Alec Baldwin says he “feared for his life” following former President Donald Trump’s reaction to the fatal shooting that occurred on the set of Rust last October.
Baldwin, 64, was holding what he believed to be a “cold” prop gun while rehearsing a scene for the indie Western film when it discharged a live round, killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injuring director Joel Souza.
Following the tragic incident, the former President claimed that Baldwin “probably shot [Hutchins] on purpose,” causing the actor to fear violent retribution from Trump’s hyper-loyal fanbase.
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“The former President of the United States said [I] probably shot her on purpose. To me, that was the only time I was worried about what was going to happen. Here was Trump, who instructed people to commit acts of violence, and he was pointing the finger at me and saying I was responsible for the death,” Baldwin told CNN in a recent interview, referring to claims that the former President incited the violent mob that descended on the Capitol back in January 2021.
“A bunch of people were instructed by the former president to go to the Capitol, and they killed a law enforcement officer. They killed somebody,” the actor said. “You don’t think I thought to myself, ‘Are some of those people going to come and kill me?’”
“She Was My Friend”: Baldwin Speaks About Rust Set Tragedy
ABC
Despite the former President’s claims that it was probably intentional, Baldwin is adamant that Hutchins was a close friend of his and the shooting was nothing but a tragic, “one-in-a-trillion” accident.
“She was my friend,” the actor said tearfully of Hutchins in the weeks after the shooting, telling press that he remained in contact with the cinematographer’s widower and young son. “We were a very, very well-oiled crew shooting a film together and then this horrible event happened.”
He also maintains that he did not pull the trigger on the gun, despite a recent FBI investigation that determined that the gun was in working condition and could not have fired without the trigger being pulled. “I would never point a gun at anyone and pull a trigger at them,” Baldwin, who places blame for the incident on the film’s armorer for allowing live ammunition on set, told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos last December. “Never.”
Hutchins was 42.
