Rust cinematographer Halyna Hutchins made headlines back in October 2021 when she was shot and killed by a prop gun on set. Today, her widower, Matt Hutchins, places blame for the incident at the feet of Alec Baldwin and expresses anger that the veteran actor is "not accept[ing] any responsibility" for the incident.
As previously reported, a prop gun that was mistakenly loaded with real ammunition was fired by Baldwin on the set of Rust, resulting in the director being shot in the shoulder and Hutchins being shot in the torso. Hutchins would later die from her injuries. Baldwin avoided any thorough discussion of the incident for months, only expressing his grief over the death of Hutchins, and would not discuss details.
In his first on-screen interview with Today since the tragic death of his wife, Matt Hutchins discusses Baldwin and how he feels the actor is shirking the responsibility he bears in the incident. Hutchins admits to watching Baldwin's ABC interview and being overcome with anger. Hutchins was flabbergasted by Baldwin's decision "to talk about her death in such a detailed way and then to not accept any responsibility after having just described killing her." The widower went on to accuse Baldwin of portraying himself as "the victim" in the tragedy. While he does not place blame solely on Baldwin, as he also mentioned the film set did not meet "industry standards," he cannot absolve the person who held the gun in his hand from any responsibility for the death of his wife. The idea of doing that was described by Hutchins as "absurd." Additional responsibility could potentially land on Baldwin, as he was also a producer on the western movie.
The interview Matthew Hutchins refers to occurred in December 2021, when Baldwin appeared on ABC and asserted both he and Halyna wrongly believed "the gun was empty other than those dummy rounds." Baldwin's account of the events surrounding the firing of the gun is that he "let go of the hammer of the gun and the gun [went] off." He claims he "didn't pull the trigger." This interview is what sparked Halyna's husband, Matt, to come forward with his first public comments on Baldwin's responsibility for the Rust tragedy.
Matthew Hutchins has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Baldwin and other Rust producers. Traditionally, the responsibility of prop weapons on-set is the duty of the Property department as well as Armorers. Baldwin's insistence that he believed the weapon to be loaded with dummy bullets is presumably something he was told by one or both of these departments on set. However, meeting safety protocols on a set is the responsibility of producers, which is where Baldwin could potentially bear more responsibility for the tragedy than he would if he was merely an actor on the film.
Much has been said about the set of Rust not meeting safety requirements and there seems to have been some rumors of the mishandling of dangerous weapons taking place. Unfortunately, these issues were only widely discussed after the on-set death of Halyna. Perhaps, this tragedy will result in safer working conditions in the future for other filmmakers and the death of Hutchins will not be in vain.
Source: Today/Youtube