After Will Smith slap last year, ‘crisis team’ is in place for Oscars 2023 ceremony, reveals Academy CEO

After the controversy last year at the Oscars when actor Will Smith hopped onto the Oscars stage and slapped host Chris Rock during the live ceremony, The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is issuing a crisis team in place for this year to take better action if any unexpected situations occur.

In a new interview, the CEO of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences last July, Bill Kramer addressed the recent concerns going into this year’s ceremony that will take place next month. In the past two years, the ratings of the Oscars have sunk to their lowest in the show’s 90 year-old history. In the Oscar nominees luncheon that took place last month, AMPAS president Janet Yang also said that the response from the organization was ‘inadequate’.

Now, Bill Kramer said in the new interview with Time Magazine that a ‘crisis team,’ is in place this year. He said, “…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.”

Further addressing the unexpected slap that created a controversy last year, Bill said, “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 95th Academy Awards will take place on March 12, with Jimmy Kimmel returning as the host for the third time.