Alec Baldwin used gun as ‘a pointing stick’ in ‘Rust’ set footage shown at Hannah Gutierrez-Reed trial, veteran armorer says
Alec Baldwin used a gun as “a pointing stick” while on the set of “Rust” and rushed the film’s armorer to reload his weapon for a second take, according to behind-the-scenes production footage.
The clips taken during the filming of the country western — before the tragic Oct. 21, 2021, on-set fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins — were played for the first time during the involuntary manslaughter trial against armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed on Thursday.
Baldwin rapidly fires blanks from a pistol after busting through a wooden shed before the director yells “Cut” in one scene shown to jurors. Immediately the actor wanted to do a second take.
“One more, one more, one more!” he shouts. “Right away, right away! Let’s reload. Here we go, c’mon!”
Gutierrez-Reed, 26, can then be seen hurriedly reloading the weapon with blanks from a fanny pack as Baldwin complains that they should have had a second loaded and ready to go.
Veteran armorer Bryan Carpenter, the state’s expert witness in the trial, said that multiple safety procedures were passed over in the clip.
Carpenter said that Baldwin shot the pistol far too close to the camera operators and was “basically instructing the armorer how to do their job” and creating an unnecessary “unsafe and nerve-wracking situation.”
“Rushing with firearms and telling someone to rush with firearms is not normal or accepted,” he testified.
As the armorer for the film, Gutierrez-Reed should have told Baldwin that she would not rush through safety protocols in reloading the weapon.
“In a situation like that where you’re being rushed to that extent, that’s when safety starts falling by the wayside,” Carpenter said.
In another clip from the movie set, Baldwin can be seen lying on the ground on his back and talking over his notes for a retake while gesturing with the gun.
“He’s using the weapon as a pointing stick, as his finger,” Carpenter said.
He added that Gutierrez-Reed should have talked to Baldwin and reminded him about not waving the gun around in the direction of others.
The “Rust” armorer, who was 24 at the time of the filming, instead instructs the rest of the crew to move out of “the path of the gun.”
Carpenter said it seemed that the rookie armorer was trying to avoid correcting the Hollywood star.
“She was attempting to not correct Mr. Baldwin, but to try to make the crew move in a more safe position,” he said.
The expert said that though Guiterrez-Reed was new in the business, she took the position and those on set “depended on her guidance and her professionalism to keep anyone from being harmed and convenience isn’t an option at that point.”
“Once you take on the responsibility of safety for another person, you take on a responsibility of making sure that you do what’s necessary — even if it’s inconvenient, even if it’s not in your best interest — and if that isn’t something that you feel capable of doing then you should never step into that position,” Carpenter testified.
Baldwin is separately facing manslaughter charges for firing the gun — which was loaded with a live round instead of a blank — that killed Hutchins, a Ukrainian-born mom and cinematographer.
His trial is expected to begin in July.
