Matt Hutchins, the husband of Rust cinematographer Halyna Hutchins (who was killed by a gun held by Alec Baldwin, although he insists that he didn’t fire the weapon) recently expressed anger towards the film’s star. Baldwin’s also a producer, so he’s potentially liable in lawsuits filed against the film, and the Hutchins family (among other plaintiffs) has sued the production along with Baldwin. Matt Hutchins also accused Baldwin of offloading blame to other parties, and he told ABC News (of Baldwin) that he 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.”
In Matt Hutchins’ eyes, Baldwin was acting “like he was the victim,” and Baldwin also had a few things to say about Rust lawsuit plaintiffs while speaking at the Boulder International Film Festival. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Baldwin did articulate that there were only “two victims” during the incident (the second being director Joel Souza, who was shot but not fatally so). Yet Baldwin went on to suggest that “certain” plaintiffs in Rust lawsuits are going after “deep-pocket litigants.” He continued:
“From the beginning, from the moment this happened, everybody has put out — besides all the anguish and the suffering, horrible feelings we have and, of course, there are two victims and nobody else is a victim, so to speak — we have dealt with a situation where specific people are not as interested in finding out what really happened.
“What you have is a certain group of litigants on whatever side, who their attitude is, well, the people who likely seem negligent have enough money. And the people who have money are not negligent, but we’re not gonna let that stop us from doing what we need to do in terms of litigation. Why sue people if you’re not going to get money? That’s what you’re doing.”
This is probably not the best tactic for Baldwin to take during ongoing litigation (for which Baldwin is named, in addition to “others responsible for the safety on set and whose reckless behavior”) for a tragic incident that only occurred in October 2021. During the process of (as THR describes them) Baldwin’s seemingly disjointed remarks, he also called out how film-set deaths are comparatively low when compared against other industries, including “the airline industry, the automobile industry, the gun industry itself.” He wasn’t done yet. “Four people have died,” he said out of “all the billions of rounds of ammunition that were fired on movie and TV sets in the last 75 years.”
The 63-year-old Hollywood vet added that he’d “been without incidents” for the duration of his career, and you can watch video footage of his remarks over at CNN with more litigation developments surely to come.
(Via Hollywood Reporter & CNN)