Alec Baldwin will sit down for ‘intense’ and ‘revealing’ prime time interview’ on Rust shooting

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Alec Baldwin wept as he described accidentally shooting dead his cinematographer on the set of his film Rust, saying ‘I didn’t pull the trigger’ during an interview with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.

Baldwin said accidentally discharging his gun and killing Halyna Hutchins was the worst thing that’s ever happened to him.

‘I think back, I think: ‘What could I have done?’ Baldwin said. 

In a teaser of the interview that’s set to air tomorrow at 8 p.m., Baldwin at times held his head in his hands and appeared tearful. The actor denied firing the bullet, saying the gun inexplicably went off after he picked it up. 

‘The trigger wasn’t pulled, I didn’t pull the trigger,’ he said. ‘I would never point a gun at anyone at point a trigger at them, never.’

It’s not yet known why the weapon was loaded with a real bullet. 

‘Someone put a live bullet in the gun – a bullet that wasn’t even supposed to be on the property,’ Baldwin said.

During the interview, Baldwin spoke fondly of Hutchins, saying: ‘She was someone who was loved by everyone who worked with and liked by everyone who worked with – and admired.

‘Even now I find it hard to believe, it just doesn’t seem real to me.’ 

Stephanopoulos said Baldwin spoke to him in detail about everything that happened on the day of the shooting.

‘As you can imagine he was devastated, but he was also very candid, was very forthcoming,’ Stephanopoulos said of his hour-and-a-half long interview with the actor. 

‘He answered every question. He talked about Halyna Hutchins, talked about meeting her family as well. 

‘[He] went through in detail what happened on the set that day.’ 

The interview comes as investigators continue to probe the shooting and now believe a homemade bullet supplied by a New Mexico armorer may have made its way on set and into Baldwin’s pistol. 

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Detectives are investigating whether Seth Kenney, a 51-year-old Hollywood veteran who was supposed to provide the film with dummy rounds and blanks, may have sent recycled bullets from a previous set, according to an affidavit filed by the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office. 

New Mexico investigators were granted permission to search Kenney’s business PDQ Arm & Prop, LLC, an ammunition store in an Albuquerque strip mall, to determine if the bullet that killed Hutchins matches any Kenney has in stock, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The warrant states that Kenney contacted authorities late last month and told them that the live rounds on the set may have come from ‘handmade reloaded rounds’ that he got years ago from a friend, who also happened to be the father of Rust’s rookie armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed, KOAT 7 reported. 

Gutierrez Reed told investigators that the guns were checked on set, but she didn’t check the one Baldwin used on October 21 ‘too much’ because it had been locked in a safe during lunch. She also told investigators that she had trouble loading the gun just hours before the deadly shooting.

‘Hannah stated there was one round that wouldn’t go in, so after lunch she took the cleaner, cleaned ‘it’ out, and put another round in, which brought the total to six rounds loaded into the weapon,’ Sheriff’s Detective Alexandria Hancock wrote in the affidavit.

Gutierrez Reed’s lawyer previously stated that she was not under the impression any of the rounds on the set were live because live ammunition is not allowed on film sets.

Investigators there continue to probe Hutchins’ death, and have yet to file any criminal charges.

In the weeks following the shooting, several former crew members have spoken out about what they called an unsafe environment on the set.

Two weeks ago, the script supervisor Mamie Mitchell tearfully announced that she was suing the Baldwin and accused him of playing ‘Russian Roulette’ when he fired a gun without checking it first to make sure it was not loaded, and further claimed that the scene being filmed did not call for the firing of the gun.

The suit names 22 defendants associated with the film, including Baldwin, Rust producers, six production companies – El Dorado Pictures, Thomasville Pictures, Short Porch Pictures, Brittany House Pictures, 3rd Shift Media and Streamline Global – armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed, First Assistant Director David Halls and others.

Mitchell, a 40-year industry veteran, was standing close to Hutchins when the bullet fired from Baldwin’s gun killed her and then injured director Joel Souza. 

The suit claims assault, intentional infliction of emotional distress and deliberate infliction of harm. It also states that the scene being shot did not require a gun to be fired.

‘I ran out and called 911 and said, “Bring everybody, send everybody,”’ Mitchell said during a press conference. ‘This woman is gone at the beginning of her career. She was an extraordinary, rare, very rare woman.’

Serge Svetnoy, the head electrician who held Hutchins in his arms as she died has also sued Baldwin, Gutierrez-Reed and assistant director David Halls over ‘severe emotional distress’ after the fatal shooting and revealed that the scene did not call for Baldwin to fire the gun.

Svetnoy filed the suit against the three crew members – as well as others, who remain unnamed – and claimed that their alleged negligence led to the shooting and put him in emotional turmoil.

Svetnoy alleged in the court documents that the bullet struck director Joel Souza, 48, and killed Hutchins nearly hit him, too, according to TMZ.

He also said that he was one of the first people to tend to Halyna while she was bleeding out and attempted to keep her conscious.

He told TMZ that he’s suing Baldwin because he ‘owed a duty to the Plaintiff and other crew members and actors on the “Rust” set to handle the Colt Revolver provided to him by Defendant Halls with reasonable care and diligence for the safety of “Rust” cast and crew.’

Lane Luper, who served as the film’s A-camera first assistant, said he quit one day before the fatal shooting because employees were being overworked, COVID-safety was not being enforced properly and gun safety was poor.

‘I think with Rust, it was the perfect storm of the armorer, the assistant director, the culture that was on set, the rushing. It was everything,’ he told Good Morning America about the events that led up to the fatal shooting.

‘It wasn’t just one individual. Everything had to fall into place for this one-in-a-trillion thing to happen.’

In his letter of resignation, Luper said there had been two accidental weapon discharges on set and one accidental sound-effects explosion that went off around the crew.

‘There have been NO explanations as to what to expect for these shots. When anyone from production is asked we are usually met with the same answers about not having enough time to complete the day if we rehearse or that “this is a 21 day shoot,”‘ Luper wrote in the letter.

He added that the crew grew exhausted of long commutes from the set to their lodging, which for some more than two hours away.

‘In my 10 years as a camera assistant I’ve never worked on a show that cares so little for the safety of its crew,’ Luper said.

In a statement to Sky News, a spokesperson for the producers hit back at his claims, saying: ‘Mr. Luper’s allegations around budget and safety are patently false, which is not surprising considering his job was to be a camera operator, and he had absolutely nothing to do with it or knowledge of safety protocols or budgets.

‘As we continue to cooperate with all investigations, we are limited in what we can say,’ the spokesperson continued. ‘However, safety is always the number one priority.’