The husband of Halyna Hutchins, the cinematographer killed in an accidental shooting on the set of the movie “Rust,” said he blames Alec Baldwin and a failure to abide by on-set “industry standards” for her death.
Matt Hutchins said in an interview airing Thursday he was angered that Baldwin, the movie’s star and a producer on the film, hasn’t taken responsibility for his wife’s death. Baldwin was holding a prop gun during a practice scene for the film on Oct. 21, 2021, that suddenly discharged, killing Hutchins and injuring director Joel Souza with a live bullet.
Baldwin said he never pulled the trigger and was told the weapon was “cold,” or safe to use without any life ammunition in the gun. He said he pointed the gun in Hutchins’ direction at her instruction.
“The idea that the person holding the gun and causing it to discharge is not responsible is absurd to me,” Matt Hutchins told Hoda Kotb for an interview that will air Thursday morning on “Today.” “But gun safety was not the only problem on that set. There were a number of industry standards that were not practiced, and there’s multiple responsible parties.”
Halyna Hutchins’ family sued Baldwin and the movie’s producers for wrongful death earlier this month, claiming they engaged in “reckless conduct” and “cost-cutting measures.”
Baldwin said in December that he didn’t believe he’d be criminally charged for the shooting, but he questioned how live rounds of ammunition made it on set and into the gun used in filming.
Matt Hutchins said that interview left him furious and that he thought Baldwin almost made himself sound “like he was the victim.”
“Watching him, I just felt so angry,” Hutchins told Kotb. “I was just so angry to see him talk about her death so publicly in such a detailed way and then to not accept any responsibility after having just described killing her.”