Alec Baldwin made his first on-camera comments about the tragic death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of Rust, a Western film he was making at Bonanza Creek Ranch near Santa Fe, New Mexico. The actor, who was also a producer on the film, said he doubts production on the movie will ever resume. On Oct. 21, Baldwin discharged a prop gun handed to him by assistant director Dave Halls, who allegedly told Baldwin the gun was safe to use during a rehearsal. However, the gun was loaded, and Hutchins was struck in the chest and director Joel Souza in the clavicle. Hutchins died at the University of New Mexico Hospital, while Souza was treated for his injuries at another hospital and released the next day.
Baldwin was allowed to leave New Mexico and he took his family to Manchester, Vermont. Outside where he was staying, Baldwin spoke to the paparazzi Saturday morning. In the video TMZ published, Baldwin was asked if the rest of Rust would be filmed. “I doubt it,” he replied. He also told photographers he was “extremely interested” in limiting the use of firearms during film production. “I’m not an expert in this field. So whatever other people decide is the best way to go, in terms of protecting people’s safety on film sets, I’m all in favor of and I will cooperate with that in any way that I can,” Baldwin said, reports Indiewire.
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Baldwin told reporters he could not speak specifically about the shooting because it is an ongoing investigation. He also called Hutchins his friend. “We were a very, very well-oiled crew shooting a film together, and then this horrible event happened,” Baldwin said. “There are incidental accidents on film sets from time to time, but nothing like this,” he said. “This is a one in a trillion episode. It’s a one in a trillion event.”
The Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the incident. On Thursday, Sheriff Adan Mendoza said Halls and armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed are at the center of their investigation, reports Yahoo Entertainment. When Today asked him if they are facing “criminal legal exposure,” Mendoza said the two are “obviously the focus of the investigation.” He also said declined to say Baldwin was completely “clear” from facing charges. “Nobody’s been cleared as of yet,” Mendoza explained. “Again, there’s three people that handled the firearm prior to the death of Ms. Hutchins, so those people will be interviewed, are the focus of the investigation and so nobody has been cleared as of yet.”
In a statement released by her legal team, Gutierrez-Reed confirmed reports that there were two accidental discharges on the set of Rust before the shooting.”Hannah still, to this day, has never had an accidental discharge,” the statement read. “The first one on this set was the prop master and the second was a stunt man after Hannah informed him his gun was hot with blanks.” Gutierrez-Reed’s team also claimed the Rust set was “unsafe,” but only because of decisions made by producers.
“Hannah was hired on two positions on this film, which made it extremely difficult to focus on her job as an armorer,” her attorneys, Jason Bowles and Robert Gorence said. “She fought for training, days to maintain weapons, and proper time to prepare for gunfire but ultimately was overruled by production and her department. The whole production set became unsafe due to various factors, including lack of safety meetings. This was not the fault of Hannah.” Her attorneys plan to “address more of these rumors and the whole incident” in another statement next week.
