Rust Trial: Alec Baldwin Heard Rushing Reloads in Outtakes Shown to Jurors
Before Alec Baldwin accidentally discharged the prop weapon that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins during filming of the western movie Rust two years ago, he was recorded rushing reloads with the film’s armorer for a different scene.
“One more! One more! One more! I forgot to recall stuff. No, no, right away! Right away! Let’s reload!” Baldwin shouted at crew members shortly after he emerged from a wooden shed with the cameras rolling, fired six blank rounds, and then stopped himself short. “Here we go! Come on!”
More from Rolling Stone
With the camera that shot the scene tilted to the ground, Baldwin was heard pushing for faster loading of blank ammunition. “We should have two guns, and both we’re reloading,” he said.
The video was shown to jurors on the sixth day of armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed’s involuntary manslaughter trial in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Gutierrez-Reed has pleaded not guilty to negligently loading the live bullet into Baldwin’s revolver that fired and killed Hutchins on Oct. 21, 2021. Baldwin, 65, has pleaded not guilty in his own involuntary manslaughter case. Prosecutors recently revived charges against the actor after the dismissal of a criminal case against him last April. He maintains he did not pull the trigger and is due to face his own jury trial in July.
On Thursday, jurors watched the video of Baldwin shooting blanks on set as special prosecutor Kari Morrissey questioned Bryan Carpenter, a film armorer testifying as an expert witness for the state of New Mexico. Carpenter watched several videos depicting outtakes and behind-the-scenes moments shown publicly for the first time. He painstakingly described the job of armoring a movie and pointed out alleged lapses in safety on the set of Rust. For the scene showing Baldwin emerging from the shed, he said the video showed a handheld camera operator too close to Baldwin as he fired.
“That appears to be a full flash blank,” Carpenter said, referring to the power of the blank ammunition Baldwin was firing. “He was entirely too close to that camera to fire that.”
Carpenter said with the scene unfolding “outside of the bounds of safe distance,” and with Baldwin pointing the weapon “directly at camera,” Gutierrez-Reed should have done something. He said there are ways to safely set up a scene where a gun is pointed at a camera, “but for the most part, you always instruct any of your performers to always aim off camera. Never aim directly at somebody.” He faulted Baldwin for rushing the armorer, and said this was a moment Gutierrez-Reed should have pushed back.
“This is that moment that you need to stop and say, ‘No, I’m not going to hurry up. I’m going to slow down. And we don’t need to be passing off weapons this fast or loading guns this fast. This is creating an unsafe and nerve-racking situation,’” he testified. “Rushing with firearms and telling someone to rush with firearms is not normal nor accepted.”
Beyond Gutierrez-Reed and Baldwin, Rust’s Assistant Director Dave Halls also was charged in the tragedy. He entered a no-contest plea to a misdemeanor charge of negligent use of a deadly weapon last March. As previously reported by Rolling Stone, Halls admitted to investigators after the shooting that he failed to check all chambers of the revolver before declaring it a “cold gun” — meaning it had no live rounds. Under his plea deal, Halls was due to serve six months of unsupervised probation.
Hall took the witness stand on Thursday and got emotional as he described the shooting that claimed Hutchins’ life.
Best of Rolling Stone
Solve the daily Crossword
