December 03, (THEWILL) – American actor, Alec Baldwin, says he was not to blame in the fatal shooting of a cinematographer on the set of a Western being filmed in New Mexico, adding that another person had accidentally placed a live round in the gun that went off in his grasp as he was rehearsing a scene.
“Someone put a live bullet in a gun, a bullet that wasn’t even supposed to be on the property,” Mr Baldwin said in a television interview that was broadcast on Thursday night.
“Someone is responsible for what happened, and I can’t say who that is, but I know it’s not me,” he added.
The actor disclosed this in an emotional ABC News interview with George Stephanopoulos, the first time he has publicly given an account of what happened in October, New York Times reports.
Baldwin also said that he did not pull the trigger of the gun he was practising with on the set of “Rust” when it fired a live round.
“I would never point a gun at anyone and pull a trigger at them — never,” Baldwin said.
THEWILL recalls that the fatal shooting happened on October 21 near Santa Fe, N.M, on a movie set designed to be a church.
The actor was practising drawing an old-fashioned revolver that he had been informed contained no live rounds when it suddenly fired, killing the film’s cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins, 42, and injuring the director, Joel Souza, 48.
The actor stated that he was surprised by what happened and that at least 45 minutes passed after the gun went off before he realised that it could have contained a live round.
“I stood over her for 60 seconds as she just laid there kind of in shock,” Baldwin said.
The actor disclosed that he did not cock the hammer of the gun, but pulled it back as far as he could and let it go in an action that might have set it off.
“I let go of the hammer — bang, the gun goes off.”
Baldwin insisted that the tragedy happened after he was handed the gun and was told it was safe, and that Ms Hutchins herself had told him how to position the gun as he and Ms Hutchins assumed the gun was safe to handle.
“I am holding the gun where she told me to hold it,” Mr Baldwin said. “I can’t imagine I’d ever do a movie that had a gun in it again,” he added.
About the Author
