Alec Baldwin spoke with ABC News about the Rust movie set tragedy in which cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was fatally shot.
The actor recalled to George Stephanopoulos seeing Hutchins’ husband following the shooting.
Baldwin also said during the interview that he’s been told “it’s highly unlikely that I’d be charged with anything criminally.”
Baldwin addressed criticism over his handling of the situation from fellow actors, like George Clooney, citing an encounter with a prop person when he was younger, who told him, “We don’t want the actor to be the last line of defense against a catastrophic breach of safety with a gun.” This individual told him that their job was to ensure that the gun being used on set was safe.
Baldwin said he doesn’t personally feel guilt for what happened. “Someone is responsible for what happened, and I can’t say who that is, but I know it’s not me,” he said. As Baldwin awaits the conclusion of an ongoing investigation, he hopes that this tragedy will help ensure that something like this never happens again. A show, like The Rookie, only recently decided to ban the use of “live” guns in response to Hutchins’ death.
The actor, who said he doesn’t think he’ll ever do another movie that involves a firearm, also talked about his emotional state following the shooting. “I have dreams about this constantly now,” he said. “I go through my day, and I make it through the day. Then I collapse at the end of the day. Emotionally, I collapse.”
In the days leading up to airing his interview, ABC News released a snippet where Baldwin claimed that he didn’t pull the trigger of the prop gun that killed Hutchins. “Well, the trigger wasn’t pulled, I didn’t pull the trigger.” he said, adding, “No, no, no, no. I would never point a gun at anyone and pull the trigger at them, never. … Someone put a live bullet in a gun, a bullet that wasn’t even supposed to be on the property.”
Hannah Gutierrez-Reed is currently under investigation for her handling of the firearms as armorer on the Rust set. TheWrap reports Gutierrez-Reed received a number of complaints on different productions, including one instance where Nicolas Cage walked off the set of The Old Way after she failed to abide by firearm safety protocols for the second time in three days. Stu Brumbaugh, who served as key grip on the film, recalled the assistant director saying after the incident that Gutierrez-Reed “needs to be let go.” A producer on The Old Way later cast doubt on the incident, saying, “I have no such recollection of this event on our set.”
