The husband of Halyna Hutchins, the cinematographer killed by Alec Baldwin on the set of Rust, has declared that he finds the idea of the disgraced actor not taking responsibility for the death of his wife is “absurd”.
Matthew Hutchins opened up about his wife’s death during a recent interview with the Today Show host Hoda Kotb.
During the interview, the widower recalled that after his wife was shot and killed by Baldwin in late October of last year, the actor reportedly reached out to him to offer his condolences and support.
“I feel like to understand that moment you have to remember the shock we were in, and I spoke with Mr. Baldwin and…was just looking for a way through the storm,” Hutchins told Kotb.
When Kotb asked him whether the actor looked distraught at the time, Hutchins replied, “There were a lot of emotions, for sure, on both sides.”
Hutchins then took some time to address Baldwin’s now-infamous post-shooting interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos, revealing that he felt a sense of dread and “terror at what he was going to say” in regards to the incident that took his wife’s life and injured the film’s director, Joel Souza.
“Watching him I just felt so angry,” Hutchins stated. “I had been overcome by this anger when I saw Halyna at the funeral home and it all really crystallised. I was trying to manage that anger and it really came out when I was watching him.”
He went on, “I was just so angry to see him talk about her death so publicly, in such a detailed way, and then to not accept any responsibility after having just described killing her.”
When Kotb asked him whether he believed the majority of the blame lays on Baldwin, Hutchins asserted, “The idea that the person holding the gun and causing it to discharge is not responsible is absurd to me,” further explaining, “every individual who touches a firearm has a responsibility for gun safety.”
Alluding to the denial of responsibility put forth by Baldwin during his interview with Stephanopoulos, Kotb asked Hutchins what his thoughts were on the actor openly admitting to not feeling guilt for killing his wife Halyna.
“Almost sounds like he was the victim,” Hutchins responded. “And hearing him blame Halyna in the interview and shift responsibility to others, and seeing him cry about it, I just feel like, are we really supposed to feel bad about you, Mr. Baldwin?”
In his interview with Stephanopoulos, Baldwin claimed that he was not responsible for the death of Halyna Hutchins.
Adding insult to injury, the actor argued that it was the cinematographer who is partly responsible for suggesting he pointed the gun at the camera for a particular shot.
“People said to me, I mean I got countless people online saying, ‘You idiot. You never point a gun at someone.’ Well, unless you are told it’s empty and it is the director of photography who is instructing you on the angle of a shot we are going to do,” Baldwin said.
He continued, “And she and I had this thing in common where we both thought it was empty and it wasn’t. And that’s not her responsibility. That’s not my responsibility. Whose responsibility remains to be seen.”
Stephanopoulos interjected, “Well, there are some who say that you are never supposed to point a gun at anyone on a set no matter what,” to which Baldwin responded, “Unless the person is the cinematographer who is directing me where to point the gun for her camera angle. That’s exactly what happened.”
RELATED: Alec Baldwin Says He Feels No Guilt Following Shooting And Killing Of Halyna Hutchins
Baldwin further claimed that he did not pull the trigger on the gun when it fired and killed Halyna, reassuring the Stephanopoulos that he was only cocking the hammer when the firearm went off accidentally.
“This was a completely incidental shot, an angle that might not have ended up in the film at all,” the Rust actor told Stephanopoulos. “But we kept doing this. So then I said to her, ‘Now, in this scene I’m going to cock the gun.’ And I said, ‘Do you want to see that?’ And she said yes,”
Baldwin continued, “So I take the gun and I start to cock the gun. I’m not going to pull the trigger. I said, ‘Do you see this?’ She says, ‘Well, just cheat it down and tilt it down a little bit like that.’ And I cock the gun and I go, ‘Can you see that? Can you see that? Can you see that?’ And she says…and I let go of the hammer of the gun and the gun goes off. I let go of the hammer of the gun and the gun goes off.”
The actor later contradicted his own recollection of the tragic event, claiming that he didn’t cock the hammer before it went off and killed Hutchins, but instead drew back the hammer of the gun “as far back as I could without cocking the actual…”
“And you are holding on to the hammer?” asked Stephanopoulos in response to the actor’s contradicting new statement. “I’m holding. I’m just showing her,” Baldwin replied. “I go, ‘How about that? Does that work? You see that?’ Do you see that? Do you see that?’ She goes, ‘Yeah that’s good.’ I let go of the hammer. Bang. The gun goes off.”
On the 14th of February, attorney Krystina Martinez filed a lawsuit on behalf of Matthew Hutchins and the couple’s son Andros against the actor and several members of the film’s production team, alleging that Baldwin “recklessly shot and killed Halyna Hutchins on the set of the movie Rust,” and noting that negligence of other defendants regarding, on-set safety standards, is also a factor in the death of the cinematographer.
Hutchins’ lawsuit claims that Baldwin and the other producers were aware that armourer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was inexperienced, and yet still “ignored Gutierrez-Reed’s concerns that performing the dual roles of armorer and assistant prop master would result in lapses in basic firearm safety.”
The wrongful death and loss of consortium complaint specifically accuses Baldwin and all defendants of engaging in “negligent, intentional, willful, or reckless misconduct resulting in wrongful death” and causing a “loss of consortium” – or emotional losses – to Matthew, who had been married to Halyna for 16 years at the time of her death.
In his interview with TODAY’s Hoda Kotb, Hutchins asserted, “Every holiday, Christmas, New Year’s, our anniversary, my birthday, Valentine’s Day, I mean, every holiday, is difficult without her,” explaining that this tragic event has been difficult for both himself and their 9-year-old son Andros.
A separate lawsuit filed by Armourer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed’s lawsuit filed against supplier Seth Kenney and PDQ Arm and Prop, LLC, agrees with Hutchins’ legal complaint, claiming that “Baldwin did not respond to Hannah’s request on October 15 to schedule cross draw training.”
Similarly, Serge Svetnoy, the film’s gaffer, has filed a legal complaint against a similar line-up of defendants for general negligence, alleging that “this incident was caused by the negligent acts and omission of Defendants, and each of them, as well as their agents, principals, and employers.”
“Simply put,” Svetnoy’s lawsuit added, “there was no reason for a live bullet to be placed in that .45 Colt revolver to be present anywhere on the Rust set, and the presence of a bullet in a revolver posed a lethal threat to everyone in its vicinity.”
In yet another individual lawsuit, Rust script supervisor Mamie Mitchell sued Baldwin for assault and intentional infliction of emotional distress on the grounds that the actor “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.”
“Alec Baldwin should have assumed that the gun in question was loaded unless and until it was demonstrated to him or checked by him that it was not loaded,” further claimed Mitchell in her legal complaint against the actor.
Baldwin has also been hit with a $25 million defamation lawsuit, unrelated to the shooting on the set of Rust, for allegedly insinuating that Roice McCollum, the sister of fallen U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Rylee J. McCollum, had participated in the Capitol Hill riots of January 6th, 2021.
What do you make of Matthew Hutchins’ comments about Alec Baldwin? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section down below or on social media.