Actor Alec Baldwin claimed in an interview that will air Thursday night that he did not pull the trigger on a prop gun during the fatal shooting on the set of “Rust” that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins in October.
“The trigger wasn’t pulled. I didn’t pull the trigger. No, no, no, no, no,” Baldwin told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos in a clip from “Alec Baldwin Unscripted.” “I would never point a gun at anyone and pull the trigger at them. Never.”
It is the first full interview Baldwin, 63, has given since the Oct. 21 shooting on the set of the film, which was shot in New Mexico. Halyna Hutchins was killed on the set, and director Joel Souza was wounded.
Baldwin gave a brief roadside interview to photographers on Oct. 30 in a bid to stop them from following him and his family after the shooting.
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
The interview is part of an hourlong special on ABC at 8 p.m. EST and will stream on Hulu later that evening, according to The Associated Press.
In the clip, Stephanopoulos notes “it wasn’t in the script for the trigger to be pulled,” Rolling Stone reported.
>> Alec Baldwin shooting: Actor gives on-camera interview about tragedy
“The trigger wasn’t pulled,” Baldwin tells Stephanopoulos, adding that he did not know how a live bullet was on the set.
“Someone put a live bullet in a gun, a bullet that wasn’t even supposed to be on the property,” Baldwin said.
Baldwin broke down in tears during the interview, including when he talked about Hutchins, the Los Angeles Times reported.
“Even now I find it hard to believe. It just doesn’t seem real to me,” Baldwin said.
>> Who was cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, killed by Alec Baldwin’s ‘prop gun’?
According to search warrants, witness interviews have claimed armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed handed the Colt revolver in question to assistant director Dave Halls, who said the weapon was “cold” (not loaded), before handing it to Baldwin, Rolling Stone reported.
On Tuesday, investigators issued a new search warrant to find out how a live round found its way into Baldwin’s gun, according to the magazine.
Baldwin has been named as a defendant in lawsuits filed by crew members Serge Svetnoy and Mamie Mitchell, according to Rolling Stone. Both crew members were in a small wooden church on the set when the gun was discharged.
>> Alec Baldwin shooting: ‘Rust’ crew members had safety concerns before incident
Both claim in their lawsuits that Baldwin bears responsibility for the shooting because he pulled the trigger when it was not called for in the script, according to the magazine.
“I’ve done thousands of interviews in the last 20 years at ABC,” Stephanopoulos said Wednesday on “Good Morning America.” ”This was the most intense I’ve ever experienced. So raw. As you can imagine, he’s devastated.
>> Alec Baldwin shooting: Brandon Lee’s sister speaks out
“But he was also very candid, he was very forthcoming. He answered every question. He talked about Halyna Hutchins, talked about meeting with her family as well. Went through in detail what happened on the set that day, and I have to tell you I was surprised in many places over the course of that hour and 20 minutes.”
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