Billy Crystal Reacts to Will Smith's Oscars Slap: 'It Was an Assault'

Billy Crystal is weighing in on the confrontation between Will Smith and Chris Rock at the Oscars.

The 74-year-old comedian made an appearance on the Bob Costa‘s HBO Max show Back on the Record, where he spoke candidly about the incident.

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“It was a most disturbing incident for sure. It was an assault,” he said. “I’ve had experiences. I hosted the Grammys three times and I’ve been thrown things.”

Billy has been an emcee at the Academy Awards nine times and said there was a method he had developed for hosting the show.

“In [Oscars] pre-production, the amazing Gill Cates, we would go through — he was the producer for six of the nine that I did — we would go through the rundown and I’d say, ‘Maybe I should be there because something might happen there. If that person wins, I should follow that,” he explained.

He also shared his thoughts on no-host events. “I sort of set myself up to host the show, really host the show, so you can tie it in together,” Billy said. “So, whenever I see shows that it’s a no-host show, yeah, it went faster, but there’s nobody there to capitalize on anything and give the audience the feeling of there’s somebody in charge.”

Find out what Chris Rock said about the slap during a recent comedy show.