Popular movie star, Alec Baldwin shot Halyna Hutchins, 42 fatally while she was working as a director of photography on the shoot. She was flown to the hospital, but she died as a result of her critical injuries. Director Joel Souza, 48, was taken from the scene at Bonanza Creek Ranch by paramedics.
The incident is being investigated by police, although no charges have been filed against anyone yet. The event involved the misfiring of a toy gun filled with blanks, according to Mr. Baldwin’s spokeswoman. Mr. Baldwin is best known for his roles on the NBC series 30 Rock as Jack Donaghy and Saturday Night Live as Donald Trump.
Mr. Baldwin had spoken with detectives, according to a representative for the Santa Fe sheriff’s office, according to the AFP news agency. The spokesman explained, “He came in easily and exited after completing his interviews.” After being questioned by authorities, Alec Baldwin was spotted right outside the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Department.
Mr. Baldwin stars as the title character, an outlaw whose 13-year-old grandson is judged guilty of a crime. Mr. Baldwin, the eldest of four brothers who are all actors in the industry has appeared in several TV and film roles since the 1980s. Ms. Hutchins was born in Ukraine and raised on a Soviet military outpost near the Arctic Circle, according to her website.
After studying journalism in Kyiv and film in Los Angeles, she was named a “coming star” by American Cinematographer magazine in 2019. She handled the photography in the action thriller Archenemy, directed by Adam Egypt Mortimer, and was published in 2020.
“Halyna’s death has devastated my heart, but also furious that such an incident could occur on a movie set.” Mr. Mortimer made a statement in a tweet. Accidents like the one that killed a crew member on the set of Rust on Thursday are unusual, but not unheard of. Blanks – cartridges that provide a light and a bang but don’t deliver a projectile – are widely used in movies.
In 1993, while filming a death scene for the film The Crow, Brandon Lee, Bruce Lee’s 28-year-old son, was mistakenly killed with a fake gun. The cannon had previously shot around that had lodged a cartridge in the barrel, which was discovered.
When blank bullets were fired, the cartridge was loosened and released. Brandon Lee’s sister Shannon tweeted on Thursday in response to the news:
“Our thoughts are with Joel Souza, Halyna Hutchins’ family and everyone else involved in the ‘Rust’ event one should ever be killed with a gun on a movie set. Period.”
Shannon Lee