Chattanooga Times Free Press

Dwayne Johnson says he won’t use real guns on sets

- BY CHRISTIE D’ZURILLA

After the “Rust” shooting, Dwayne Johnson won’t be messing with any real guns moving forward — at least not when he’s working.

“Any movie … that Seven Bucks does with any studio, the rule is we’re not going to use real guns. That’s it,” the actor told Variety at the Wednesday premiere of his new big-budget heist film, “Red Notice.” Johnson was talking about his company Seven Bucks Production­s.

Costs, he said, won’t be an issue.

“We’re going to switch over to rubber guns, and we’re going to take care of it in post [production],” he said. “We’re not going to worry about the dollars; we won’t worry about what it costs.”

Johnson’s pledge comes in the wake of Halyna Hutchins’ Oct. 21 death. The cinematogr­apher was pronounced dead at a New Mexico hospital after being shot during a rehearsal on the low-budget movie “Rust.” An investigat­ion is focusing on how a live round or rounds made it onto the movie set and into the gun that was handed to star Alec Baldwin, who discharged the weapon.

Johnson said he was heartbroke­n over what happened. His company’s decision to leave real guns behind came several hours after he heard the news, he said.

“[W]hen something like this happens of this magnitude, [that is] this heartbreak­ing,” he told Variety, “I think the most prudent thing and the smartest thing to do is just pause for a second and really reexamine how you’re going to move forward and how we’re going to work together.”

A state legislator, Sen. Dave Cortese, D-San Jose, said last month that he will introduce legislatio­n seeking to ban live ammunition and firearms capable of shooting live ammunition from California movie sets and theatrical production­s.

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