Baldwin: Everyone on Rust set knows who to blame for Halyna Hutchins’ death

Mike Bedigan, PA Los Angeles Correspondent

Alec Baldwin says that “every single person” who was on the set of Rust knows “exactly who to blame” for the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.

The actor also offered an explanation into how the prop gun that killed the cinematographer in October last year in New Mexico could have been fired without him pulling the trigger.

It comes after a recent FBI report stated that the weapon’s trigger needed to have been pulled in order for it to have been discharged.

Speaking to US journalist Chris Cuomo on his podcast, Baldwin discussed the ongoing coverage of the event and said that the slow progress of the investigation was “troublesome”.

“I know that every single person on the set of the film knows what happened, and the people who are talking loudest about what happened or speculating about what happened were not on the set of the film,” he said.

Naming US media outlets including the LA Times and The Hollywood Reporter, he added: “They are talking on and on and on about what if this and what if that and have dined out on this and the thing that they have in common is nobody was there.

“Everybody who was there, they know exactly what happened. They know exactly who’s to blame.”

Of the investigation he added: “The fact that this has taken so long has been quite troublesome to me.”

According to the FBI report, the prop weapon “could not be made to fire without a pull of the trigger” but Baldwin has always denied that he did so.

Baldwin said a bullet could be fired without the trigger being pulled through a process called “fanning”.

“This did not come from me, this came from the DA’s Office themselves,” he told Cuomo.

“If you pull the hammer back, and you don’t lock the hammer; if you pull the hammer back pretty far – in old Western movies you’d see someone fan the hammer of the gun.

“The hammer didn’t lock. You pulled it back to an extent where it would fire the bullet without you pulling the trigger, without you locking the hammer.”

The actor reiterated that the principal safety officer on the set “declared that the gun was safe when he handed” him the gun.

A report into the incident previously found the film’s production company “knew that firearm safety procedures were not being followed on set” and “demonstrated plain indifference to employee safety”.

Rust Movie Productions was fined $136,793, the maximum allowable by state law in New Mexico, following a six-month investigation by the state’s environment department.

Baldwin continues to fight a number of lawsuits stemming from the incident.

“I am not the victim here. Things for me are going to get better, things for me are going to get cleared up. I am 1000% confident about that,” he said.

“And nothing is going to bring this woman back. She died.”