A little over a month after Alec Baldwin’s Rust shooting manslaughter case was thrown out, filmmaker Quentin Tarantino says the actor may still be partly to blame for the tragic film set accident.
During an appearance on Bill Maher’s “Club Random” podcast, Tarantino discussed the 2021 Rust shooting. During the incident, Baldwin accidentally fired a gun with live rounds, killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza. The filmmaker noted that while the film’s armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, was 90% at fault, he believes Baldwin is also responsible.
“It’s a situation, I think I’m being fair enough to say, that the armorer — the guy who handles the gun — the armorer is 90% responsible for everything that happens when it comes to that gun,” Tarantino said about the incident. “But the actor is 10% responsible.”
Quentin Tarantino then pointed out that Alec Baldwin was responsible for the firearm. “It’s a gun,” he pointed out. “You are a partner to responsibility to some degree.”
The filmmaker also explained there is a protocol when it comes to dealing with firearms on sets. “They show it to you. If there are steps to go through, you go through them. There’s due diligence.”
Quentin Tarantino Points Out the Importance of Addressing Issues With Guns on Film Sets
Quentin Tarantino further shared that when an issue with a gun is encountered on set, the “onus” is on the actor to alert of any issues.
“If an actor knows he has three hot rounds in his gun and he knows that ‘OK, I’m going to do a scene,’” he continued. “if one of the rounds doesn’t go off while he does his ‘bam bam bam,’ then he should, like, cut the scene and say, ‘Guys, one of the rounds didn’t go off. I think I’m holding a hot gun here.’”
Maher asked Tarantino whether gun effects should be added in post-production. The filmmaker opposed the idea. “It’s exciting to shoot the blanks and to see the orange, the real orange fire, not add orange fire,” he added.
Gutierrez-Reed was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in connection to the set incident. She was sentenced to 18 months in prison. Baldwin’s manslaughter case was dismissed with prejudice. This means that the case is permanently dismissed and cannot be brought back to court.
The judge in the case stated prosecutors hid evidence that may have been linked to the shooting. After hearing the case’s dismissal, Baldwin was seen crying in the courtroom.