One month ago, Alec Baldwin broke his silence about the accidental gun discharge on the set of his low-budget Western film Rust. In the process, he honored the tragically killed Halyna Hutchins, the cinematographer on the movie starring and produced by Baldwin. At the time, Baldwin revealed that he couldn’t publicly discuss what had transpired during the fatal incident, given that the investigation was ongoing. He’s cooperated with law enforcement throughout, and he’s one of the parties named in a negligence lawsuit filed by the film’s script supervisor. Now, Baldwin has sat down with ABC News‘ George Stephanopoulos in an interview that will air on Thursday at 8:00pm EST (and later to stream on Hulu).
In a clip released by ABC News, Baldwin contradicted previous reports that he discharged the gun that killed Hutchens and wounded director Joel Souza. Below, a teary-eyed Baldwin is shown on camera before Stephanopoulos says, “The gun was in your hand.” A few moments later, Baldwin declares, “The trigger wasn’t pulled. I didn’t pull the trigger.” Baldwin then adds, “I would never point a gun at anyone and pull the trigger at them, never.”
Asked by @GStephanopoulos how a real bullet got on the "Rust" set, Alec Baldwin says: “I have no idea. Someone put a live bullet in a gun. A bullet that wasn’t even supposed to be on the property.”
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When later quizzed by Stephanopoulos on how the live bullet materialized on the film’s set, Baldwin has “no idea” how it happened. He then added, “Someone put a live bullet in a gun. A bullet that wasn’t even supposed to be on the property.”
As this clip also reveals, Stephanopoulos broached the subject of George Clooney branding the incident as “insane” and “infuriating.” Likewise, Kurt Sutter couldn’t believe that live ammo surfaced on the Rust set. On a number of issues — (1) How Baldwin addressed the Clooney question; (2) How the gun fired if Baldwin didn’t pull the trigger; and (3) Why the film hired an inexperienced armorer (who has insisted that she has “no idea where the live rounds came from”) — we don’t receive answers in this short clip. The full ABC News interview airs on Thursday night at 8:00pm EST.
(Via ABC News)
