Clooney weighs in on ‘Rust’
George Clooney has weighed in on the deadly “Rust” set tragedy.
The Oscar winning actor and producer described last month’s fatal shooting on the movie set of Alec Baldwin’s upcoming film as “infuriating ” and “insane.”
Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, 42, was killed and director Joel Souza was injured on Oct. 21 when Baldwin — the star and producer of the film — fired a gun he believed was unloaded on the Santa Fe, New Mexico movie set. An investigation is ongoing.
“Why for the life of me, this low-budget film, with producers who haven’t produced anything, wouldn’t have hired for the armorer someone with experience,” Clooney said, referring to 24-year-old “Rust” armorer Hannah Gutierrez-reed. “We need to be better at making sure that the heads of our departments are ... experienced and know what they’re doing.”
The armorer is the person on set who in charge of the weapons and artillery.
“It’s infuriating that you get to this place where the places that you’re skimping on, and again I want to say that I don’t believe there’s any intent by anybody to do anything wrong — it’s a terrible accident — but a 24-year-old person shouldn’t probably, with that little experience, shouldn’t be heading up a department with guns and bullets,” he told Marc Maron during this week’s episode of the WTF podcast.
Gutierrez-reed’s attorney has said he believes someone mixed live rounds with dummy rounds on the “Rust” set in order to sabotage the production, without providing any proof to support the claim.
“Maybe they weren’t doing target practice with that gun, but they had live ammo with dummies in her pack. And that is insane,” Clooney continued. “It’s infuriating.”
The matter hits home of the “Ocean’s Eleven” star.
Clooney shared that he was friends with actor Jon-erik Hexum, who was killed in 1984 when he put a blank-loaded gun to his head and fired. He also revealed he was “really good friends” with Brandon Lee, who was fatally wounded in 1993 when an unnoticed bullet was fired during the filming of “The Crow.”
“After Brandon died, it really became a very clear thing,” he said. “Open the gun, look down the barrel, look in the cylinder, make sure.”
“Every single time I’m handed a gun on a set,” Clooney added. “I look at it, I open it, I show it to the person I’m pointing it to … every single take. … And part of the reason we do that is because of Brandon.”
Clooney, who’s starred in action films such as “From Dusk Till Dawn,” “Out of Sight” and “Three Kings,” said he “hoped” Baldwin — who he doesn’t know well — did the same but didn’t know for sure.
“I’ve never heard the term ‘cold gun,’” Clooney added, referring to the term assistant director David Halls reportedly said to Baldwin to indicate that the gun was empty. “They’re just talking about stuff I’ve never heard of. It’s just infuriating.”
According to Maron, the interview with the 60year-old Hollywood heavyweight was recorded a week after the shooting occurred.