Alec Baldwin has laid everything out on the table concerning the Rust shooting.
The embattled actor sat down for an in-depth interview on the incident, which injured director Joel Souza and killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. Speaking with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos for a special that aired Thursday, Alec said he “felt there were a number of misconceptions, most of it from sources I really wouldn’t concern myself about.” However, he added:
“I wanted to come to talk to you to say I would go to any lengths to undo what happened.”
One of the main takeaways of the interview? The 63-year-old insisted:
“I would never point a gun at anyone and pull a trigger at them. Never, ever. That was the training I had.”
And yet, the prop gun — which was mysteriously loaded with a live bullet — went off, fatally wounding Hutchins. Alec emotionally recalled Hutchins as “someone who was loved by everyone who worked with her, liked by everyone who worked with her — and admired.”
Related: Alec Reportedly Hires Lawyer In Preparation For Rust Civil Lawsuits
Asked if the shooting was “the worst thing that’s ever happened to” him, he emphatically agreed, “Because I think back, and I think of what could I have done.” However, when asked if he felt guilty, he replied:
“No. Someone is responsible for what happened, and I can’t say who that is, but I know it’s not me. I mean, honest to God, if I felt that I was responsible, I might have killed myself if I thought I was responsible. I don’t say that lightly.”
All that being said, the Emmy winner also stated:
“I want to make sure that I don’t come across like I’m the victim, because we have two victims here. All of what happened that day leading up to this event was precipitated on one idea, and that idea is that Halyna and I had something profound in common, that is we both assumed the gun was empty, other than those dummy rounds.”
Scroll on for more highlights from Alec’s interview.
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Walking through the incident step-by-step
The performer confirmed previous reports that the shooting happened during a rehearsal, and in fact admitted:
“This was a completely incidental shot, an angle that may not have ended up in the film at all.”
At the time, he said, Halyna was walking Alec through the exact shot she wanted (“Everything is at her direction.”). He recalled:
“She says to me, ‘Hold the gun lower. Go to your right. Okay, right there. Alright, do that. Now show it a little bit lower.’ And she’s getting me to position the gun. She’s guiding me through how she wants me to hold the gun for this angle. I’m holding the gun where she told me to hold it, which ended up being aimed right below her armpit.”
He went on:
“The trigger wasn’t pulled. I didn’t pull the trigger. … I cock the gun, I go, ‘Can you see that? Can you see that? Can you see that?’ … and then I let go of the hammer of the gun, and the gun goes off. I let go of the hammer of the gun, the gun goes off.”
In the aftermath, he described everyone present as “horrified — they’re shocked, it’s loud.” The sitcom star shared:
“She goes down. I thought to myself, ‘Did she faint?’ The notion that there was a live round in that gun did not dawn on me till probably 45 minutes to an hour later. … No one could understand. Did she have a heart attack?”
He added:
“I stood over her for 60 seconds, and she laid there kind of in shock.”
It was not until after his interview with the sheriff’s department that Alec was informed Halyna had passed away.
Alec’s meeting with Halyna’s family
Commenting on his meeting with the cinematographer’s family, Alec divulged:
“Her husband comes to town, her husband Matthew. And I met with him and their son. He was as kind as you could be. … I didn’t know what to say. He hugged me and he goes, ‘I suppose you and I are going to go through this together.’ And I thought, ‘Well, not as much as you are.'”
The father of seven continued:
“I think to myself, this little boy doesn’t have a mother anymore. And there’s nothing we can do to bring her back. … I told him, I said, ‘I don’t know what to say; I don’t know how to convey to you how sorry I am and how I’m willing to do anything I can to cooperate.'”
Alec Baldwin gets emotional talking about the 9-year-old son of the late Halyna Hutchins: "I think to myself, 'This little boy doesn't have a mother anymore.'" https://t.co/NQfXdJ88ta #BaldwinABC pic.twitter.com/8Xwi3EG7hS
— ABC News (@ABC) December 3, 2021
Addressing crew complaints
Alec claimed not to have been aware of any safety complaints on the Rust set. He was made aware that some of the crew had issues with their hotel rooms, and claimed he was going to give up part of his salary for better crew accommodations before they unexpectedly walked out:
“They decided to renegotiate the contract in the middle of filming, which is not a good idea, as far as I’m concerned.”
He insisted that his role was as a “purely creative producer,” and didn’t have any hand in hiring crew members, like the inexperienced armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed:
“I assumed because she was there and she was hired she was up for the job. I mean, I’m not a producer that hires the crew.”
He did cast doubt on claims made by Hannah’s legal team that the shooting could have been deliberate sabotage, saying:
“That’s an enormous charge to make, that someone came and did something, for what purpose? To attack who? To discredit who? To harm me? The production? What was their motive in doing that, if somebody did that?”
Alec responds to critics — including Trump
Stephanopoulos questioned the 30 Rock alum about several common criticisms of his role in the shooting, including the fact that actors should never aim a gun towards another person on set. He responded:
“Unless the person is the cinematographer who is directing me where to point the gun for her camera angle.”
The journalist also brought up George Clooney’s take on the situation, who claimed he always checks guns on set himself. Alec clapped back:
“Well, there were a lot of people who felt it necessary to contribute some comment to the situation, which really didn’t help the situation at all. … If your protocol is you’re checking the gun every time, well, good for you. Good for you.”
.@GStephanopoulos presses Alec Baldwin on fatal 'Rust' accident: "Why did you choose, in your 40 years [in the industry], not to check the gun yourself?" https://t.co/zYugqKhIVW #BaldwinABC pic.twitter.com/Y9eTITwliE
— ABC News (@ABC) December 3, 2021
He also responded to former president Donald Trump’s remarks:
“[Trump] said I did it deliberately… with Trump, as we all know, the bar isn’t low, the bar is in the dirt. I mean, just when you think that things can’t get more surreal, here is the former president of the United States making a comment on this tragic situation.”
Will Alec ever act again?
Tearfully, The Departed star shared he “used to love making movies” and Rust made him “love making movies again” prior to the shooting. In the aftermath, he said:
“I have dreams about this constantly now. I go through my day, and I make it through the day. Then I collapse at the end of the day. Emotionally, I collapse.”
He went on:
“I’ve been struggling physically. I’m exhausted from this because I gotta try to be there for my kids. My family is all I have. Honest to God, I couldn’t give a s**t about my career anymore.”
Related: Hilaria Baldwin Is Worried Alec Might Get PTSD After Fatal Rust Shooting
He acknowledged this “could be” the end of his time in Hollywood, and that he had been rethinking some of the projects he had already signed on for:
“I said to myself, ‘Do I want to work much more after this? Is it worth it?'”
In any case, Alec stated he “can’t imagine” he would ever do a movie that “had a gun in it again,” and wants to help reform the way weapons are used on sets:
“I would do anything in power to undo what was done. I don’t know how that bullet arrived in that gun. I don’t know. But I am all for doing anything that will take us to a place where we’re… this is less likely to happen.”
He added:
“Guns are in films and television shows because that’s what audiences want. I’m only saying that whatever steps we have to take to put another layer of security so that doesn’t happen again.”
The live rounds question
Returning to the subject of guilt, not only does the eldest Baldwin brother not feel personally responsible, he claimed he isn’t likely to be held legally responsible, either:
“I’ve been told by people who are in the know, in terms of even inside the state, that it’s highly unlikely that I would be charged with anything criminally.”
Instead, the case will come down to how those live rounds. He mused:
“The gun was supposed to be empty; I was told I was handed an empty gun. There’s only one question to be resolved… only one. And that is, where did the live round come from?”
Alec added:
“Someone put a live bullet in the gun, a bullet that wasn’t even supposed to be there. Where did that bullet come from? Somebody brought love rounds — plural — onto the set of the film and one bullet ended up in the gun.”
We continue to keep Halyna’s loved ones in our thoughts and hope that justice is served in the Rust case.
[Image via ABC/YouTube & Lu Chau/WENN]
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