♪ tonight -- >> oh, wow! >> one slap. >> wow! >> millions of shock waves. why will smith says he's resigning from the academy. and the new details from the man in charge of the broadcast. >> my heart at that point was just in my stomach. because of everything about it and what it represented. >> what happened backstage in the minutes after? >> the lapd came and needed to talk to chris. >> so many seeing it so differently. >> this is on tv in a million places. >> the decades-long relationship between the three stars. jada appearing on chris' show. >> jada, jada, jada, jada! got the big hat for me. >> what a friend close to the comedian says about whether he knew about her alopecia. this special edition of "nightline," "the slap," will be

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[announcer] call now and get $3,000 off! ♪ thanks for joining us. tonight, will smith abruptly announcing his resignation from the academy less than a week after "the slap." his slap still reverberating around the world.

while the academy continues to move ahead with their disciplinary proceedings. and we're learning more about what went on behind the scenes at the oscars in the moments just after the altercation. >> this is on tv in a million places. >> it's involving two of the biggest stars in hollywood. >> oh, wow! >> reporter: an unscripted joke, an unprecedented response at the academy awards. >> everybody's talking about this. >> it's like your dentist wants to tell you what he thinks. when will it stop? >> reporter: will smith slapping chris rock on hollywood's biggest night. >> keep my wife's name out your [ bleep ] mouth! >> reporter: almost a week later, everyone's still talking about it. >> why do you think it is so seemingly infinitely fascinating to people? >> just the fact that you have these two levels of stars in a physical confrontation on the stage during the biggest night of their industry that broadcasts around the world live.

well, that's going to get a lot of eyeballs. >> they say you should plan for everything. i don't think that anybody planned for something like this to happen. >> reporter: the 94th academy awards were supposed to be a return to the glitz and glamor of hollywood. then chris rock went off prompter, joking about jada pinkett smith's hair. >> jada, i love you. "g.i. jane 2," can't wait to see it, all right? >> reporter: after initially laughing, smith walked on stage and hit him. >> will smith is getting up out of his chair to hit chris rock? half an hour or 45 minutes before he's going to win best actor? are you crazy? this can't be happening. >> reporter: pinkett smith had recently shared her struggle with alopecia. a longtime friend of chris rock tells abc news that rock did not know about her condition. >> my heart at that point was just in my stomach. because of everything about it and what it represented and what it looked like and who was involved.

>> reporter: will packer led the first all-black production team for the oscars. he spoke exclusively to my colleague t.j. holmes. >> the lapd came and needed to talk to chris. and so they came into my office. and they were laying out very clearly what chris' rights were. and they were saying, this is battery. we will go get him, we are prepared. we're prepared to get him right now. you can press charges, we can arrest him. as they were talking, chris was -- he was being very dismissive of those options. and they said, you know, would you like us to take any action? and he said no. he said no. >> reporter: the academy of motion pictures arts and sciences, said in a statement wednesday they asked smith to leave but he refused. >> i said, rock has made it clear that he does not want to make a bad situation worse.

that was chris' energy. i cannot speak for chris. his tone was not retaliatory, his tone was not aggressive or angry. >> reporter: a source familiar with the matter tells abc news the final decision whether smith was going to be removed from the ceremony or not rested with the academy. smith, of course, stayed and went on to win best actor. >> i want to be a vessel for love. >> reporter: tonight, will smith resigning from the academy after facing a possible expulsion, saying in a statement, i betrayed the trust of the academy, i deprived other nominees and winners of their opportunity to celebrate and be celebrated for their extraordinary work. i am heartbroken. rock is known for his sharp comic wit, poking fun at sacred cows and public figures. and will and jada smith are no exception. >> i was just reading something like, why did the oscars, why do they have to make fun of any individual people? you're doing -- you're making it about the evening, about the movies, about the people in the audience. you're hiring the top comedians.

and so you're watching it to see those kind of edgy jabs. >> reporter: the smiths have known the comedian for decades. as far back as 1997, rock poked fun at pinkett smith on "the chris rock show." >> give that little sister some praise! >> reporter: taking a speech she made at the d.c. million women march and dubbing over it. she went on to appear in a later episode and seemed to laugh it off. >> you know it's cool, we did a bit on you. >> oh, yeah, i heard, i heard. >> the million woman march. >> uh-huh. >> reporter: in 2016, rock, then hosting the 88th oscars, taking a jab at pinkett smith's decision to boycott the show over a lack of diverse nominees. >> jada boycotting oscars is like me boycotting rihanna's panties. i wasn't invited!

>> reporter: which brings us to last week. pinkett smith had been vocal about the autoimmune disorder that causes her hair loss, sharing her story on instagram and on her show "red table talk." >> it was terrifying when it first started. i was in the shower one day, and then just handfuls of hair just in my hands. and i was just like, oh my god, am i going bald? >> it took hundreds of years of ridicule for natural black hair and a european-defined version of what beauty is. she had to press through all of that to get dressed, to walk that red carpet, to sit in the front row in hollywood with a shaved head. and what happens? the entire industry is laughing at her because of her hair. that's violence. >> you're not suggesting that it justifies physical violence? >> no, no, no. not at all. but it's important that we don't skip over that part. because if you skip over that part, you make will appear

highly irrational. >> is there anything off bounds in comedy? i don't think so. i think that the right comedian with the right intent can do any topic, any topic at all. but it has to have the right intent. if you're out to hurt, it's not funny. >> reporter: this smack raising alarms in the comedy world at a time hen some comics already feel they're under increased scrutiny for their jokes. >> people in the audience need to take a breath and understand that the comedian is just doing their job. you know, they want us to be funny. they want us to be edgy. they want us to say things nobody else is going to say, that people are thinking but they wouldn't have the guts to say it. then they get mad. >> reporter: in a statement after the oscars, will smith apologized, writing, violence in all its forms is poisonous and destructive. jokes at my expense are part of the job, but a joke about jada's medical condition was too much for me to bear and i reacted emotionally. on wednesday night, fans flocked to chris rock's planned stand-up show in boston.

>> we want to see what he's going to say, like anybody. we're anxious to see what he's going to say. >> and be the first ones to hear it. >> reporter: rock didn't address the slap in detail. >> how was your weekend? i don't have like a bunch of [ bleep ] about what hd. i'm still kind of processing what happened. so at some point i'll talk about this [ bleep ]. >> i think he's still reeling. i think he's still emotionally not there. you know, comedy is tragedy plus time. there has not been enough time. >> reporter: smith for decades cultivated a wholesome image that went back to the '80s. >> you know, he didn't like to curse in his raps because he didn't want to offend his grandmother. remember, this is the rise of gangsta rap. so there's a lot of conversations about sleeping around with a lot of women. guns, violence, a lot of money, fast cars.

will didn't write about those things. >> reporter: from rapping lighthearted hits as "the fresh prince" with "parents just don't understand." ♪ there's no need to argue parents just don't understand ♪ >> reporter: to playing that wise-cracking philly persona in "the fresh prince of bel air." that role helped propel him to stardom. ♪ in west philadelphia born and raised on the playground i spent most of my days ♪ >> reporter: he was the hero in blockbusters like "independence day." >> welcome to earth. >> reporter: and "men in black." >> you know what the difference is between you and me? i make this look good. >> will smith has generated just, you know, hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars in box office. he can carry your movie because hecan do it all. >> are we going to make it? >> we ain't come this far. >> reporter: his wife a star in her own right, known for films like "the matrix: reloaded."

>> put that where the sun don't shine. >> and "girls' trip." >> will and jada have been what we now see a lot in social media, #couplegoals. and they've been that for over 25 years. i thought they were the most adorable in-love couple. >> but their marriage has come under scrutiny. in 2020, pinkett smith baring her soul on "red table talk," discussing a relationship with rapper august alcina during a 2016 separation. >> you and i decided we were going to take our space, and what happened? >> yeah, then i got into an entanglement with august. that's what i said. >> an entanglement? >> we ride together, we die together. >> bad marriage for life! >> reporter: the nature of their relationship has become fodder fr comedians like rebel wilson at this year's baftas. >> will smith winning for "king richard." personally i thought his best performance in the past year has been being okay with his wife's

boyfriends. >> reporter: after taking jokes about his marriage, now perhaps it's his career on the line. the academy tonight saying it will continue to move forward with disciplinary proceedings. does this mar will smith's reputation forever? >> i think it remains to be seen if this mars will smith's reputation. i think a lot of people are waiting for him to do that big bold sit-down interview, to get a little bit of that transparency, go beyond what he said in that statement. up next, our exclusive interview with the man in charge of the oscar broadcast. for peop, keep being you. and ask your doctor about biktarvy. biktarvy is a complete, one-pill, once-a-day treatment used for h-i-v in certain adults. it's not a cure, but with one small pill, biktarvy fights h-i-v to help you get to and stay undetectable. that's when the amount of virus is so low

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♪ ♪ the man in charge of the oscar broadcast, will packer, watched as what he thought was first just a spontaneous ad lib becoming a hollywood flashpoint. here he is speaking exclusively to abc's t.j. holmes. >> take me back to sunday before the show started. >> oh my gosh. >> do you remember how you were feeling? >> are you kidding? i was ecstatic. i was bursting with pride. it's because we had worked so hard on this show. so that's the bittersweet part of it, because i feel like it was a heck of a show. >> reporter: will packer is breaking his silence, giving details about what happened backstage in the immediate aftermath of that oscar night shocker when will smith walked onto the stage -- >> oh, wow! >> reporter: and slapped comedian chris rock. >> he didn't tell one of the planned jokes. he was just immediately freestyling. but i tell you, if there's

anybody that you don't worry about going out in front of a live audience and riffing off the cuff, it's chris rock. nobody's better. >> reporter: but even as smith made his way up on stage, packer wasn't worried. >> and i thought this was part of something that chris and will were doing on their own. i thought it was a bit. i thought it was a bit, like everybody else. >> not concerned? >> i wasn't concerned at all. >> as he's walking? >> i figured, okay, you know, he's going to say something, come at him, something funny is going to happen. because that's the nature of chris and that's the nature of will. so let's see what happens. >> keep my wife's name out your [ bleep ] mouth! >> i'm going to, okay? >> once i saw will yelling at the stage with such vitriol, my heart dropped. and i just remember thinking, oh, no. oh, no. not like this. i've never felt so immediately devastated like i did in that moment. >> reporter: packer credits chris rock for his composure,

which may very well have salvaged the night. >> because chris handled the moment with such grace and aplomb, it allowed the show to continue. because chris continued the way he did, he completed the category, he handed the trophy to questlove, who is somebody else who i feel like was really robbed of their moment -- it gave us license in a way to continue the show, which is what we were trying to do. >> did chris rock save the oscars that night? did he save the show that night? >> hm, i think he did. i think he did. he certainly saved what was left of it at that point. >> and the oscar goes to -- >> reporter: minutes after slapping chris rock on stage. >> will smith! >> reporter: will smith won his first oscar and got a standing ovation. packer says the optics of celebrating smith so soon after that shocking moment weren't lost on him, but offered another viewpoint. >> i was in the room, and i know a lot of those people.

and so it wasn't like this was somebody they didn't know. didn't make anything that he did right, didn't excuse that behavior at all. but i think that the people in that room who stood up, stood up for somebody who they knew, right? who was a peer, who was a friend, who was a brother, who has a three decades plus long career of being the opposite of what we saw in that moment. i don't think that these were people that were applauding anything at all about that moment. and all these people saw their friend at his absolute worst moment. and were hoping that they could encourage him and lift him up and that he would somehow try to make it better. >> reporter: smith apologized to the academy and his fellow nominees during his acceptance speech, but not to chris rock, something packer says was a

missed opportunity after striking rock. >> do you wish will smith had left after that? did he -- do you wish he did not remain a part of your ceremony? >> i think what many of us were hoping was that he would go on that stage and make it better. that he would stand on that stage and say, what just happened minutes ago was absolutely and completely wrong. chris rock, i'm so sorry, please forgive me. >> art imitates life. i looked like the crazy father, just like they said. crazy father, just like they said about richard williams. but love will make you do crazy things. >> if he wasn't going to give that speech which made it truly

better, then didn't nail it in terms of a conciliatory acceptance speech in that moment who then continued to be in the room. >> reporter: the night was filled with history-making, feel-good moments. ariana debose became the first afro latina queer woman to win an acting oscar. "coda" won big. >> i want to say, this is dedicated to the deaf community, the coda community, the disabled community. >> a lot of people, they hear the ratings went up, they think the incident, the slap. but what was the highest-rated moment of the night? >> the highest-rated moment was when troy kotsur won best supporting actor and as the first deaf man to win an oscar gave an incredible speech. you had all these moments that are overshadowed now. so that's the bittersweet part of it. because i feel like it was a heck of a show and had some amazingly historical moments that i feel will be forgotten.

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♪ ♪ how does this conversation move forward? >> while you can have a hot take, at the end of the day, this is really about the work that will smith needs to do to figure out why exactly he responded to chris rock's joke in the fashion that he did. >> i think his career is forever changed. he's going to have to do a lot of work, and he's going to really have to be honest, and he's going to have to take complete, full responsibility. >> the truth is, it was really sad. you know.

i think everyone involved now wishes it had never happened. because it tarnished what should have been a great moment for a lot of people. >> so much to ponder as we head into the weekend. that's "nightline" for tonight. watch full episodes on hulu. see you back here same time monday. thanks for staying up with us. good night, america. ♪ ♪ create a season full of curiosity.