Everything Alec Baldwin has said about the Rust shooting

In 2021, a gun being used as a prop by actor Alec Baldwin went off on the set of ‘Rust,’ killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins

In 2021, a gun being used as a prop by actor Alec Baldwin went off on the set of Rust, killing the film’s cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounding its director Joel Souza.

Ever since then, the authorities have been investigating to determine how a live round got into the gun that the 64-year-old actor was using, why crew members who inspected it on the set failed to notice it, and why the gun got fired.

On Thursday (19 January), New Mexico First Judicial District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies announced charges against three people in connection with the shooting.

Baldwin and the film’s armourer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed will each be charged with involuntary manslaughter, while first assistant director David Halls has agreed to plead guilty to the charge of negligent use of a deadly weapon. The charges will be filed by the end of the month, Ms Carmack-Altwies said in a statement.

Baldwin’s attorney, Luke Nikas of Quinn Emanuel, reacted to the news in his own statement, writing: “This decision distorts Halyna Hutchins’ tragic death and represents a terrible miscarriage of justice. Mr. Baldwin had no reason to believe there was a live bullet in the gun – or anywhere on the movie set. He relied on the professionals with whom he worked, who assured him the gun did not have live rounds. We will fight these charges, and we will win.”

In October last year, Baldwin and Rust Productions reached a settlement with Hutchins’s estate.

“We have reached a settlement, subject to court approval, for our wrongful death case against the producers of Rust, including Alec Baldwin and Rust Movie Productions, LLC. As part of that settlement, our case will be dismissed,” Hutchins’s husband Matt said in a statement at the time. “The filming of Rust, which I will now executive produce, will resume with all the original principal players on board in January 2023.”

He went on to add that he has “no interest in engaging in recriminations or attribution of blame [to the producers or Baldwin]”.

“All of us believe Halyna’s death was a terrible accident. I am grateful that the producers and the entertainment community have come together to pay tribute to Halyna’s final work,” he continued.

While Baldwin has yet to publicly react to news of the charges beyond the statement from his lawyer, below is everything he has said about the Rust shooting in the past.

Baldwin’s first statement following Hutchins’s death

In the first statement following the shocking incident, Baldwin wrote: “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.

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“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.”

Baldwin claimed he “didn’t” pull the trigger that led to the death of Hutchins

In his first interview since the fatal shooting of Hutchins on the set of Rust, Baldwin spoke to ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos for an hour and twenty minutes and he called the conversation “intense,” “raw” and “very candid”.

During the conversation, Baldwin claimed he “didn’t” pull the trigger that led to the death of the cinematographer on set.

“The trigger wasn’t pulled, I didn’t pull the trigger,” he said. “I would never point a gun at anyone at point a trigger at them, never.”

He continued: “Someone put a live bullet in a gun – a bullet that wasn’t even supposed to be on the property.”

He went on to agree with Stephanopoulos who asked him if this was the “worst thing to have ever happened to him”. Baldwin replied “yes” and added: “‘I think back, I think: ‘What could I have done?’”

Baldwin said he “couldn’t give a s***” if his career is over after Rust shooting

During the same ABC News interview, Baldwin said his family is “all he has” and he “couldn’t give a f***” about his career after the death of Hutchins on the set of Rust.

“I have dreams about this constantly now. I wake up constantly where guns are going off,” he told Stephanopoulos. “I haven’t slept for weeks. I’ve really been struggling physically. I’m exhausted from this.

“I might have killed myself if I thought I was responsible, and I don’t say that lightly,” Baldwin said, adding that: “I couldn’t give a s*** about my career anymore.

“You’ve had hundreds of hundreds of millions of bullets fired on the sets of films and TV shows, and four or five people were killed,” he added.

“Those deaths are tragic and abhorrent. Believe me, I would do anything in my power to undo what was done. But I don’t know how that bullet arrived in that gun. I don’t know. I’m all for doing anything that would take us to a place where this won’t happen again.”

Baldwin called out “trash press” and insists he did not pull trigger on Rust set

In August 2022, Baldwin defended himself against the “trash press” that he feels is out to get him, insisting that he did not pull the trigger of the gun that killed Hutchins on the set of Rust.

Baldwin spoke with former CNN presenter Chris Cuomo on his YouTube channel, The Chris Cuomo Project, about the incident.

“Journalism has changed,” Baldwin told Cuomo. “I mean doing this with you is a miracle. I don’t want to talk to anybody anymore. Everything is surface area to be condemned and cancelled again.”

The actor further added: “I used to think that The Post was something that cops and firemen and doormen read for the sports page.

“It doesn’t matter what you do. The ones that are out to get you. And in this case, not even so much that kind of trash press, I mean anything Murdoch and anything Post.”

He went on to say that “every single person on the set of the film knows what happened. And the people that are talking loudest about what happened or speculating about what happened were not on the set of the film – the LA Times, The Hollywood Reporter, they talk on and on and on about ‘what if this?’ and ‘what if that’”.

Cuomo later pressed Baldwin about his December 2021 interview with Stephanopoulos, in which the actor denied pulling the trigger.

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“That will not make sense to people. If a bullet comes out of a gun, they say well then someone fired it, and it’s in your hands,” Cuomo argued.

Baldwin went on to explain “fanning a gun”, which is a shooting technique. “In old Western movies, you’d see someone fan the hammer of the gun. The hammer didn’t lock, you pulled it back to an extent where it would fire the bullet without you pulling the trigger, without you locking the hammer,” he clarified.

“The man who’s the principal safety officer on the set of the film declared that the gun was safe when he handed it to me. The man who was the principal safety officer of the film declared, in front of the entire assemblage, this is a cold gun,” he insisted.

“There’s only one question to ask here: Who put a live round in the gun?”

Baldwin said he’s lost five jobs since Rust shooting

In August 2022, Baldwin claimed that the Rust incident cost him acting jobs and taken “years” off of his life due to stress.

In an interview with CNN, Baldwin said he’d lost out on five jobs due to the fallout from the shooting, which he denies responsibility for.

“I got fired from another job yesterday,” he said. “There I was all set to go to a movie, jump on a plane... I’ve been talking with these guys for months and they told me yesterday we don’t want to do the film with you because of this.”

The actor also told the outlet that the stress of these accusations has “taken years off my life”.

“There is just this torrent of people attacking me who don’t know the facts,” he said.

The 30 Rock star added that he believes he would have quit the film industry if it wasn’t for his wife, Hilaria Baldwin.

“If I didn’t have my wife, I don’t know where I would be right now,” he said. “If I didn’t have her, I probably would have quit, retired, gone off, you know sold everything I owned, got a house in the middle of nowhere and just you know did find something else to do, sell real estate.”

Baldwin blamed the media for making the aftermath of the set shooting that killed Hutchins more “difficult”

In a separate statement on social media, Baldwin blamed the media in October 2022 for making the aftermath of the set shooting that killed Hutchins more “difficult”.

“I never realised how a thing such as this could unfold this way. Everyone on that set knows what happened. Everyone. And yet the depiction in the press has, by and large, obviated all of that,” he wrote.

“Although there are only two actual victims in this case, I find it difficult to endure the insistence of so many that I woke up that day and violated every safety procedure I had learned over 40 years. All the while, the question of where any live ammunition came from remains unanswered.”

Addressing his wife Hilaria, Baldwin said: “If not for you, I cannot imagine how life would be right now.”

Baldwin filed a lawsuit to ‘clear his name’ in fatal Rust shooting

In November 2022, Baldwin sued three crew members of Rust over the fatal on-set shooting that killed Hutchins.

Baldwin’s lawsuit was filed at the Los Angeles Superior Court as a cross-complaint arising from a previous suit filed by the film’s script supervisor Mamie Mitchell.

The new filing placed the responsibility for the tragic shooting on the film’s armourer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, first assistant director David Halls, and prop master Sarah Zachry, as well as weapons supplier Seth Kenney and his company PDQ Arm & Prop.

Baldwin alleged that Rust armourer Gutierrez-Reed “failed to check the bullets or the gun carefully” and that Halls announced the gun was safe for him to use without inspecting it properly.

In the filing, the actor also accused Zachry of failing to “disclose that Gutierrez-Reed had been acting recklessly offset and was a safety risk to those around her”.

Baldwin posted a tribute to Hutchins on her first death anniversary

Baldwin remembered Hutchins on the one-year anniversary of her death.

Baldwin shared a photo of Hutchins to Instagram, writing: “One year ago today…”

FollowThe Independent’s live blog about the upcoming charges here.