Alec Baldwin Speaks Out About Shooting And Halyna Hutchins
Alec Baldwin has spoken to reporters for the first time since the shooting.
This article is more than 2 years old
It hasn’t been long since an on-set shooting ended the life of Halyna Hutchins and injured the director on the set of Rust. Following the tragic accident, a representative for Alec Baldwin issued a statement acknowledging that a fatal shooting had happened on set involving the actor and a prop gun. Shortly thereafter, the actor posted Tweets about the tragedy. He expressed his shock, his grief, and said that he was working with the police during their investigation. Now, for the first time since the accident, he has stopped to answer the reporters’ questions. He let it be known that he can’t say much, because there is an active investigation underway. He said that the Santa Fe police have asked him “not to talk about the investigation,” so he had to speak carefully.
According to Deadline, Alec Baldwin’s interaction with the photographers who had been following him lasted approximately four minutes. His wife, Hilaria Baldwin, filmed the interactions and watched what was happening carefully. “A woman died,” Alec Baldwin told the reporters. “She was my friend. She was my friend. The day I arrived in Santa Fe to start shooting, I took her to dinner with Joel, the director. We were a very, very well-oiled crew shooting a film together and then this horrible event happened.” He said that he talks to the police every day. He said that he was “eagerly awaiting for the sheriff’s department’ to release their findings.”
While speaking with Alec Baldwin and his wife, one of the photographers who’d been following the couple stumbled over the name of Halyna Hutchins, the 42-year-old cinematographer, wife, and mother who died on the set of Rust. Hilaria Baldwin was quick to call the photographer out. She said, “You should know her name. Halyna, her name is Halyna. If you’re spending this much time waiting for us…” and then both Baldwins said, “You should know her name.” During the four-minute conversation, Hilaria interrupted her husband several times, reminding him not to share details. On the matter of what happened when he met with Matthew Hutchins, the husband of Halyna Hutchins, and his eight-year-old child, Alec Baldwin decided to speak out despite her warning. He said, simply, that Matthew Hutchins is “overwhelmed with grief.”
The actor then discussed safety on Hollywood sets. Since the fatal shooting, on-set safety has been a major discussion, with most who work in Hollywood weighing in on what could be improved to stop something like this from happening again. Alec Baldwin brought up that in Hollywood history, there have been a lot of guns fired on sets, without many accidents. He called the accident “one in a trillion”. Still, he wanted to see new measures come into play to stop this from happening again. However, since the investigation is still underway and a cause hasn’t been found, he doesn’t know what those measures should be yet. “It’s urgent for you to understand that I am not an expert in this field,” he told the photographers. On the issue of what should actually be done to improve set safety, he knew that something should be done, but made clear that it’s “whatever other people decide”, with the other people being the experts in the field.
Hilaria and Alec Baldwin wrapped up talking to the photographers and asked them to please stop following the couple. They asked for them to please turn their cameras off at that point.
It’s unknown how long the Santa Fe police will be investigating the accident. They’ve said that cameras on set did not film the actual accident. However, many people were there, and they’re being interviewed and details are being looked into. The police did make a statement, saying that Alec Baldwin could still be charged in the shooting since he hasn’t yet been cleared.
