After ‘Rust’ criminal charges, what’s next for Alec Baldwin?
With the announcement on Thursday that criminal charges will be filed in the accidental shooting in
2021 of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the Western “Rust,”
Alec Baldwin is likely to see his already damaged career erode even further.
Baldwin, who starred in the yet-to-be-completed “Rust” and was one of its producers, will be charged by New Mexico prosecutors with two counts of involuntary manslaughter for his role in the fatality. Baldwin shot Hutchins in the chest on Oct. 21, 2021, while rehearsing a scene with her and the film’s director, Joel Souza, who was wounded.
In a statement following the announcement, an attorney for Baldwin, Luke Nikas, said, “This decision distorts Halyna Hutchins’ tragic death and represents a terrible miscarriage of justice. Mr. Baldwin had no reason to believe there was a live bullet in the gun — or anywhere on the movie set. He relied on the professionals with whom he worked, who assured him the gun did not have live rounds. We will fight these charges, and we will win.”
Even before the “Rust” shooting, Baldwin — long considered one of Hollywood’s most versatile stars — had seen his career cool in the decade since he ended his run on the NBC sitcom “30 Rock,” which earned him two Emmy Awards for his performance as smooth-talking network executive Jack Donaghy.
With the kinds of meaty roles in major Hollywood productions he’d once enjoyed in films like “Beetlejuice,” “The Hunt for Red October” and “Glengarry Glen Ross” largely a thing of the past, Baldwin had co-written the lowbudget “Rust” and cast himself in the lead as an aging outlaw as a way to help rejuvenate his flagging acting career.
After the shooting, Baldwin drew criticism for blaming others on the “Rust” set for the accident. “Someone is responsible … but I know it’s not me,” Baldwin told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos in December 2021 — further battering a public reputation that had already weathered years of controversies, legal scrapes and social media outbursts.
As his troubles mounted, Baldwin found himself dropped from several planned projects, including the lead role in a spy thriller called “Chief of Station.” “I got fired from another job yesterday,” the actor told CNN in an interview in August, noting he had lost five roles since the shooting. “There I was all set to go to a movie, jump on a plane . ... I’ve been talking with these guys for months and they told me yesterday, ‘We don’t want to do the film with you because of this.’ ’’
At age 64, Baldwin already likely faced dwindling career prospects. But with the announcement of criminal charges, which could be punishable with a mandatory five years in jail if Baldwin is found guilty, the actor could find it difficult to get cast in anything. Actress Felicity Huffman, who pleaded guilty to federal charges in 2019 stemming from the Varsity Blues college admissions scandal, has not appeared onscreen since, and many in Hollywood are unlikely to want to be associated with an actor who’s been implicated in a far graver matter.