Quentin Tarantino has weighed in on the Rust shooting incident, claiming that Alec Baldwin is '10% responsible'.
The tragic 2021 incident saw cinematographer Halyna Hutchins being accidentally hit and killed by a pistol bullet on the set of Rust. The film's director Joel Souza was also wounded.
In December 2021, Baldwin told ABC News' George Stephanopoulos: "Someone is responsible for what happened and I can't say who that is, but I know it's not me," adding that the gun was cold when it was given to him and that he was cocking the gun, not pulling the trigger.
He also said he didn't realise that there was a live round in the gun until 'probably 45 minutes to an hour later'.
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Following three civil lawsuits from the script supervisor, Hutchins' family and Baldwin himself, the Beetlejuice star and armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed - who was found guilty - were both charged with involuntary manslaughter, prosecutors announced.
Baldwin pled not guilty to the charge and always denied pulling the trigger.
And last month, Baldwin's involuntary manslaughter case was thrown out on grounds of misconduct by police and prosecutors.
In an episode of Bill Maher's Club Random podcast published on Sunday (August 25), Tarantino spoke with the talk show host regarding the accidental shooting.
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Maher began by defending Baldwin, saying: "I am the biggest supporter of his bulls*** case, don’t you think? I mean, how can it be his fault?
"Like, either you think he purposely shot that cinematographer, or you think he didn’t purposely shoot her. And if he didn’t purposely shoot her, then it’s all fucking bulls**t. Am I wrong?"
And while the Kill Bill director agreed with part of Maher's point of view, he did have somewhat of a different opinion on the matter.
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"No. It’s a situation, I think — I’m being fair enough to say that the armorer, the guy who handles the gun, an armorer is 90% responsible for everything that happens when it comes to that gun." he said.
"But, but, but, but, but, but, the actor is 10% responsible. The actor is 10% responsible. It’s a gun. You are a partner in the responsibility to some degree.”
The From Dusk till Dawn star then discussed how the use of guns in film is relayed to actors.
Tarantino said: "They show it to you. If there are steps to go through, you go through them, and it’s done with due diligence, and you know it’s f****** for real."
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Giving a further example of a hypothetical situation, he continued: "If an actor knows he has three hot rounds in his gun, and he knows that, ‘OK, I’m going to do a scene, blah-bla-blah-bla-blah-bla-blah,’ and he knows he’s got three hot rounds as he’s doing the scene, and then at this point, bam bam bam. And then he’s going to continue on and say a few more things.
"OK, if one of the rounds doesn’t go off as he does his ‘bam bam bam,’ then he should cut the scene and say, ‘guys, one of the rounds didn’t go off, I think I’m still holding a hot gun here."
Maher then suggested just adding the gunshots 'in post', to which Tarantino responded: "Yeah, I guess I can add digital erections to porno movies, but who wants to f**king watch that?"
UNILAD has reached out to Baldwin's attorney for comment.
Topics: Quentin Tarantino, Alec Baldwin, Film and TV
Callum Jones