Alec Baldwin gave a controversial interview on Wednesday, Dec. 1, about the accidental shooting that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounded director Joel Souza during the production of the film Rust in October. The Interview aired on ABC, and Baldwin told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos that he had “no idea” how a live bullet got into the firearm.
“I would never point a gun at anyone and pull the trigger at them, never,” Baldwin told Stephanopoulos in a clip ABC News released Wednesday. “Someone put a live bullet in a gun, a bullet that wasn’t even supposed to be on the property.”
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Meghan McCain, formerly of ABC’s The View, wrote an op-ed for The Daily Mail slamming the interview and calling out Baldwin and her former network for how it was all handled. McCain called it “tonally distasteful and a bit confusing.”
“At best, an innocent woman, a mother of a nine-year-old boy, a wife, and an extremely talented and respected cinematographer has been killed as the result of abject incompetence and negligence,” McCain wrote. “Something that should have never, under any circumstances, have happened.” McCain, who has made her love of guns quite clear over the years, also criticized the incompetence and understanding of gun safety exhibited on set and in the interview.
“I feel bad for Alec Baldwin. He seemed manic and anxious — giving confusing answers to simple questions and insisting he didn’t want to come off like a victim,” McCain continued. “But he spent most of the time talking about his life instead of focusing on the victim, Halyna Hutchins or giving any opinion whatsoever on what he believes should be done differently to make sure nothing like this ever happens again on any movie set.”
“Ultimately, watching the interview made me uncomfortable, a woman lost her life a little over a month ago, and there is still an active investigation into how and why this could possibly happen and Halyna Hutchins’ family is still grieving,” McCain concluded. “I would say ABC should know better and do better, but that would have had to have started with Alec understanding respectful boundaries, something we all know he has never been good at.”
