The news that Alec Baldwin faces manslaughter charges for killing a cinematographer with a gun he had been told was safe had actor Steven Pasquale reminiscing about the set of “Aliens vs. Predator 2” over a decade ago, when he and other actors were handed military-style rifles and told to start shooting.
He felt safe, he said, because he trusted the professional prop experts and the gunsmith who had checked and shown him the gun.
“We are artists, we are not real cowboys, not policemen, not superheroes,” Pasquale said. “We are not Jason Bourne. I can’t even imagine an actor now having the responsibility of being the security person on set with the prop weapons. He is crazy”.
The charges brought against Baldwin for a shooting on the set had many actors looking back on their own experiences with guns and debating safety measures and who is primarily responsible.
Actor Michael Chiklis, who has starred on television in police dramas such as “The Commish” and “The Shield: Outside the Law”, described the shooting as a “tragic accident” and assured that “from now on, there is no reason to go back to using a real firearm on a set.”
The case, in which New Mexico prosecutors say Baldwin had a responsibility to make sure the gun he was given on the set of “Rust” was safe, has sparked a debate in the film industry about gun safety. and its protocols. SAG-AFTRA, the union representing film workers, stated that the responsibility does not lie with the actors, but with qualified professionals. Actors and gun handlers recounted different experiences with firearms on sets, with some actors saying they exercised a higher level of caution than others.
Baldwin faces two counts of manslaughter in the shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, who died on October 21, 2021, when the revolver she was rehearsing—which she had been told was “cold”—is that is, it should not have contained live ammunition—it was fired suddenly.
Santa Fe County Prosecutor Mary Carmack-Altwies said in an interview Thursday that she planned to argue in court that Baldwin did not use “due caution or circumspection” when he removed an antique revolver from its holster, which he should have ensured that the gun did not contain live ammunition and that he should not have pointed the gun at the cinematographer. The prosecutor claimed that according to forensic evidence, Baldwin had pulled the trigger; Baldwin denied this, stating that the gun discharged unexpectedly after he pulled the hammer back and released it.
As the case progresses, it is very likely that the standards and practices of the film and television industry will come to the fore. Industry standards say that no one should be given a firearm without safety training, but the responsibility for checking weapons before each use rests with the prop master or designated gun handler.
Kirk Acevedo, an actor who has worked extensively with weapons in series such as “Blood Brothers” and in the film “The Thin Red Line,” said it was typical for a film gunsmith, responsible for weapons and ammunition on the set. , open a gun and show the actor that it was empty. Acevedo said that while he had guns and experience with them, many actors lacked the knowledge to test firearms themselves. In some cases, he pointed out, the actors are children.
“It’s not me,” he said, referring to who has the responsibility. “It can’t be me. If you’ve never fired a gun, how are you going to know how to do all that? Some people have a hard time even turning the slide back.”
“Rust” gunsmith Hannah Gutierrez-Reed also faces manslaughter charges. One of her lawyers, Jason Bowles, claimed that she would be exonerated.
Baldwin has asserted in interviews and court documents that waiting for an actor to take the initiative to check a gun is not standard practice. His lawyer Luke Nikas said he too would be exonerated, calling the accusation a “terrible miscarriage of law.”
SAG-AFTRA stated in a statement that industry guidelines “do not stipulate that it is the actor’s responsibility to check any firearm.”
Criteria for firearms safety vary on sets.
Ruben Santiago-Hudson, who played an NYPD captain on the ABC series “Castle” and now plays an officer on the CBS series “East New York,” said strict rules had been imposed. ever since he appeared in a play in which a blank shot was fired so close to another actor in rehearsal that it nearly damaged his eardrum.
“It’s okay to annoy people by how much you check and recheck the gun,” Santiago-Hudson said.
The actor commented that he made sure never to point the gun directly at another person, a controversial point in the “Rust” case.
Baldwin told > after the shooting that he had pointed the gun at Hutchins only because he had been told she was “cold” and instructed to do so.
“A lot of people were saying to me online, ‘You idiot, you never point a gun at someone,’” Baldwin said in the interview. “Well, unless they tell you it’s empty, and it’s the cinematographer who gives you angle instructions for a shot we’re going to do.”
Days after the shooting, in which “Rust” director Joel Souza was also wounded, investigators interviewed one of the film’s actors, Jensen Ackles, who told them that he himself inspects his weapons on set.
“I always do my own personal checks because it’s a smart thing to do,” Ackles told police, according to video of the interview. But he said he didn’t expect his colleagues to do the same, also telling detectives that if actors were the last line of defense in a set’s security, then he “wouldn’t trust 99.9 percent of them.” the people you work with.”
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