OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
It has been a tough time for actor Alec Baldwin, after he accidentally shot and killed his cinematographer and injured his director on the set of his movie “Rust.”
He has remained mostly silent, other than some tweets and an official statement, as he must still be in shock over what happened.
But on Saturday he broke his silence and talked to reporters about the tragedy that occurred on the set in a video shared by celebrity news site TMZ, but his wide was not at all pleased with the situation.
The actor addressed a swarm of paps Saturday who were hounding him in Manchester, VT, where he and his family have been laying low since the fatal incident … but have been getting followed around, including on the open road, where the Baldwin family literally pulled over to confront the photogs … whom Alec says made his kids cry.
Alec came at them head-on with none other than his wife, Hilaria, at his side … and they spoke their piece on where things stand, without divulging too much about the investigation.
Check out the video … from the looks of it, the convo was pretty tense, albeit courteous. AB demands to know what the paparazzi wanted to know — so that they could get off his back, and they sounded off one by one. On where things stand as the probe into this matter unfolds … Alec said he couldn’t discuss details, on orders of the Santa Fe Sheriff’s Office.
“I’m not allowed to make any comments because it’s an ongoing investigation,” he said. “I’ve been ordered by the Sheriff’s Department in Santa Fe. I can’t answer any questions about the investigation. I can’t.”
“She was my friend,” he said of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. “The day I arrived in Santa Fe to start shooting I took her to dinner with Joel the director.”
The actor’s wife appeared to attempt to interrupt him but he waved her off and said “excuse me” before continuing.
“We were a very very … well-oiled crew shooting a film together and then this horrible event happened,” he said.
When one reporter asked Baldwin if he met with the woman’s family he did not say Halyna’s name, prompting Baldwin’s wife, Hilaria Baldwin, to get agitated.
“Her name is Halyna,” he said. “If you’re spending this much time waiting for us you should know her name.”
He called the incident a “one in a trillion event” and said that he would support reforms to how firearms are handled on set.
“It’s urgent that you understand I’m not an expert in this field,” the actor said. “So whatever other people decide is the best way to go in terms of protecting people’s safety on film sets I’m all in favor of and I will cooperate with that in any way that I can.”
On Wednesday that 63-year-old actor tweeted a story about assistant director David Halls admitting that he should have checked the rounds in the gun before giving it to Baldwin.
Halls said that armorer Hannah Gutierrez showed him the firearm before he handed it to Baldwin, declaring it to be “cold,” a search warrant affidavit released Wednesday in Santa Fe County Magistrate Court said.
“David advised when Hannah showed him the firearm before continuing rehearsal, he could only remember seeing three rounds. He advised he should have checked all of them, but didn’t, and couldn’t recall if she spun the drum,” the detectives said.
“I check the barrel for obstructions, most of the time there’s no live fire, [Hannah] opens the hatch and spins the drum, and I say cold gun on set,” he said to the police.
“Hannah advised on the day of the incident, she checked the ‘dummies’ and ensured they were not ‘hot’ rounds,” the affidavit said.
“Hannah advised she handed the gun to Alec Baldwin a couple times, and also handed it to David Halls. When [a detective] asked about live ammo on set, Hannah responded no live ammo is ever kept on set,” it said.
