A court heard Monday that Alec Baldwin said he was going to ‘whip it out,’ referring to the weapon that was used to accidentally shoot and kill a cinematographer on the set of ‘Rust.’
Court Heard
Baldwin, the jury heard, preferred to use real guns rather than rubber ones. He loved the feel of the ‘hero props.’
The trial of Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was shown chilling footage of Baldwin pulling the weapon out in the same spot where he killed Halyna Hutchins just hours later.
In the footage Baldwin can be heard saying he was going to ‘whip it out’ even though the scene only called for him to show the handle.
A crew member, Ross Addiego, claimed that ‘safety seemed to be secondary to the production clock’ because the film couldn’t afford to lose any time.
Before the Tragedy
The set had been in a ‘state of rushed chaos’ in the weeks before the tragedy, according to witnesses who took the stand to reveal details about the set of the indie Western, where Halyna Hutchins lost her life.
Baldwin, the lead actor and one of the producers, told the crew to ‘move, move, move’ and nobody stood up to him because he was the ‘big boss’, the jury heard.
Gutierrez-Reed, 26, is accused of letting a live round get into the gun Baldwin was using when he shot dead Hutchins, a prop gun that could fire live ammunition.
She denies involuntary manslaughter at a court in Santa Fe, New Mexico, near to where Rust was being filmed in October 2021.
The bullet went clean through Hutchins, 42, a mother-of-one, and hit Rust director Joel Souza in the shoulder but he survived.
As it is
Baldwin, 65, will face trial at a later date for involuntary manslaughter, which he denies.
He and Gutierrez-Reed are facing 18 months in jail if convicted.
The jury heard that Addiego worked as a dolly grip, which involves building and maintaining all the equipment cameras are mounted on.
READ ALSO: Halyna Hutchins’ final words after being shot by Alec Baldwin on Rust set revealed
Addiego is one of three crew members who is currently suing Baldwin and the producers of Rust, claiming that Hutchins’ death left them with PTSD and anxiety.
Addiego’s Testimony
In his testimony, Addiego detailed the litany of safety failures that happened on the set in the two weeks before the incident were unlike anything he had seen on the 100 films he had worked on, which includes Men in Black 3 and Terminator 3.
Addiego said that safety meetings should have happened at least once a day but in his time on the Rust set there was just one.
According to Addiego, armourers were typically some of the ‘most uptight and anal retentive people on set because they literally have people’s lives in their hands’.
He said: ‘They don’t joke around, they stick to themselves and focus on the task at hand
‘Most of them seem to be either former military or law enforcement and have some sort of background with firearms’.
But Gutierrez-Reed ‘wasn’t as serious or as professional as I’m accustomed to with the other armourers I’ve worked with’, Addiego said.
He said that she left firearms sitting loosely and unlocked on the top of her prop cart and pulled loose rounds out of a fanny pack.
There Were Concerns
Addiego said that typically the armourer would allow the cast and crew to look down the barrel of the gun before loading the ammunition in front of them.
On Rust, that never happened, causing Addiego more concern.
He said: ‘They call them safety checks for a reason. We were moving through those instead of pausing to have those checks’.
Morrissey asked if Addiego ever recalled Gutierrez-Reed loading a gun in the presence of the crew.
He said: ‘A couple of times where she was put in a position to reload as quick as she could and hand it back to the actors’.
When asked who put her in that position, Addiego said it was first assistant director Dave Halls and Baldwin.
Addiego said he had seen other armourers slow down the pace so they were not being rushed.
