Alec Baldwin says he did not fire the gun that killed Halyna Hutchins on a shoot and that his career may have come to an end
Alec Baldwin acknowledges that his career may be over.
"It could be," the 63-year-old American actor said in an interview with George Stephanopoulos for ABC News on Thursday. And he added that he does not care.
Baldwin insisted that he did not pull the trigger on the gun that fatally wounded cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of her film Rust.
"Someone put a real bullet in a gun, and I know it wasn't me," he stressed.
This was the first interview since the deadly incident on October 21.
"The trigger wasn't pulled. I didn't pull the trigger ... I would never point a gun at anyone and pull the trigger. Never," Baldwin emphasized.
Asked by @GStephanopoulos how a real bullet got on the "Rust" set, Alec Baldwin says: “I have no idea. Someone put a live bullet in a gun. A bullet that wasn’t even supposed to be on the property.”
— ABC News (@ABC) December 1, 2021
Watch TOMORROW 8pm ET on ABC and stream later on @hulu. https://t.co/fJQly1za1T pic.twitter.com/OnpDuYERiC
When asked by Stephanopoulos how a real bullet got on set, Baldwin replied, "I have no idea."
"The bullet wasn't even supposed to be on the premises," he added.
Stephanopoulos described his 80-minute dialogue with the actor as "raw" and "intense."
The reporter described Baldwin as "devastated", "very sincere" and "talkative".
"I've done thousands of interviews in the last 20 years on ABC," he said. "This was the most intense I have ever experienced."
Baldwin stated that this is the worst event of his life and expressed that he feels sadness, anger and confusion, but not guilt.
"If he thought I was responsible, he would have killed me," he admitted.
A supposed "cold" weapon
Baldwin is recognized for his performances in films such as Glengarry Glen Ross ("The Price of Ambition") and The Hunt For Red October ("The Hunt for Red October"), as well as for his personification in the later years of Donald Trump in the American program Saturday Night Live.
The interview marks the first time Baldwin has spoken about the incident on camera, except for a brief interview he gave to TMZ in October, in an attempt to stop the paparazzi from following him and his family.
In that public appearance, Baldwin described the incident as "one in a billion episodes" and said accidents of this nature rarely occur on film sets.
The actor detailed the position in which he and the cinematographer were, as well as the dialogue that was established between them.
Hutchins, 42, was shot to death while Baldwin rehearsed what he believed to be a "cold" weapon - movie jargon for an unloaded pistol - on the set of Rust in New Mexico.
Baldwin is believed to have fired when he pulled the gun out of a holster during rehearsals for a later scene.
Hutchins was airlifted to hospital after the shooting, but died of her injuries. Director Joel Souza, 48, was also injured.
According to court records, the film's assistant director, Dave Halls, handed the gun to Baldwin, who did not know it contained live ammunition, and indicated that it had been discharged by shouting "cold gun."
Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, the 24-year-old gunsmith in the film, had given the gun to Halls.
The investigation into the case is ongoing.
