Actor Alec Baldwin returned to a movie set this week for the first time since fatally shooting director of photography Halyna Hutchins late last year. In a video diary posted to Instagram, Baldwin called returning to the work “strange” after “this horrible thing that happened.”
“It’s strange to go back to work. I haven’t worked since October 21 of last year, when um, this horrible thing happened on the set of this film, the accidental death of our cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. I even still find that hard to say,” Baldwin said in the Instagram post.
After briefly mentioning the death of Hutchins, but not his involvement, Baldwin went into describing what it’s like to make an independent film.
“But, um, I went back to work for the first time in three-and-a-half months and movies are nearly always the same, you know, everybody is young, compared to me, everyone’s young. Especially in independent film where there are good people, there are very good people. But everybody is chasing all of the good people and a lot of the best ones get gobbled up by projects that have more money. When you have a very limited budget, you are filling positions with people who are good but they’re probably early in their career. And young. Everybody’s young,” Baldwin said. “They work hard. The crew of movies are very hardworking people. They’re very hardworking. On their feet all day. In an unheated building, I might add. The building had no heat. It was a tricky day to try to get everything done. Many, many independent films now can be very tricky in terms of getting them done. The amount of work you have and the time you have are definitely not in sync, so.”
In December, Baldwin said he “didn’t pull the trigger” of the gun that was in his hand when it was fired, killing Hutchins and injuring another on the New Mexico set of the film “Rust.”
During an interview with ABC News, George Stephanopoulos noted that the film’s script did not call for the gun’s trigger to be pulled.
“Well, the trigger wasn’t pulled. I didn’t pull the trigger,” Baldwin responded.
“So, you never pulled the trigger?” Stephanopoulos pressed.
“No, no, no, no no. I would never point a gun at anyone and pull the trigger,” Baldwin insisted. “Never.”
Stephanopoulos also asked Baldwin how a real bullet got on the film’s set, to which Baldwin said he had “no idea.”
“Someone put a live bullet in a gun,” Baldwin said. “A bullet that wasn’t even supposed to be on the property.”
When asked if this situation is “the worst thing that’s ever happened” to him, Baldwin firmly responded, “Yes.”
