LOS ANGELES — Film production and firearms experts say movie sets probably changed permanently when cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was shot and killed on the remote New Mexico set of the Western “Rust” 14 months ago, leading to the announcement from prosecutors Thursday that Alec Baldwin and the film’s weapons supervisor will be charged with involuntary manslaughter later this month.
“The gun safety experience on set has become more vocal, it’s a lot louder,” said Joey Dillon, an armorer who has overseen the use of firearms on television shows including “Westworld” and movies including “The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.” “I make it a lot louder myself.”
FILE - In this image from video released by the Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office, Alec Baldwin stands in costume and speaks with investigators following a fatal shooting on a movie set in Santa Fe, N.M. Prosecutors announced Thursday, Jan. 19, 2023 they are charging Baldwin with involuntary manslaughter in fatal shooting of cinematographer on movie set. (Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office via AP, File)
Baldwin was pointing the gun with a live round inside that killed Hutchins as they set up a shot for an upcoming scene. People at several levels of production are determined to ensure it never happens again.
That has meant the increasing use of digital and other technology that could make gunfire of any kind obsolete. It has also meant more simple things, like shouting when using the same safety protocols long in place to make clear to everyone when a gun is present and what its status is.
Actors and others are more interested when the gun is handed over.
“Now people want to check because people are a little a little gun shy,” Dillon said. “I’ll stop the whole process just to show them so that they feel comfortable with it.”
While checking a gun themselves may be in the best interest of actors, how much responsibility they bear for doing so remains in dispute, and will be a central question for jurors should Baldwin’s case go to trial.
His union, and his lawyer, say this onus can’t be placed on performers.
FILE - A musician plays a violin behind a photograph of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins during a vigil in her honor in Albuquerque, N.M., Saturday, Oct. 23, 2021. A Santa Fe district attorney is prepared to announce whether to press charges in the fatal 2021 film-set shooting of Hutchins by actor Alec Baldwin during a rehearsal on the set of the Western movie “Rust.” Santa Fe District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies said a decision will be announced Thursday morning, Jan. 19, 2022, in a statement and on social media platforms. (AP Photo/Andres Leighton, File)
“An actor’s job is not to be a firearms or weapons expert,” the Screen Actors Guild said in a statement Thursday. “Firearms are provided for their use under the guidance of multiple expert professionals directly responsible for the safe and accurate operation of that firearm.”
Baldwin’s defense attorney Luke Nikas said in a statement that he did his job by relying “on the professionals with whom he worked, who assured him the gun did not have live rounds.”
Santa Fe District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies disagrees.
“It is incumbent on anybody that holds a gun to make sure that it is either not loaded or to know what it is loaded with,” she said in an interview with The Associated Press. “And certainly then to not point it at someone and pull the trigger. That’s where his actor liability, we think, comes in.”
She also emphasized that while Baldwin is to be charged as the man with the gun in his hand, his role as a producer, and at least partial responsibility for the lax conditions that led to his having a loaded gun, were a consideration in deciding to bring the charges.
Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who oversaw the film’s firearms, will also be charged with involuntary manslaughter, the district attorney said.
Her attorney Jason Bowles said in a statement that they would “bring the full truth to light and that she “will be exonerated of wrongdoing by a jury.”
Technology may take the safety question out of actors’ hands entirely.
Productions were already using digital effects to simulate the flash and bang of gunfire more often, but Hutchins’ death has almost certainly sped the change along.
“There are a lot of bad ways that digital takes over, but this is a good way,” said Spencer Parsons, an associate professor and head of production at Northwestern University in the School of Communication’s department of Radio/Television/Film who has worked as a director and in other roles on any sets. “I’m not saying that there’s no good reason to use real pyrotechnics, but in terms of basic safety and speed, this makes sense.”
And when it comes to hardware, companies have been making increasingly convincing replicas, essentially enhanced BB guns with moving parts that behave like pistols but don’t fire bullets. Muzzle flashes and sounds are added in post-production.
But, Parsons said, “there’s not a lot of replicas for some of the antique stuff” used in Westerns and other period movies, which he specializes in.
Photos: Alec Baldwin through the years
FILE - In this Sunday, Sept. 12, 2021, photo Alec Baldwin watches the men's singles final of the US Open tennis championships in New York. A prop firearm discharged by veteran actor Alec Baldwin, who is starring and producing a Western movie, killed his director of photography and injured the director Thursday, Oct. 21, 2021 at the movie set outside Santa Fe, N.M., the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office said.(AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)
The 2012 musical comedy isn’t one of Alec Baldwin’s better-known movies, and he seems content to keep it that way. The same year it was released, he called it “a complete disaster” in an interview with The Wrap.
The most famous of the Baldwin clan has a notoriously fraught relationship with the paps, once even suggesting that paparazzi should be waterboarded in 2012. He was accused of striking a photographer that same year.
Betty White, left, speaks at the 70th Primetime Emmy Awards on Monday, Sept. 17, 2018, at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. Looking on from right are Alec Baldwin and Kate McKinnon. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)
Famously hot-tempered Alec Baldwin worked as a nightclub bouncer before hitting it big—at New York City’s famed Studio 54, no less.
Overall wins: 8 Total nominations: 20 TV wins: 8 Movie wins: 0 The actor with the most SAG Award wins is Alec Baldwin. He has been nominated 20 times in his acting career and has won eight of them. His first win came in 2007 in the category of Outstanding Performance by an Actor in a Comedy Series for his role in “30 Rock.” He went on to win the same award in 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013. To round out his eight wins, “30 Rock” won Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series in 2009.
Actor Alec Baldwin and Hilaria Thomas, a yoga instructor, married in 2011 and have four children together. Hilaria says she didn’t know anything about the "30 Rock” actor when they met. After learning Baldwin was pre-diabetic, his health-conscious wife helped the actor adopt a healthier diet to shed 30 pounds.
Season 32, Episode 5 IMDb rating: 7.6 IMDb votes: 93 Airdate: November 11, 2006 In 2006, “SNL” had assembled one of its strongest casts ever, thanks to a lineup that included Andy Samberg, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, Seth Meyers, and Bill Hader. This particular episode included Tina Fey and Tracy Morgan guest-starring in Baldwin's monologue.
Santa Actor: Alec Baldwin
Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score: 80%
Santa Claus goes full fantasy in this epic that encompasses all the holiday patrons — the Easter Bunny, the Boogeyman, even the Tooth Fairy — as they band together to fight an ancient, recently awakened evil. While it’s a good movie, it’s not very Christmasy with Alec Baldwin’s hardened, battle-worn Santa. When he laughs, his belly shakes like a bowl full of cement.
Alec Baldwin attends the "The Boss Baby" panel on day 1 of Comic-Con International on Thursday, July 21, 2016, in San Diego. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)
Alec Baldwin accepts the award for outstanding supporting actor in a comedy series for "Saturday Night Live" at the 69th Primetime Emmy Awards on Sunday, Sept. 17, 2017, at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)
This Jan. 14, 2017 photo released by NBC shows Alec Baldwin President Elect Donald J. Trump in a sketch on "Saturday Night Live," in New York. (Will Heath/NBC via AP)
Alec Baldwin, left, and Betty White are seen on stage at the 17th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards on Sunday, Jan. 30, 2011 in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill)
Actors Alec Baldwin, left, and Amy Sedaris pose together at the world premiere of "The Boss Baby: Family Business" at the SVA Theatre on Tuesday, June 22, 2021, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
Actor Alec Baldwin, right, and wife Hilaria Baldwin attend the world premiere of "The Boss Baby: Family Business" at the SVA Theatre on Tuesday, June 22, 2021, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
Actor Alec Baldwin, center, poses with his wife Hilaria Baldwin and their children at the world premiere of "The Boss Baby: Family Business" at the SVA Theatre on Tuesday, June 22, 2021, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
