"Someone is responsible for what happened and I can't say who it is," Alec Baldwin says of the tragedy on the set of 'Rust'

By Tim Stelloh -

In his first interview since a shooting on a film set left a cinematographer dead, a director injured and Hollywood in a daze, actor Alec Baldwin was emotional and insisted that he did not want to portray himself as a victim, as he blurted out a few words. tears when questioned by George Stephanopoulos of ABC News in a broadcast on Thursday.

Baldwin, who according to authorities was practicing with the gun when it was fired, also said he

and

Here are five keys to the hour-long interview.

Alec Baldwin during his interview on ABC News, which aired this Thursday, December 2, 2021. Jeff Neira / ABC via Getty Images

"That was the moment the gun was fired"

Baldwin told Stephanopoulos that he met director of photography Halyna Hutchins on October 11, 10 days before she died, at a dinner with director Joel Souza.

The team was shooting Rust, a low-budget western, on the Bonanza Creek Ranch in Santa Fe County, New Mexico.

["I didn't pull the trigger" on the set of 'Rust', Alec Baldwin assures through tears]

Baldwin described her as intense and focused, someone "who had energy."

On October 21, the team was preparing for a shooting inside a church when Dave Halls, the assistant director, handed Baldwin a Colt .45 and called him

,

indicating that he had no real bullets. investigators said in a search warrant affidavit.

Halls' attorney, Lisa Torraco, has maintained that her client did not give the gun to Baldwin and that checking if it was loaded was not her responsibility.

Baldwin said Hutchins had told him how to position it and when to cock it.

With the barrel pointed at his armpit, he said, he released the hammer.

"That was the moment the gun was fired," he

said

adding that everyone on set was "horrified" and "shocked" by what happened.

The bullet fatally struck Hutchins and lodged in Souza's left shoulder.

"They told me they gave me an empty gun," he

said.

"She fell.

.

"The idea of ​​someone putting a real bullet in the gun was never a reality," Baldwin said.

Why didn't Baldwin check the gun?

In the aftermath of the tragedy, George Clooney, Matthew McConaughey and other actors criticized Baldwin for not following what they called an essential and well-known protocol:

[Alec Baldwin speaks for the first time on camera since the fatal shooting on the set of Rust]

But Baldwin said he was taught otherwise.

Actors should not be the "last line of defense," he said, noting that it was the responsibility of the gunsmith, or the team's weapons specialist, to ensure that firearms were properly maintained.

When someone has handed him a gun on set, he has always "trusted them," he added.

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Attorneys for Rust's owner, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, have suggested that someone may have tried to sabotage the set by placing a real bullet in a box of dummy ammunition.

Prosecutors have rejected the idea of ​​sabotage.

Attorneys have not provided any evidence to support that theory, and Baldwin has said it is "overwhelmingly likely" that the shooting was an accident.

"We have problems here"

Baldwin also addressed allegations by a former team member, Lane Luper, that security procedures were "fast and lazy" on set.

Luper resigned the day before filming and wrote to the producers in an email that, while shooting scenes of the shooting, there had been two accidental discharges of weapons, an accidental explosion and there were no safety meetings.

[Authorities are trying to determine who put the bullets in the gun Alec Baldwin used on set]

Baldwin told Stephanopoulos that he spoke to Luper the day before his resignation, that he thanked him for his position on the possibility of movie employees going on strike amid deadlock in contract negotiations - Baldwin publicly backed the union - and Luper said,

"Like for example?" Baldwin recalled asking him.

"My men need better hotel rooms," Baldwin recalls Luper saying.

said.

"I never heard a word about it," he added.

Baldwin, who was also a producer on the film, said his production responsibilities were strictly creative.

“I am a purely creative producer.

My skills as a producer are the cast and the script, ”he said, adding that he did not participate in the budget discussions.

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Lawsuits

Two former team members have sued Baldwin and others involved in the filming of Rust, alleging that cost-cutting measures were made at the expense of security protocols and that Baldwin recklessly fired his weapon when the shot was not even on target. screenplay.

[Why are real pistols still used on film sets?

After the tragedy of 'Rust', the future is at stake]

Baldwin claimed that one of the plaintiffs told him immediately after the shooting that he had "no responsibility for what happened here."

Baldwin declined to say who made the comment but said it was "disturbing" that the lawsuits were filed before Hutchins' husband had a chance to sue and settle a limited insurance fund.

Hutchins' husband, Matthew Hutchins, has not said he intends to sue, but Baldwin said he would be "baffled" if he didn't.

"Something happened that resulted in the death of his wife," he said.

Baldwin added that he did not pull the trigger or intentionally fire the gun.

"I have no idea" how it happened, he said.

"Someone put a real bullet in a gun, a bullet that wasn't even supposed to be on the property."

An attorney for Dave Halls said her client confirmed Baldwin's account and suggested the gun might have misfired.

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"Someone is responsible"

According to Baldwin, the mystery of what happened on the set of Rust will be revealed when investigators determine how a live bullet entered the set.

He insisted that he bears no responsibility in the shooting and

"I feel like someone is responsible for what happened, and I can't say who it is," he

said.

I mean, honestly, if I felt I was responsible, I could have killed myself if I thought I was responsible.

And I don't say it lightly, ”he settled.