Actors Debate the Handling Of Firearms on Movie Sets
The news that Alec Baldwin is facing manslaughter charges for killing a cinematographer with a gun he had been told was safe had the actor Steven Pasquale thinking back to the filming of “Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem” more than a decade ago, when he was handed a military-style rifle and told to start shooting.
He felt safe, he said, because he relied on the professional props experts and the armorer who had checked and shown him the gun.
“We are artists — we are not actual cowboys, actual cops, actual superheroes,” Mr. Pasquale said. “I can’t even begin to imagine an actor having the responsibility of now needing to be the safety person on the set regarding prop guns. That’s insane.”
The case, in which prosecutors in New Mexico maintain that Mr. Baldwin bore responsibility for ensuring that the gun he was handed on the set of “Rust” was safe, has prompted a debate within the film industry over gun safety and protocols. SAG-AFTRA, a union representing film workers, said the responsibility lay not with actors but with trained professionals.
The cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was killed on October 21, 2021, when the revolver Mr. Baldwin was rehearsing with fired. Mr. Baldwin said he had been told the gun had no live ammunition.
Mary Carmack-Altwies, the district attorney, said she planned to argue in court that Mr. Baldwin did not take “due caution or circumspection.”
The armorer on “Rust,” Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, also faces charges of involuntary manslaughter. Her lawyer said she would be exonerated.
Mr. Baldwin’s lawyer, Luke Nikas, said his client would be cleared, calling the case a “miscarriage of justice.”
Dave Halls, the movie’s first assistant director, had proclaimed the gun “cold” that day, meaning it should have had no live ammunition, according to court papers. Mr. Halls told investigators that Ms. Gutierrez-Reed had opened the gun for him but that he did not inspect each round. Mr. Halls has agreed to a plea deal on a charge of negligent use of a deadly weapon.
The “Rust” case is reshaping the film industry. Dwayne Johnson, whose production company makes gun-filled films like “Hobbs & Shaw,” has said the company would no longer use real guns.
Victor Talmadge, director of the theater studies program at Northeastern University in Boston, said that future films might make greater use of special effects or require more training, but he did not think real guns would disappear.
“The idea of the gun-toting character — that mythic model in American culture — I don’t know if that goes away,” he said.*