An assistant director called out “cold gun” before handing the prop firearm to actor Alec Baldwin that ultimately killed 42-year-old cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, a Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office affidavit reveals. This production term typically means that the gun has been checked to ensure it does not contain any live rounds.
First assistant director David Halls handed Baldwin one of three prop guns on the set of Rust, which was filming at Santa Fe’s Bonanza Creek Ranch. Halls was “unaware that it was loaded with live rounds,” CBS News reported, citing a detective’s written account. The guns were placed on a cart by on-set armorer Hannah Gutierrez. A live round hit Hutchins in the chest during a rehearsal, killing her and injuring nearby writer-director Joel Souza.
As the New York Times notes, the new filing from Friday still “leaves many questions unanswered — namely how a live round ended up in a gun fired by an actor.”
Halls’s industry credits date back to the mid-1990s. Gutierrez, also known as Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, is the 24-year-old daughter of Thell Reed, a Hollywood armorer with credits stretching to 1993’s Tombstone.
As previously reported, there were concerns about rounds being accidentally discharged days prior to the fatal shooting. Earlier on the day of Hutchins’s death, a handful of camera crew workers also reportedly left the set in protest against various labor conditions. Hutchins herself “had been advocating for safer conditions for her team,” according to the Los Angeles Times.
No charges have been filed in the case, and Santa Fe Sheriff spokesperson Juan Rios has stated that Baldwin is able to travel and is “a free man.” The actor has been in communication with Hutchins’s widower, Matthew Hutchins, and “is being very supportive,” according to CBS News.
Baldwin is credited as one of six producers on Rust. Deadline reported that Baldwin also has a “story by” co-credit on the Western which, eerily, tells the story of an accidental killing.
The use of real guns in film production has faced scrutiny for years, especially as computer-generated imagery to create the “muzzle flashes” has gotten better and less expensive. Director Ben Rock put it bluntly in an interview with Reuters, which polled industry members about whether to curb their use: “We’re also pretending everything else, I don’t see why we can’t pretend about this too.”
In what may be the first in a trend, the ABC cop show The Rookie announced it would cease using live guns due to the Rust tragedy. “It is now policy on The Rookie that all gunfire on set will be with Air Soft guns with CG muzzle flashes added in post,” showrunner Alexi Hawley said in a statement on Friday.
— How Samuel L. Jackson’s Battle With Addiction Inspired His Breakthrough Performance
— Cover Story: Dwayne Johnson Lets Down His Guard
— In Succession Season Three, the Sharks Circle. And Circle. And Circle.
— Let’s Take a Closer Look at That Big Twist in You’s Season Three Finale
— Why Is Netflix Gaslighting Us About Dave Chappelle’s Transphobic Special?
— Disturbing New Details About Brittany Murphy’s Life, Death, and Marriage
— The New Top Guns: Meet Tom Cruise’s Young Mavericks
— A Brief Overview of Erika Jayne’s Legal Woes
— Love Is a Crime: Inside One of Hollywood’s Wildest Scandals
— From the Archive: It Happened One Night…at MGM
— Sign up for the “HWD Daily” newsletter for must-read industry and awards coverage—plus a special weekly edition of “Awards Insider.”