Quentin Tarantino has shared his thoughts on the 2021 Rust shooting incident, stating that Alec Baldwin holds “10% responsibility.”
The unfortunate event resulted in cinematographer Halyna Hutchins being fatally struck by a bullet on the set of Rust, with the film’s director Joel Souza also getting injured.
In an interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos in December 2021, Baldwin said: “Someone is responsible for what happened and I can’t say who that is, but I know it’s not me,” explaining that the gun was handed to him as cold and that he was cocking, not pulling, the trigger.
Baldwin added that he didn’t realize there was a live round in the gun until “probably 45 minutes to an hour later.”
Following the incident, three civil lawsuits were filed by the script supervisor, Hutchins’ family, and Baldwin himself. Subsequently, Baldwin and armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed were charged with involuntary manslaughter, as announced by prosecutors. Gutierrez-Reed was found guilty.
Baldwin pleaded not guilty and consistently denied pulling the trigger.
Last month, Baldwin’s involuntary manslaughter case was dismissed due to misconduct by police and prosecutors.
In a discussion on Bill Maher’s Club Random podcast released on Sunday (August 25), Tarantino and Maher talked about the accidental shooting.
Maher defended Baldwin, saying: “I am the biggest supporter of his bulls*** case, don’t you think? I mean, how can it be his fault?
“Like, either you think he purposely shot that cinematographer, or you think he didn’t purposely shoot her. And if he didn’t purposely shoot her, then it’s all fucking bulls**t. Am I wrong?”
While Tarantino partially agreed, he also had a slightly different perspective.
“No. It’s a situation, I think — I’m being fair enough to say that the armorer, the guy who handles the gun, an armorer is 90% responsible for everything that happens when it comes to that gun.” he stated.
“But, but, but, but, but, but, the actor is 10% responsible. The actor is 10% responsible. It’s a gun. You are a partner in the responsibility to some degree.”
Tarantino then elaborated on how the use of guns is communicated to actors in film.
“They show it to you. If there are steps to go through, you go through them, and it’s done with due diligence, and you know it’s f****** for real.” Tarantino explained.
He provided a hypothetical example: “If an actor knows he has three hot rounds in his gun, and he knows that, ‘OK, I’m going to do a scene, blah-bla-blah-bla-blah-bla-blah,’ and he knows he’s got three hot rounds as he’s doing the scene, and then at this point, bam bam bam. And then he’s going to continue on and say a few more things.
“OK, if one of the rounds doesn’t go off as he does his ‘bam bam bam,’ then he should cut the scene and say, ‘guys, one of the rounds didn’t go off, I think I’m still holding a hot gun here.”
Maher suggested adding the gunshots in post-production, to which Tarantino replied: “Yeah, I guess I can add digital erections to porno movies, but who wants to f**king watch that?”