Chris Rock didn't want Will Smith removed after awards show slap, Oscars producer Will Packer says

Like many people who watched the encounter that ended with Will Smith slapping Chris Rock on stage Sunday at the Academy Awards ceremony, Oscars lead producer Will Packer thought it was a planned bit.

But as Smith -- angered by a joke Rock told about Smith's wife, Jada Pinkett Smith -- yelled obscenities from the audience before he walked on stage to confront Rock, Packer realized it was real.

"Once I saw Will yelling at the stage with such vitriol, my heart dropped," Packer told ABC's "Good Morning America's" TJ Holmes in an exclusive interview that aired Friday. "And I just remember thinking, 'Oh no. Oh, no. Not like this.'"