“Quentin Tarantino Sparks Controversy, Faults Alec Baldwin for ‘Rust’ Cinematographer’s Death”

Tarantino’s Controversial Remarks

Quentin Taran­ti­no has sparked con­tro­ver­sy by stat­ing that while Alec Bald­win isn’t sole­ly respon­si­ble for Haly­na Hutchins’ death on the “Rust” set, he bears some blame. 

The Pulp Fic­tion direc­tor attrib­uted 90% of the respon­si­bil­i­ty to the film’s armor­er, Han­nah Gutier­rez-Reed, and the remain­ing 10% to Baldwin.

Allocation of Responsibility

Taran­ti­no believes actors should per­son­al­ly inspect their weapons before use to ensure there are no issues. He claims the actor holds a “10% respon­si­bil­i­ty” in such inci­dents, while the armor­er who han­dles the gun is “90% responsible.”

Baldwin’s Legal Troubles

Ear­li­er this year, a New Mex­i­co judge dis­missed the manslaugh­ter case against Bald­win, after it was dis­cov­ered that cru­cial evi­dence had been improp­er­ly con­cealed from his legal team. The actor had plead­ed not guilty, claim­ing the gun fired accidentally.

Armorer’s Conviction

In April 2023, Gutier­rez-Reed, the film’s armor­er, was con­vict­ed of invol­un­tary manslaugh­ter in Hutchins’ death and sen­tenced to 18 months in prison. She was the pri­ma­ry focus of the inves­ti­ga­tion into the fatal shooting.

Ongoing Aftermath

The film­ing of “Rust” has since resumed, with Hutchins’ hus­band, Matthew Hutchins, becom­ing an exec­u­tive pro­duc­er on the project under an agree­ment. The com­plet­ed film has not yet been released for pub­lic viewing.