tour” comedy show in Boston and said he’s “still kind of processing what happened.”
During his time in Boston, he was met with heckling fans that wanted to poke at the situation. One of them yelled out “Fuck Will Smith,” but Chris Rock was quick to let them know he wasn’t condoning that type of behavior. He reportedly said “No, no, no” until the chants stopped and made sure they didn’t continue.
In related news, today (April 1), producer Will Packer’s appearance on “Good Morning America” aired where he gave his take on the events that took place during the Oscars. Packer revealed that after the incident took place, he was alerted that there were discussions to have Smith “physically” removed.
“I knew it was clearly a confrontational moment because of what was happening from Will in the audience, but I still wasn’t sure that he actually struck him,” Packer said. “I made that clear, like, ‘Rock, you tell me, whatever you want to do, brother,’ and he was telling me, ‘I’m fine.’”
“I immediately went to the Academy leadership that was on site and I said, ‘Chris Rock doesn’t want that.’ I said, ‘Rock has made it clear that he does not want to make a bad situation worse,'” Packer continued. “That was Chris’ energy. His tone was not retaliatory, it was not angry, so I was advocating what Rock wanted in that time, which was not to physically remove Will Smith at that time because, as it has now been explained to me, that was the only option at that point.”
Since then, Deadline has reported that Packer is “conflating” this conversation between him and Rock and “Rock was never asked that question by Packer.”
Regardless of everything going on, Chris Rock appears to be in good spirits. The comedian showed up by himself Thursday at the AMC Theaters in Boston Common the day after the aforementioned Boston show to enjoy a good movie and some popcorn.