Academy calls in the big guns to ensure no ‘Will Smith slap’ incident goes down at this year’s Oscars

Last year’s Oscars were met with controversy after the infamous Will Smith slap. And with this year’s event on the way, organizers are preparing themselves to ensure the same doesn’t happen again.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences CEO, Bill Kramer, revealed that he spent the past few months preparing measures to avoid similar altercations from happening during the awards night. In an interview with Time Magazine, he revealed that he’s formed a “crisis team,” a first in Oscars history, whose job is to prevent similar situations from happening during the live event, as well as provide quick communication to the public.

“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.”

Kramer knows that surprises can happen during live events, so he’s making sure that this year’s event is prepared by simulating different scenarios since nobody expected that a slap would be the huge shocker that night. According to the CEO, they’ve prepared a plan for what to do just in case something similar happens. A lot of this involves better communication between the Academy and the people, considering it took a while for them to respond after the slap.

“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.”

To prove that the Academy is ready, it was revealed that the crisis team’s first test was during the Andrea Riseborough controversy. The Academy was swift to investigate the situation, and announced that it would be changing the rules for future nominations.

“Social media is and can be a great leveler with campaigning. I want to make sure now that I am the CEO of the Academy that our regulations are much more clear about our expectations for how people will promote their films.

“But I think social media is a space where, if used properly and used in an ethical, kind, fair way, is a great leveler. I think it can be a good thing. We just need to put some guardrails around that and talk about our expectations and our rules and regulations in ways that are clear. It can be confusing, and the Academy needs to help guide the way for equity in how people promote their films.”

In the end, the Academy has prepared itself to provide a swift response if something happens. Ideally, the night will go smoothly as planned. But this is live TV, so expect some surprises here and there. From something like a simple slap, to major mistakes such as the 2017 Best Picture mix-up, fingers crossed that the Academy will be able to handle anything.

The 95th Academy Awards will air on ABC on March 12, 2023, at 8pm E.T. / 5pm P.T.