The Academy has established a ‘full crisis team’ for unlikely scenarios following the Will Smith incident

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has established a crisis team, in the wake of last year’s shocking incident in which Will Smith slapped Chris Rock ahead of this year’s March 12 ceremony.

“Thanks to the past year, we’ve opened our minds to the many things that can happen at the Oscars,” Academy CEO Bill Kramer said. TIME on Tuesday.

Kramer said that the institution has implemented the organization of a group focused on handling emergency situations at the annual event.

“We have a whole crisis team, something we’ve never had before, and a lot of plans in place,” Kramer said. ‘We have run many scenarios.

“So we hope that we’re prepared for anything that we can’t anticipate right now, but are planning for in case it does happen.”

Kramer said the return of Jimmy Kimmel as host, the star of the night previously featured in 2017 and 2018, adds another layer of protection by having a veteran entertainer helm the show.

“That’s why you want someone like Jimmy on stage who’s used to dealing with live television — things don’t always go as planned,” Kramer said. “So you have an on-site host who can really pivot and manage those moments.”

He added: “Thanks to last year, we’ve opened our minds to the many things that can happen at the Oscars.”

‘These crisis plans, the crisis communication teams and the structures that we have, allow us to say that this is the group that we have to bring together very quickly. So we all come together. This is the spokesperson. This will be the statement.

Kramer said that “depending on the specifics of the crisis, and hopefully something doesn’t happen and we never have to use these … we already have frameworks in place that we can tweak.”

Kramer said Academy officials “could have moved faster” in their reactions to the incident involving Smith and Rock, both on the night of the show and afterward.

“This is really our response after the show, and how we talked about it, and how we talked to Will and Chris, and our hosts and our members,” he said. “It was a time to really bring people together.”

The Oscars exchange between Smith and Rock took place after Rock made a joke about Jada Pinkett Smith’s shaved head, saying, ‘Jada I love you GI Jane 2, can’t wait to see it!’

Academy CEO Bill Kramer (pictured earlier this month in Beverly Hills) spoke about the new protocols put in place in the wake of last year’s imbroglio.

Academy officials have implemented a new team to deal with crisis situations. A large statue of the Oscars was seen at the Samuel Goldwyn Theater in Beverly Hills last month when the nominations were announced.

The return of Jimmy Kimmel, the star of the night previously featured in 2017 and 2018 (pictured), adds another layer of protection by having a veteran entertainer helm the show, the Academy said.

The reference was to the 1997 film that featured Demi Moore with a shaved head. (Pinkett Smith, 51, has been diagnosed with alopecia, which causes her hair to fall out.)

The Philadelphia-born actor then took the stage and punched Rock, then returned to his seat and yelled at him twice: ‘Keep my wife’s name out of your fucking mouth!’ to a stunned audience.

Later that night, in his acceptance speech after winning the Best Actor Oscar for his role as tennis patriarch Richard Williams in King Richard, Smith apologized to the Academy and other nominees, but made no reference to Rock.

Smith subsequently apologized multiple times for the incident and resigned from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences before receiving a 10-year suspension from the Oscars.

In an apology she issued in July for the incident in an online clip, Smith said her spouse “had nothing to do” with her attack on Rock.

“I made a decision on my own from my own experiences, from my history with Chris,” he said. “I want to apologize to my children and my family for the heat that has caused us all.”

He said: ‘I’ve reached out to Chris and the message he’s gotten is that he’s not ready to talk, and when he is, he’ll get back to me.’ So I’ll tell you, Chris, I apologize. My behavior was unacceptable and I’m here whenever you’re ready to talk.