In his most recent court filing, Alec Baldwin claims that his contract protected him from financial responsibility in the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, whom Baldwin accidentally but fatally shot on October 21 in New Mexico while shooting a scene for the indie film Rust.
On Friday, lawyers for Baldwin filed an arbitration demand against other producers of Rust. Per The New York Times, the filing claims that Baldwin is not liable for the death of Hutchins, and it argues that it was not Baldwin’s responsibility to determine if the gun had live rounds in it. Baldwin has been named in several lawsuits since Hutchins’s death, including a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by Hutchins’s family last month that accused Baldwin and the film’s producers of reckless conduct and cutting costs, which endangered safety.
“An actor cannot rule that a gun is safe,” reads Baldwin’s filing. “That is the responsibility of other people on the set.”
The new filing describes in more specific detail what transpired on the day of Hutchins’s death. According to The New York Times, Baldwin claims in the filing that he asked Hutchins if she wanted him to pull back the hammer of the gun during a rehearsal and she said yes. “Baldwin then pulled back the hammer, but not far enough to actually cock the gun,” reads the filing. “When Baldwin let go of the hammer, the gun went off.” The filing goes on to describe in vivid detail the aftermath of the incident, in which Hutchins was helicoptered to a hospital and pronounced dead. The filing says that at the end of his interview with the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office, Baldwin was shown a photograph of the projectile that had passed through Hutchins and then wounded Rust director Joel Souza.
“Baldwin recognized the object as a live bullet, and he finally began to comprehend what had transpired on the set of Rust that day,” the filing says. “He was shocked.”
The filing also provides more insight into the disintegration of the relationship between Baldwin and Matthew Hutchins, Halyna’s widower, and includes text messages exchanged between the two. The New York Times reports that the filing shows that their relationship was initially copacetic, with Baldwin and Matthew exchanging text messages expressing their mutual condolences. Shortly after the shooting Baldwin had breakfast in Santa Fe with Matthew and his son. “Hutchins hugged Baldwin and told him, ‘I guess we’re going to go through this together,’” says the filing.
Things reportedly soured between the two after Baldwin’s televised ABC News interview with George Stephanopoulos in December. In the interview, Baldwin denied responsibility for Halyna’s death. Matthew later filed a lawsuit against Baldwin claiming that he had “recklessly shot and killed Halyna Hutchins on the set,” and in February gave his own interview on NBC’s Today show, calling Baldwin’s refusal to take responsibility for the tragic event “absurd.”
“Before Hutchins’s appearance on the Today show, his interactions with Baldwin had only been polite, collaborative, and, at times, even warm,” says Baldwin’s filing.
In the filing, Baldwin’s lawyer, Luke Nikas, says that a clause Baldwin and his company had signed in his contract with Rust Movie Productions LLC precludes him from bearing financial responsibility for legal fees or claims arising out of the death. “Someone is culpable for chambering the live round that led to this horrific tragedy, and it is someone other than Baldwin,” reads Nikas’s claim. “This is a rare instance when the system broke down, and someone should be held legally culpable for the tragic consequences. That person is not Alec Baldwin.”
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