Alec Baldwin has once again addressed the on-set tragedy that occurred last October during the production of western movie Rust that resulted in the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
In remarks made during Saturday night’s panel at the Boulder International Film Festival Saturday night, the Rust producer and actor — who served as the event’s first ever special guest programmer — briefly referenced the investigation and lawsuits surrounding the on-set shooting incident and the future of safety regulations. Hutchins, along with Rust director Joel Souza, was shot on Oct. 21 after a prop gun Baldwin was holding discharged on the movie’s Santa Fe, New Mexico set, killing her and wounding Souza.
After the panel moderator, BIFF’s special event programmer Ron Bostwick, opened the floor to Baldwin, the actor-producer launched into a lengthy and somewhat fragmented statement about there being just “two victims” in the Rust shooting, while also implying some individuals who have filed lawsuits are financially motivated and just going after people they assume “are deep pockets litigants.”
“From the beginning, from the moment this happened, everybody has put out — besides all the anguish and the suffering, horrible feelings we have and, of course, there are two victims and nobody else is a victim, so to speak — we have dealt with a situation where specific people are not as interested in finding out what really happened,” Baldwin told the festival audience.
“What you have is a certain group of litigants on whatever side, who their attitude is, well, the people who likely seem negligent have enough money. And the people who have money are not negligent, but we’re not gonna let that stop us from doing what we need to do in terms of litigation,” he added. “Why sue people if you’re not going to get money? That’s what you’re doing.”
Last month, Hutchins’ husband Matthew gave an interview with NBC’s Today show, during which he expressed that past statements made by Baldwin had seemingly victimized himself and shifted responsibility for the cinematographer’s death onto her and others.
“Almost sounds like he was the victim,” Hutchins said at the time, of comments Baldwin made in a recent interview. “And hearing him blame Halyna in the interview and shift responsibility to others and seeing him cry about it, I just feel like, ‘Are we really supposed to feel bad about you, Mr. Baldwin?’”
The Hutchins family filed a wrongful death suit in February against Alec Baldwin as well as “others responsible for the safety on set and whose reckless behavior” led to Halyna’s death. Script supervisor Mamie Mitchell, who originally called 911 following the on-set shooting incident, additionally sued Baldwin in November and is claiming assault, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and deliberate infliction of harm. She is represented by Gloria Allred.
Later during the panel, the Rust actor compared deaths on film sets to deaths while working in other industries, asking the audience to “think of all the billions of rounds of ammunition that were fired on movie and TV sets in the last 75 years and four people have died” and then “compare that record to the opioid industry, the airline industry, the automobile industry, the gun industry itself.”
Baldwin championed “the safety record of the film and television industry,” and pointed to how on-set safety protocols establish a chain of command when it comes to weapons handling. After calling breaking that chain of command “illegal” and “against the rules,” he acknowledged that checking could “be done with” an actor, but that all his career he’s “been without incidents.”
“When someone whose job it is to ensure the safety of the weapon hands someone else whose job was to be the secondary layer of protection for safety and they hand it over to and you declare that that weapon is safe — that’s how I’ve lived my whole life,” he said. “I’ve relied on the safety experts there to declare the gun is safe and hand me the gun. Never had a problem.”
“The thing to remember is that guns are fired in films because that’s what audiences want. Maybe not this crowd. Maybe not a festival crowd where you want to watch something that’s a little more complicated,” he said. “There’s a place to modify the safety regulations we have to deal with and I’m very much looking forward to our decisions.”
Towards the end, Baldwin spoke to Halyna as a cinematographer, as a woman who had broken glass ceilings in the industry and who wasn’t just “loved by people, she was admired” — before sharing his hopes for the investigation and the impact the entire tragedy has had on him.
“I’m very hopeful when the facts come out. We will not be held criminally responsible but it has changed my life, and I don’t mean this in the ordinary sense that I was involved in something or somebody passed. I mean, I was involved in a situation with somebody was killed. It’s changed my life just in terms of the function of weapons in films and television.”
Since the on-set shooting in October, Baldwin has returned to work in the U.K. on an independent feature titled 97 Minutes. He addressed this move in a recent Instagram video, commenting how it felt to resume his acting career. “We had our first day today, which is always … tricky,” he began. “I don’t work as much as I used to. I said this before maybe, but you go to work and you forget what you’re supposed to do. I just was like, ‘What do you do? What is acting or any of this nonsense I ended up doing?’ It’s strange to go back to work.”
Amid the ongoing investigation into Hutchins’ death, which includes determining how live ammo made its way onto the set, Baldwin has expressed that he’s maintained cooperation with the Santa Fe authorities. He handed his phone over to officials in mid-January, nearly one month after they requested it, for the purpose of an examination of its contents and communications.
Source: Hollywood
