Alec Baldwin gave his most detailed account yet of fatally shooting a
cinematographer on the set of the film “
Rust” last year in an arbitration
demand that his lawyers filed Friday against his fellow producers, claiming
that his contract protected him from financial responsibility in her death and
seeking coverage of his legal fees.
اضافة اعلان
Baldwin has been named in several lawsuits seeking
damages since he shot and killed the cinematographer,
Halyna Hutchins, on
October 21 in New Mexico while practicing for a scene that required him to draw
a gun. The filing said that he was not responsible for her death, since he had
been assured that the gun did not contain any live ammunition and because he
was not responsible for checking the ammunition or for firearm safety on the
set.
The filing provided new details of Baldwin’s role as
a producer of “Rust,” a production some former crew members claimed in lawsuits
had sacrificed safety by cutting costs. While Baldwin was involved in creative
matters, the filing said, others had authority over hiring and budgets. Baldwin
was to be paid $250,000 to star in the movie and act as a producer, it said,
but he gave back $100,000 as an “investment” in the film.
And the filing contained text messages that Baldwin
had exchanged with Matthew Hutchins, the widower of the slain cinematographer,
which showed how their relationship had deteriorated over time — from mutual
expressions of condolence and support in the immediate aftermath of the
shooting to the pointed wrongful-death lawsuit Hutchins filed against Baldwin
this year. Brian Panish, a lawyer for Hutchins, said in a statement that
Baldwin was trying to avoid accountability for his “reckless actions.”
The filing provided a vivid account of the fatal
shooting on the
New Mexico film set, which took place after lunch as Baldwin
rehearsed a scene inside a church in which his character, Harland Rust, is
cornered and draws his gun.
“Rust’s Colt COCKED quietly now …” the filing quotes
the direction in the script, as his pursuers approach. Then, shortly after
that: “Colts EXPLODING.”
Hutchins told Baldwin how to position the gun, the
filing said.
“She directed Baldwin to hold the gun higher, to a
point where it was directed toward her,” it said. “She was looking carefully at
the monitor and then at Baldwin, and then back again, as she gave these
instructions. In giving and following these instructions, Hutchins and Baldwin
shared a core, vital belief: that the gun was ‘cold’ and contained no live
rounds.”
Baldwin then asked Hutchins if she wanted him to
pull back the hammer, as the script instructed, and she said yes, the filing
said.
“Baldwin then pulled back the hammer, but not far
enough to actually cock the gun,” it said. “When Baldwin let go of the hammer,
the gun went off.”
It went on to describe the confusion and horror
after the shooting, as Hutchins was flown by helicopter to a hospital, where
she was later pronounced dead. It was later, at the end of his interview with
the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office, that Baldwin was shown a photograph of
the projectile that had passed through Hutchins and then wounded the film’s
director, Joel Souza, the filing said.
“Baldwin recognized the object as a live bullet, and
he finally began to comprehend what had transpired on the set of ‘Rust’ that
day,” it said. “He was shocked.”
In the filing, Baldwin’s lawyer, Luke Nikas, says a
clause Baldwin and his company had signed in his contract with Rust Movie
Productions LLC means he bears no financial responsibility for legal fees or
claims arising out of the death. The filing, with the JAMS private arbitration
service, seeks to enforce the clause. The document names
Rust Movie Productions LLC and Ryan Smith, one of the other producers, as the respondents in the
claim.
“Someone is culpable for chambering the live round
that led to this horrific tragedy, and it is someone other than Baldwin,” Nikas
wrote in the claim, portraying Baldwin as a victim who trusted others to do
their jobs and is haunted by Hutchins’ death. “This is a rare instance when the
system broke down, and someone should be held legally culpable for the tragic
consequences. That person is not Alec Baldwin.”
Representatives of Rust Movie Productions LLC and a
lawyer for Smith did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Nikas described in the claim how, in the weeks after
the fatal shooting, Baldwin had sought to persuade the cast and crew of “Rust”
to finish the film to honor Hutchins, outlining a plan in which an insurance
payout and the film’s profits would go to a settlement for Matthew Hutchins and
the couple’s nine-year-old son.
Shortly after the shooting, the filing said, Baldwin
had breakfast in Santa Fe with Matthew Hutchins and his son. At the meeting,
the filing said, “Hutchins hugged Baldwin and told him, ‘I guess we’re going to
go through this together.’”
But their relationship, which continued through a
series of texts and calls, broke down in the aftermath of a television
interview Baldwin gave in December in which he denied responsibility for
Hutchins’ death; Matthew Hutchins later filed a lawsuit against Baldwin and
followed it by giving his own television interview, on NBC’s “Today” show in
February, in which he described being angered by Baldwin’s deflection of blame.
Two lawsuits filed by crew members have claimed that
Baldwin should have checked that the gun was safe to handle, even after he had
received an assurance from the film’s first assistant director that it was.
But the new filing said that during firearm training
for the film, the movie’s armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, had told Baldwin that
“it was her job to check the gun — not his.” That instruction was similar to
what he had been told before, it said. (Asked for comment, a lawyer for
Gutierrez-Reed said he was reviewing the filing.)
“An actor cannot rule that a gun is safe,” the
filing said. “That is the responsibility of other people on the set.”
In the filing, Baldwin and his lawyer go so far as
to publish private text correspondence between Baldwin and Matthew Hutchins.
The texts show Baldwin checking whether Matthew Hutchins still wanted to
continue their conversations given the possible legal sensitivities, and
Hutchins agreeing to continue communicating despite, according to the texts,
the likely wishes of his legal advisers and press representative.
Panish, the lawyer for Hutchins, called the
inclusion of personal texts “irrelevant.”
“Baldwin’s disclosure of personal texts with Matt
Hutchins is irrelevant to his demand for arbitration and fails to demonstrate
anything other than Hutchins’ dignity in his engagement with Baldwin,” he said
in the statement. “It is shameful that Baldwin claims Hutchins’ actions in
filing a wrongful-death lawsuit derailed the completion of ‘Rust.’ The only
action that ended the film’s production was Baldwin’s killing of Halyna
Hutchins.”
The filing notes that Baldwin spoke at a memorial
for Halyna Hutchins and that later Matthew Hutchins had shared a photograph of
his son with Baldwin.
Later, Matthew Hutchins filed a lawsuit against Baldwin,
claiming that he had “recklessly shot and killed Halyna Hutchins on the set.”
In an interview on NBC’s “Today” show, he said it was “absurd” for Baldwin to
deny responsibility.
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