Quentin Tarantino says he believes Alec Baldwin is at least partially to blame for the fatal Rust shooting that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins in 2021.
Speaking to Bill Maher on a recent episode of his Club Random podcast, Tarantino claimed that actors have a responsibility while filming with guns, an opinion that pointedly dissents from what the Screen Actors Guild has maintained in the past regarding Baldwin’s case.
The Once Upon A Time In Hollywood director disagreed with Maher’s point that Baldwin’s case was “bullshit.”
“No. It’s a situation, I think — I’m being fair enough to say that the armorer, the guy who handles the gun, an armorer is 90% responsible for everything that happens when it comes to that gun,” Tarantino said. “But, but, but, but, but, but, the actor is 10% responsible. The actor is 10% responsible. It’s a gun. You are a partner in the responsibility to some degree.”
The shooting occurred while Baldwin was rehearsing a scene for the Western film. The gun discharged, fatally striking Hutchins and injuring director Joel Souza. The gun was inexplicably loaded with live ammunition at the time.
Baldwin’s involuntary manslaughter trial was dismissed in July after it was revealed that crucial evidence was misfiled, effectively hiding it from Baldwin’s legal team. The ruling means the state of New Mexico will not charge Baldwin again.
Two other crew members were also charged after the shooting occurred. Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the armorer on set of Rust, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in March of this year and sentenced to 18 months in prison.
On the podcast, Tarantino laid out how the mechanics of a gun are described to actors while filming. “They show it to you. If there are steps to go through, you go through them, and it’s done with due diligence, and you know it’s fucking for real,” he said.
“If an actor knows he has three hot rounds in his gun, and he knows that, ‘OK, I’m going to do a scene,’ and he knows he’s got three hot rounds as he’s doing the scene, and then at this point, bam bam bam. And then he’s going to continue on and say a few more things,” he continued. “If one of the rounds doesn’t go off as he does his ‘bam bam bam,’ then he should cut the scene and say, ‘Guys, one of the rounds didn’t go off, I think I’m still holding a hot gun here.’”
SAG-AFTRA issued a statement defending the actor after he was indicted for involuntary manslaughter in January. The Guild argued that, as an actor, Baldwin is not responsible for firearms safety.
“Performers train to perform, and they are not required or expected to be experts on guns or experienced in their use,” the Guild said in a statement. “The industry assigns that responsibility to qualified professionals who oversee their use and handling in every aspect.”
Maher then asked why the guns must be used with any ammunition at all, to which Tarantino replied, “That’s bloodless… Yeah, I guess I can add digital erections to porno movies, but who wants to fucking watch that?”
The auteur later pointed out, “I think for as many guns as we’ve shot off in movies, we only have two examples of people being shot on the set by a gun mishap. That’s a pretty fucking good record,” referring to Hutchins and the 1993 death of Brandon Lee while filming The Crow.
They ultimately praised the actor, however, with Maher noting, “I’m happy he’s a free man, or at least as free as a man with eight children can be, and I’m happy it came out well for him.”
Now, Baldwin is set to continue filming his new TLC reality series.
