Details on the tragic accidental shooting on the set of Rust continue to spill out and expand the scope of the shocking incident. One of the latest details involved Jensen Ackles, a co-star on the production alongside Alec Baldwin. A video featuring Ackles at a fan event in Denver has him sharing details of his training on set with the armorer in charge of prop firearms.
The clip surfaces a day after star Alec Baldwin discharged a firearm that reportedly had a live round, injuring director Joel Souza and killing cinematographer and director of photography Halyna Hutchins. According to Deadline, the video with Ackles has been deleted from the internet. Still, details were captured and disseminated by users on social media.
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“I’ve got a 6 a.m. call tomorrow to have a big shootout. They had me pick my gun, they were like, ‘Alright, what gun would you like?’ and I was like, ‘I don’t know.’ and the armorer was like, ‘Do you have gun experience?’” Ackles allegedly says in the video, per Deadline. “I was like, ‘A little.’ And she’s like, ‘Okay, well, this is how you load it, this is how we check it and make sure it’s safe.’” The Supernatural star reportedly adds that the armorer loaded “some blanks” into the gun and then had Ackles fire off rounds while outside. “I walk out and she’s like, ‘Just make sure you pull the hammer all the way back and aim at your target,’ I was like ‘All right, I got it.’”
Ackles was not involved in the tragic on-set accident and had no connection to the prop gun in question. But the reported clip sheds more light on what is reported as a controversial environment on the set. Before the accident on Thursday, several crew members walked off set due to working condition complaints. “There should have been an investigation into what happened,” an unnamed crew member told the LA Times. “There were no safety meetings. There was no assurance that it wouldn’t happen again. All they wanted to do was rush, rush, rush.”
These crew members were replaced by non-union workers after their walkout, preceding the accident by just hours. Baldwin released a statement shortly after news began to spread. “There are no words to convey my shock and sadness regarding the tragic accident that took the life of Halyna Hutchins, a wife, mother, and deeply admired colleague of ours,” Baldwin wrote on Twitter. “I’m fully cooperating with the police investigation to address how this tragedy occurred and I am in touch with her husband, offering my support to him and his family. My heart is broken for her husband, their son, and all who knew and loved Halyna.”
