MOVIE NEWS – Alec Baldwin spoke out about the Rust tragedy and the lawsuits surrounding it during a rare appearance at the Boulder International Film Festival.

 

Alec Baldwin made a rare public appearance at the Boulder International Film Festival, where he spent some time talking about what happened on the set of Rust in October. At the time, Baldwin, the film’s producer and star, was preparing for a scene in which his character pulls a gun from his holster. At one point, the gun fired a live shot, killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza.

In the months since the incident, many fingers have been pointed at the story, from those involved and affected by the tragedy to opinions shared on social media. Baldwin has spoken publicly and deeply about what happened in a television interview with George Stephanopoulos, expressing his belief that he was not directly responsible for what happened. Speaking at the BIFF about the tragedy in more detail, Baldwin reiterated this position, stressing that as an actor he trusted the assistant director and the set gun operator to keep the prop gun safe.

“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… Compare that record to the opioid industry, the airline industry, the automobile industry, the gun industry itself… 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. I’ve relied on the safety experts there to declare the gun is safe and hand me the gun. Never had a problem.”

Baldwin and many others involved in the making of Rust have been hit with several lawsuits over the fatal accident. Elaborating on the situation, Baldwin suggested that at least some of the lawsuits stem from an attempt to make a quick buck.

“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. 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. Why sue people if you’re not going to get money? That’s what you’re doing.”

The actor added that he is looking forward to all the facts coming out and is confident that he will be acquitted.

“I am very hopeful when the facts come out. I won’t be prosecuted, but it has changed my life, and I don’t mean that in the ordinary sense that I got involved in something or someone died. I mean that I was involved in a situation where someone was killed. It changed my life, just in terms of the function of guns in movies and television.”

Although Alec Baldwin pointed out that millions of dummy shots have been fired safely on movie sets in recent years with very few incidents, he says he would support new gun control regulations. He also notes that most film productions still use real firearms as opposed to plastic guns and similar props because “that’s what the audience wants”, but admits that current safety regulations need to be changed to better ensure that what happened to Halyna Hutchins, who “many people loved and admired”, doesn’t happen to anyone else.

“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. There’s a place to modify the safety regulations we have to deal with and I’m very much looking forward to our decisions.”

So far, no one has been criminally charged, but the Rust investigation is still ongoing.

Source: Hollywood Reporter