Brandon Lee’s ‘The Crow’ Producer Sides With Alec Baldwin, Says It Is “Tragic And Beyond Belief” The Actor Is Being Held Responsible For ‘Rust’ Shooting
Brandon Lee’s The Crow movie producer Jeff Most has sided with Alec Baldwin, declaring that it is “beyond belief” that the actor is being held accountable for his actions, which led to the killing of Rust cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injuring of Director Joel Souza.
During an interview with The Guardian, Most recounted the tragic shooting on the set of The Crow, declaring “I left the studio at midnight and the phone was ringing literally in the house that I was staying at as I walked through the door.”
“I was originally assured that it was nothing – a dummy wad hit his vest, he had the wind knocked out of him, do not worry, Brandon’s fine. At that point that’s what everyone on the crew thought,” Most recounted, noting, “There was no blood when the bullet went in.”
He went on, “It just cut into him, unlike a bullet wound, and spun around inside we learned later. It was a horrific night. It was beyond belief that the accident occurred in the first place. We were all unbelievably devastated.”
Most also pointed out that The Crow actress Sofia Shinas had suggested Lee to wear a flak jacket for the scene — a suggestion the late actor refused to follow. “She turned to him and said, you’ve got to wear the flak jacket and he said, no, look, I’m not worried, if it’s my time to go, it’s my time to go home.”
“Of course, had he worn the jacket, it probably would have prevented the fatal wound,” the producer asserted. Following Lee’s death, The Guardian reports, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration originally fined The Crow‘s production the sum of $84, 000 before it was ultimately reduced to $55,000.
Most would then go on to to address Baldwin’s tragic shooting on the set of Rust, drawing similarities between drawing Hutchins’ and Lee’s respective on-set injuries that led to their untimely deaths.
“I’m brokenhearted at the loss of Halyna,” the producer admits. “She was a friend to me as well as my wife, who is a cinematographer. We met Halyna shortly after she was out of AFI [American Film Institute]. She was a dear, wonderful woman, somebody we very much had designs on working with.“
Most added, “You want to look at the silver linings of what can be learned in situations and certainly what was learned in the loss of Brandon was a routine formula of checking the barrel of a gun to make sure that there is no bullet, no protrusion of any sort, that the barrel is clean and clear and is held to the light.”
“And a practice in which the first assistant director, oftentimes the key grip, the prop master are all involved with the actor, making certain a weapon is cold when it’s cold, is hot when it’s hot, and there is nothing in the barrel or chamber that could be ejected,” he explained.
He then laments, “To see that in the almost 30 years between the movies we hadn’t improved upon that was certainly devastating,” before siding with Baldwin. “I will say that I find it tragic and beyond belief that Alec Baldwin has been held any bit responsible for this.”
“As a producer with more than 30 years’ experience and numerous action films under his belt, I can assure you that there is no place in the world in which an actor is responsible for the weapon they’re handling,” Most opined.
He then concluded, “There’s no place for anything but absolute safety on a set and it all brought back memories of the terrible tragedy with the loss of Brandon. It should not have been repeated and I hope it won’t ever be again.”
In October of 2021, Alec Baldwin shot a live round on the set of Rust — injuring Director Joel Souza and killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. In January of 2023, the actor was formally charged with involuntary manslaughter — charges that were downgraded just a month later and ultimately dropped in April of that same year.
In an effort to held him accountable for the injuring of Souza and the killing of Hutchins, the New Mexico grand jury would go on to criminally charge Baldwin yet again in January of 2024.
Hannah Gutierrez-Reed — the person responsible for the firearms handling on the set of Rust — was also hit with involuntary manslaughter charges. In April of this year, New Mexico District Court Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer sentenced Gutierrez-Reed to 18 months in prison after a jury found her guilty.
While the actor pleaded not guilty to the new charges filed against him, his trial is expected to begin on July 10th in New Mexico. Were Baldwin to be sentenced, much like Gutierrez-Reed, the disgraced actor faces up to 18 months in prison and will be ordered to pay a $5,000 fine.
More recently, in April of this year, new court documents claimed that Baldwin was often disrespectful to other members of the Rust crew and would also show “no control of his emotions on set” and perpetually ignored the director’s instructions, noting that the actor “without warning, acted on his own volition.”
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