Sunday 31 October 2021
“She was my girlfriend”
Baldwin comments on fatal shot for the first time
Halyna Hutchins died from a sharp bullet while filming the western “Rust”. Alec Baldwin now comments on the incident. He is “very interested” in a campaign to restrict weapons on film sets.
After the death of a camerawoman while shooting a film, Hollywood star Alec Baldwin answered questions about the incident publicly for the first time. “She was my friend. The day I got to Santa Fe to start filming, I took her out to dinner with Joel, the director,” Baldwin said of the victim. “She was my family,” he said. “There are random accidents on film sets from time to time, but nothing like that.” Baldwin put the probability of such an accident at “one in a trillion”.
The 63-year-old spoke out in front of paparazzi who followed him and his family in Vermont. The tabloid portal “TMZ” published a Video of the opinion. He had previously expressed his deepest regret about the gun accident on the online service Twitter.
Baldwin said he was “very interested” in the ongoing campaign to restrict guns on film sets. But he didn’t want to comment on whether he would ever make another film with guns. The production of “Rust”, which was stopped immediately after the accident, would not be resumed either, he said.
Assistant director checked incompletely
However, he was not allowed to comment on the ongoing investigation, said Baldwin. In the incident during the filming of the low-budget western “Rust” on a film ranch in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on October 21, Halyna Hutchins, 42-year-old director of photography, was fatally injured, and Joel Souza, 48-year-old director of the same bullet was hit in the shoulder.
Baldwin, who is the main actor and producer on the film, had fired the gun during rehearsal for a scene. Investigations revealed that there was a real bullet in the Colt. An assistant director, who was also in focus, admitted that he had not strictly followed the safety precautions and only incompletely checked the weapon.
In the video from Saturday, Baldwin and his wife Hilaria can see the tension and anger at the paparazzi. The actor criticized her for following him and his family, saying his children were sitting in the car and crying because of it. Both spouses urged that their family’s privacy be respected.