Husband of Cinematographer Killed on 'Rust' Set Unleashes on Alec Baldwin
Four months after killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins by accidentally firing a prop gun on the set of the film “Rust,” actor Alec Baldwin has yet to take responsibility for his actions.
The slain producer’s husband directly called out Baldwin for his refusal to answer for his blunder in an interview with NBC’s “Today” show on Thursday.
“The idea that the person holding the gun and causing it to discharge is not responsible is absurd to me,” Matt Hutchins told host Hoda Kotb.
“But gun safety was not the only problem on that set,” he said. “There were a number of industry standards that were not practiced, and there’s multiple responsible parties.”
On Feb. 15, the Hutchins family filed a lawsuit against Baldwin and others on set alleging “reckless” behavior and disregard for basic safety measures.
In addition to his frustration with Baldwin’s deflection of responsibility, Hutchins said he was deeply hurt when Baldwin appeared on ABC News to discuss the October accident.
During that interview, reporter George Stephanopoulos asked the actor whether he felt guilt for killing Hutchins.
“No. No,” he responded. “I feel that there is — I feel that, that someone is responsible for what happened, and I can’t say who that is, but I know it’s me.”
.@GStephanopoulos: “Do you feel guilt?”
Alec Baldwin: “No. Someone is responsible for what happened and I can’t say who that is, but I know it’s not me.”
NOW STREAMING on @Hulu: https://t.co/4iAWW86Kbw #BaldwinABC pic.twitter.com/F64P3aR9vB
— ABC News (@ABC) December 3, 2021
Hutchins said Baldwin’s callous description of the event in front of a national audience was disrespectful to him and the Hutchins family.
“Watching him I just felt so angry,” he said in the “Today” interview. “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.”
He also took issue with Baldwin’s claim that Halyna Hutchins was the one who told him to point the gun toward her.
“Almost sounds like he was the victim,” Hutchins said. “And hearing him blame Halyna in the interview and shift responsibility to others and seeing him cry about it, I just feel — are we really supposed to feel bad about you, Mr. Baldwin?”
In addition to Baldwin, the family named “Rust” armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed in the lawsuit. She has faced immense criticism for allegedly failing to enforce basic firearm safety rules on set.
“Halyna Hutchins deserved to live, and the Defendants had the power to prevent her death if they had only held sacrosanct their duty to protect the safety of every individual on a set where firearms were present instead of cutting corners on safety procedures where human lives were at stake, rushing to stay on schedule and ignoring numerous complaints of safety violations,” the lawsuit said.
“This lawsuit seeks justice for the losses of her survivors and to hold responsible those who caused her tragic death.”
Gutierrez Reed also has not taken responsibility for Hutchins’ death. According to the New York Post, she has filed a lawsuit of her own against PDQ Media Arm & Prop and its owner, claiming they sold live and blank rounds together, which she said led to the tragedy.
Gutierrez Reed said she cleaned the gun and filled it with six rounds that were supposed to be blanks before the accident.
“To the best of Hannah’s knowledge, the gun was now loaded with 6 dummy rounds,” the lawsuit said. “Indeed, Defendants as suppliers of prop ammunition to the Rust set, sold, distributed, and advertised its props as dummy ammunition and not live rounds.
“Hannah relied upon and trusted that Defendants would only supply dummy prop ammunition, or blanks, and no live rounds were ever to be on set.”
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