Actor Michael Shannon isn’t ‘condemning Alec,’ suggests Rust production ‘cut corners’
Jenny Goldsberry
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Actor Michael Shannon largely blamed the production crew over Alec Baldwin’s fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
Shannon, who is making his debut directorial role with the film Eric Larue about the aftermath of a school shooting, shared his insight about on-set armory with the Chicago Tribune.
ALEC BALDWIN CHARGED WITH INVOLUNTARY MANSLAUGHTER IN HALYNA HUTCHINS SHOOTING
“I’m not condemning Alec,” Shannon said. “I feel horrible for the guy. It’s a nightmare. I feel terrible for everyone on that production.”
“But this is what happens when you lowball and cut corners and hire people that may not be qualified, and pay them next to nothing, and make the movie on the cheap,” he explained.
In his experience, all “risky” scenes begin with a safety meeting led by the assistant director before filming even begins for the day. Shannon went on to postulate that the production crew “cut corners” and went against typical procedure.
“Sometimes they’ll give you the actual gun to rehearse with a little closer to filming. But there’s a procedure for that. They open the barrel. They show you there’s nothing in there,” Shannon explained. “They show you the chambers, they show the assistant director, and it’s a visual confirmation. The AD’s supposed to check it, the actor checks it, and the armorer has checked it. All three of those people have to see there’s nothing in there. And then they hand it to you.”
Rust’s assistant director David Halls notably signed a plea agreement after the New Mexico First district attorney charged him of negligent use of a deadly weapon. As a result, he now has a suspended sentence and faces six months of probation. No one has been charged regarding the injuries director Joel Souza sustained from the shooting. Shannon suggested the film’s modest budget of $7 million wasn’t enough to make the movie “the right way.”
“They whittle the budget down to the bare minimum — but the one thing you can’t cut corners on is your armorer. If you have guns in your movie, that’s no place to cut corners,” Shannon said. “The person on Rust clearly was not qualified for the job. She should not have been there.”
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“This was a really fast and loose set,” DA Mary Carmack-Altwies said of the Rust set. “Nobody was doing their job. There were three people that, if they had done their job that day, this tragedy wouldn’t have happened and that is David Halls, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, and Alec Baldwin. If they had just done their basic duties, we wouldn’t be standing here.”
Baldwin’s attorney, Luke Nikas of Quinn Emanuel, has confirmed to the Washington Examiner that he plans to fight the charges.