Adam Baldwin Believes Alec Baldwin Is “Basically Confessing” To Ignoring Gun Safety On The Set Of Rust In First Post-Shooting Interview
Josh Berger
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Adam Baldwin believes that Alec Baldwin’s first interview since the tragic accident on the set of his film Rust which took the life of the film’s Director of Photography, Halyna Hutchins was essentially a confession to having done everything wrong in regards to the production’s gun safety measures
Source: Serenity (2005), Universal Pictures
In the interview, given to ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos, Alec Baldwin detailed the fatal event, recalling, “[Hutchins] takes a monitor that is his monitor, the operator, and turns it toward her. It swivels. And she says to me, ‘Hold the gun lower. Go to your right. Okay, right there. Alright do that. Now, show it a bit lower.’”
“And she’s getting me to position the gun,” he said. “Everything is at her direction. She’s guiding me through how she wants me to hold the gun for this angle. And I draw the gun out and I find a mark. I draw the gun out if I don’t. Cut. What’s really urgent is the gun wasn’t meant to be fired at that angle.”
He further explained, “I’m not shooting into the camera lens, I’m shooting just off in her direction,” adding that he was “holding the gun where she told me to hold it, which ended up being aimed right below her armpit. That’s what I was told, I don’t know.”
Alec Baldwin as Alan Hunley in MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE – FALLOUT, from Paramount Pictures and Skydance.
On the topic of the fatal shooting, Adam told the eponymous host of The Todd Herman Show during a December 3rd appearance on the podcast, “Every single time the weapon changes hands…whoever is holding it at the time checks it, clears the weapon [and] makes sure that there are no live rounds.” said the Serenity actor on The Todd Herman Show, regarding firearm safety protocols on film sets.
Regarding the above excerpt from Alec’s interview, Adam asserted that the Rust actor and producer was “basically confessing, in that clip, that he discharged the weapon in a negligent manner, and the projectile went down the barrel, through [Halyna Hutchins], and into [Rust Director Joel Souza] as well. So, I feel that that clip is a confession”
Source: TIFF Talks, YouTube
Adam, who has been in a plethora of films in which he was required to manipulate firearms and is a pro-Second Amendment gun owner, knows a thing or two about general gun safety protocols.
As explained to Herman when asked about his experience using firearms in past films, Adam stated that “You are required to by both SAG-AFTRA [Screen Actor’s Guild American Federation of Television and Radio Artists]… SAG-AFTRA requires anyone who is participating in firearms use on camera…must go through a safety training program with the armourer.”
Source: Everything Lubbock, YouTube
He then proceeded to guess at what could’ve happened on the set of Rust, speculating that Alec “pulled the gun in a cross-draw,” and suggesting that “his finger went into the trigger guard and onto the trigger itself.”
“And while he was aiming it there his finger was on the trigger, and he cocked it back and let the hammer drop,” Baldwin asserted. “He describes exactly that action. Just because he says his finger wasn’t on the trigger, that doesn’t mean that’s true. How does he know his finger wasn’t on the trigger?”
The actor continued, “Where’s the evidence of that? ‘Oh, I didn’t have my finger on the…well, how did the hammer drop?’ Unless the weapon was defective in its cocking positions…and it’s what they called sears or, the little catches in the cocking mechanism, and it’s all part of the safety mechanism of the weapon.”
Source: Full Metal Jacket (1987), Warner Bros. Pictures
Related: Alec Baldwin Says He Feels No Guilt Following Shooting And Killing Of Halyna Hutchins
“He was clearly negligent in discharging the weapon. He was clearly negligent in aiming the weapon at someone, and he was clearly negligent in not knowing that the weapon was loaded,” asserted Adam Baldwin.
Adam also believes that Alec is in “psychological denial” in regards to not feeling any guilt for shooting and killing Hutchins, proposing that the actor is trying to deflect guilt to a “serial someone” instead of admitting guilt.
“[Alec] says someone is responsible,” said Adam. “Like, someone told him not to check the weapon or dry fire a gun when he was younger. Is this sort of serial someone out there that he is trying to deflect guilt to, when he is guilty.”
Source: The Last Ship Season 1 Episode 3 “Dead Reckoning” (2014), TNT
Adam also made it very clear that the fatal shooting was not the armourer’s fault, and urged that this particular profession not get a bad rap over this single incident.
“My motivation in this is that this never happens again,” he declared. “This never should have happened in the first place, and that it never, ever happens again, and that armourers don’t get maligned because it’s not the armourer’s fault that Alec pointed the weapon and pulled the trigger.”
“It’s not the armourer’s fault that this happened,” He eventually concluded. “It’s a shame that Alec violated the protocols.”
Source: ABC News, YouTube
Alec previously attempted to shift blame for the incident onto Rust Assistant Director David Halls, who the actor claims is the person who handed himthe firearm and claimed it was a “cold gun.”
“I’m handed a gun and someone declares, ‘This is a cold gun.’ The first AD,” claimed Alec during his interview with ABC News. “In my years on the sets of films, hot gun meant that there was a charge in there and cold gun meant there was nothing in there.”
He added, “When [David Halls] is saying this is a cold gun, what he’s saying to everybody on the set is that you can relax. The gun is empty,” further clarifying that “cold gun means there is no charge in there. There could be dummy rounds.”
Source: The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, YouTube
However, in a recently lawsuit filed against Alec by Rust script supervisor Mamie Mitchell, the actor is accused of having “intentionally, without just cause or excuse, cocked and fired the loaded gun even though the upcoming scene to be filmed did not call for the cocking and firing of the firearm.”
Mitchell’s lawsuit also accuses Alec of deflecting guilt onto Halls, stating that “Alec Baldwin had no right to rely upon some alleged statement by the Assistant Director that it was a ‘cold gun,’” and arguing that he “cannot hide behind the Assistant Director [David Halls] to attempt to excuse the fact that he did not check the gun himself.”
According to an affidavit filed in the case with the Magistrate Court of Santa Fe County, New Mexico, “David [Halls] advised when Hannah [Gutierrez-Reed] showed him the firearm before continuing rehearsal, he could only remember seeing three rounds.”
The affidavit also states that Halls “advised he should have checked all of them, but didn’t, and couldn’t recall if [Gutierrez-Reed] spun the drum.”
Source: The Last Ship (2014-2018), TNT
This is far from the first time Adam has spoken out on the SAG-AFTRA firearm safety guidelines in the wake of the Rust set shooting
The day after the shooting occurred, the Serenity actor tweeted out a segment of the safety bulletin by SAG-AFTRA wherein it is clearly stipulated that individuals manipulating firearms must “Treat all weapons as though they are loaded and/or ready to use.”
“Do not play with weapons and never point one at anyone, including yourself,” continued the safety bulletin, specifying that actors need to “Follow the directions of the Property Master and/or Weapons Handler regarding all weapons.”
Source: Adam Baldwin, Twitter
What do you make of Adam’s comments on the Alec’s first post-shooting interview? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section down below or on social media!
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