Alec Baldwin’s Brother Is Speaking Out On Fatal Shooting
Alec Baldwin's brother has come forward with a lot to say about the fatal shooting on the set of Rust.
This article is more than 2 years old
Alec Baldwin is part of a group of brothers who have been acting in Hollywood for decades. Stephen, William, Daniel, and Alec have all acted in film and television. Naturally, being a family would mean a great level of defense for any of said brothers should they be in trouble. Alec’s brother, Daniel, is now coming to his older brother’s defense in the fatal shooting on the set of Rust.
“Someone loaded that gun improperly,” Daniel said in regards to the gun that Alec Baldwin fired which led to the death of Haylyna Hutchins. Daniel was recently interviewed on Instagram live via The Domenick Nati Show, as reported by Deadline. During the interview, he let his opinions be known about whether Alec is to blame for the death of a cinematographer on the set of Rust. “Alec has no blame on this at all.”
Daniel insists that Alec Baldwin is not at fault. Instead, he puts the blame squarely on the shoulders of the film’s assistant director, Dave Halls, who claimed the gun handed to Alec had been a “cold gun.” Meaning that the gun should have been filled with blanks or non-operable. The “cold gun” announcement is a custom on movie sets for safety reasons. Unfortunately, the gun had fired a projectile that killed Hutchins and injured director Joel Souza. The tragic death of Hutchins was on October 21st of this year.
Daniel further drives home his point about Alec Baldwin not being at fault by explaining the gun had to go through two waves of checking before it landed in the hands of Alec. According to Daniel Baldwin, this is standard procedure on a set. The director’s assistant had to witness the gun either being dry-fired, meaning the hammer of the gun is not cocked back, which would not allow the gun to fire in the first place. Or the assistant would have had to see the gun loaded with a blank to ensure that the gun was a “dry gun” before he announced this to the set.
Daniel asserts that either both those instances of protecting the actors and everyone on set were either not done or corners were cut to move along the shooting of a scene, which led to the tragic accident that occurred. Daniel reiterates this point, saying, “There were two layers of protection before Alec that both of them screwed the pooch.” Daniel is essentially saying that handing an improperly loaded gun to an actor like Alec Baldwin should have been checked and double-checked. He asserts that since this happened, it means that it wasn’t.
Daniel digs deeper into the functions of actors and production workers, “Remember: The actor’s an idiot,” Daniel Baldwin told Nati. “They’re there to do the acting.” Alec Baldwin isn’t the person that should be checking on any tools or props that are part of the shooting of the film, according to Daniel. All he does is worry about acting. Someone else should be responsible for having handed an actor an improperly loaded weapon, prop or not. While Daniel Baldwin’s assessments seem sure, the police have yet to finish their investigation.
Serge Svetnoa, a lighting tech worker, has since filed a suit against Rust Movie Productions LLC., for negligence. The suit names the production, the financiers, Alec Baldwin, armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed, Halls, property master Sarah Zachry, armorer mentor Seth Kenny and more in the lawsuit.
Daniel’s closing comments sum up the tragedy, “It’s very sad, it didn’t have to happen.” Whether or not anyone feels like Alec Baldwin is squarely at fault, someone’s life has ended and it is tragic.
