Actor Alec Baldwin says he’s “hopeful” he and others “will not be held criminally responsible” for a shooting death that occurred on the set of a western film he was shooting.
The October 21 shooting, which occurred when a gun Baldwin was holding for an upcoming scene fired, killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounded director Joel Souza.
“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,” Baldwin said during a Saturday evening conversation at the Boulder International Film Festival, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
“I’m very hopeful when the facts come out we will not be held criminally responsible, but it has changed my life. And I don’t mean this in the ordinary sense that I was involved in something or somebody passed,” he said. “I mean, I was involved in a situation with somebody was killed. It’s changed my life just in terms of the function of weapons in films and television.”
Baldwin appeared to suggest that lawsuits filed against him and others came from people who are “financially motivated” and are going after “deep pockets litigants,” the Reporter added.
“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,” Baldwin said.
Baldwin also appeared to point the finger at others who were in charge of safety on the set of “Rust.”
“When someone whose job it is to ensure the safety of the weapon hands someone else whose job was to be the secondary layer of protection for safety, and they hand it over to you and declare that that weapon is safe — that’s how I’ve lived my whole life,” he stated. “I’ve relied on the safety experts there to declare the gun is safe and hand me the gun. Never had a problem.”
“The thing to remember is that guns are fired in films because that’s what audiences want. Maybe not this crowd,” he said. “Maybe not a festival crowd where you want to watch something that’s a little more complicated. There’s a place to modify the safety regulations we have to deal with and I’m very much looking forward to our decisions.”
Hutchins’ husband Matthew, who has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Baldwin, has been angered by Baldwin’s comments.
“The idea that the person holding the gun and causing it to discharge is not responsible is absurd to me,” Matthew Hutchins told NBC News’ “Today” co-anchor Hoda Kotb during an interview last month. “But gun safety was not the only problem on that set.”
He added, “There were a number of industry standards that were not practiced and there’s multiple responsible parties.”
Joseph Curl has covered politics for 35 years, including 12 years as White House correspondent, and ran the Drudge Report from 2010 to 2015. Send tips to [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @josephcurl.