In his first televised appearance since the shooting and also following a wrongful death suit filed by the family earlier in February, Matt Hutchins said he is “so angry” that Alec Baldwin didn’t “accept any responsibility” for Hutchins’ death during an interview on “TODAY” with Hoda Kotb. The show shared a clip on Wednesday evening, with the full interview set to air on Thursday. A star and producer on the film, Baldwin was holding the prop gun that discharged when Hutchins was killed. In an ABC News interview back in December, Baldwin claimed he did not pull the trigger. “I would never point a gun at anyone and pull a trigger at them. Never,” Baldwin said at the time. He then added, “I feel that, that someone is responsible for what happened and I can’t say who that is, but I know it’s not me.”
During the “TODAY” segment, Matt Hutchins said, “Watching him, I just felt so angry to see him talk about her death so publicly in such a detailed way, and then not accept any of the responsibility, after having just described killing her.” When asked by Kotb if he thinks the “majority” of the blame lay on Baldwin, Hutchins said, “The idea that the person holding the gun causing it to discharge is not responsible is absurd to me. But gun safety was not the only problem on that set. There were a number of industry standards that were not practiced. There’s multiple responsible parties.” Hutchins added: “Hearing him blame Halyna in the interview and shift responsibility to others and seeing him cry about it, I just feel like, are we really supposed to feel bad about you, Mr. Baldwin?” Hutchins’ family filed a lawsuit on February 15 against Alec Baldwin, seven other producers, armorers Hannah Gutierrez Reed and Seth Kenney, and various crew members. The wrongful death lawsuit comes four months after Hutchins was shot and killed on October 21 while on set for the Western at Bonanza Creek Ranch in New Mexico. Actor Baldwin was holding the gun when it fired and Hutchins was shot through the torso, while a projectile was lodged in the shoulder of director Joel Souza. The lawsuit claims “reckless behavior and cost-cutting” led to Hutchins’ death. The cinematographer is survived by her husband, Matthew Hutchins, and their nine-year-old son. The suit names actor-producer Baldwin, producers Ryan Smith, Allen Cheney, Nathan Klingher, Ryan Winterstern, Anjul Nigam, Matthew DelPiano, and Emily Salveson, and crew members Sarah Zachry, Dave Halls, Hannah Gutierrez Reed, Gabrielle Pickle, Seth Kenney, and others as defendants.
Per reports, the lawsuit alleges the “Rust” production “disregarded at least 15 industry standards” of on-set safety. Watch the interview with Matt Hutchins here. Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.
