Actor Alec Baldwin on Saturday spoke with the media for the first time on camera since he accidentally fatally shot cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on a New Mexico movie set earlier this month.
“It’s an active investigation in terms of — a woman died, she was my friend,” Baldwin said of Hutchins in video taken by paparazzi and published by TMZ. “We were a very, very well-oiled crew shooting a film together, and then this horrible event happened.”
Hutchins was killed and director Joel Souza was injured after Baldwin fired a live round from a gun he was using as a prop during a rehearsal for the western movie “Rust” earlier this month. According to a police affidavit, assistant director David Halls handed Baldwin the gun and said it was “cold” — meaning safe to use — just moments before the shooting.
Baldwin said that the day he arrived to film “Rust,” he took Hutchins and Souza to dinner.
He added on Saturday that he has met with Hutchins’ husband, Matthew, characterizing him as “in shock.”
“He has a 9-year-old son,” Baldwin said. “We are in constant contact with him because we are very worried about his family and his kid. As I said, we are eagerly awaiting for the sheriff’s department to tell us what their investigation has yielded.”
The actor, who called the shooting a “one in a trillion” accident, said he was in favor of using fewer firearms on film sets.
“I do know that an ongoing effort to limit the use of firearms on film sets is something I’m extremely interested in,” he said.