George Clooney slams Rust producers and calls shooting incident ‘insane’

Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was shot and killed on the set of ‘Rust’ last month

George Clooney has strongly criticised the producers of Rust after Halyna Hutchins was shot and killed on the set of the film.

Hutchins was killed after a gun fired by Alec Baldwin had been loaded with a real bullet, fired during a rehearsal of the film in New Mexico.

Clooney, in an interview on WTF with Marc Maron, laid into the producers of the film: “Why for the life of me this low-budget film, with producers who haven’t produced anything, wouldn’t have hired, for the armourer, someone with experience.”

He then called the situation “insane” and “infuriating”.

Clooney also detailed his experience of working with guns on movies: “I’ve been on sets for 40 years and the person that hands you the gun, the person that is responsible for the gun is either the prop person or the armour. Period.”

The Hail Caesar star added: “Every single time I’m handed a gun on set, I look at it, I open it, I show it to the person I’m pointing it to, we show it to the crew, every single take you hand it back to the armour when you’re done, and you do it again. Everyone does it.”

Clooney also talked about the safety process when he has used a gun in a film: “We need to be better at making the heads of department experienced and know what they’re doing. Because this is just infuriating. Every time I get handed a six gun, you point it at the ground and you fire. You squeeze it six times. Always.”

The actor and director also addressed claims the assistant director called out “cold gun” on set signifying that the gun was safe to use: ”I’ve never heard of the term ‘cold gun’, they’re just talking about stuff I’ve never heard of. It’s infuriating.”

Last week, a crew member from Rust announced they were suing Alec Baldwin and the film’s armourer for “severe emotional distress” after the shooting.

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Criminal charges have still not been filed in relation to the shooting but have not been ruled out either.