“I would never point a gun at someone and pull the trigger on them, never.”
Alec Baldwin says he “didn’t pull the trigger” on the gun that fatally shot cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on set of the movie Rust in October.
In his first interview since the shooting, the actor sat down with presenter George Stephanopoulos for an hour-long exclusive discussing the incident and its fallout.
A preview of the interview shared on Wednesday by ABC News shows Baldwin get visibly emotional whilst talking about both the filmmaker and the shot that killed her.
“Even now, I find it hard to believe that,” he said. “It doesn’t seem real to me.”
When asked if he pulled the trigger on the gun, which contained a live round, Baldwin said: “The trigger wasn’t pulled. I didn’t pull the trigger. I would never point a gun at someone and pull the trigger on them, never.”
He added that he had “no idea” how a live round made its way on set into a gun that was supposed to be used as a prop on the Western film.
“Someone put a live bullet in a gun,” he continued. “A bullet that wasn’t even supposed to be on the property.”
The preview doesn’t include him talking about how the gun was discharged.
The full interview is set to air today in the States and will reportedly address how Baldwin thinks the shooting occurred, how he’s coming to terms with it, and how he responds to actors like George Clooney who say they always check guns on set prior to filming.
Hutchins was the movie’s Director of Photography. She died on October 21 when the gun was discharged on set.
Rust director Joel Souza was also injured as a result of the shooting.
