LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Alec Baldwin’s first public account of the fatal shooting on the set of his movie “Rust” will be broadcast on Thursday, about six weeks after a gun he was using during a rehearsal fired off a live bullet, killing a cinematographer.
Baldwin has given an interview that ABC television’s George Stephanopoulos described as raw and detailed. ABC will broadcast the interview about the tragedy, which is still being investigated by authorities in New Mexico, on Thursday evening.
In an advance excerpt, Baldwin said he did not pull the trigger on the gun, opening the possibility that the .45 caliber Colt revolver had gone off accidentally.
“I would never point a gun at anyone and pull a trigger at them,” Baldwin says, according to the excerpt.
Baldwin also told Stephanopoulos that he had “no idea” how a live bullet got on the movie set and that it was not supposed to be on the property.
“I think back and I think about what I could have done,” he told Stephanopoulos.
The Santa Fe Sheriff’s Department, which interviewed Baldwin immediately after the incident but has not disclosed what he told them, said on Wednesday it had no comment on his remarks.
An attorney for “Rust” assistant director Dave Halls said during an interview on “Good Morning America” that her client corroborated Baldwin’s account of the incident.
“Dave has told me since the very first day I met him that Alec did not pull that trigger,” attorney Lisa Torraco said of her client, who was on the set. “His finger was never in the trigger guard.”
Torraco did not elaborate on what Halls may have told her about what he had seen in the seconds before the gun discharged.
Baldwin, best known for playing an egotistical TV network executive on the TV comedy series “30 Rock,” has kept a low profile since the Oct. 21 accident at the Bonanza Creek (NYSE:BCEI) Ranch. He was the star and also a producer on the low-budget Western.
Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was killed and director Joel Souza was wounded when a gun Baldwin had been told by crew members was safe fired a live bullet.
“She was someone who was loved by everyone who worked with and liked by everyone who worked with (her), and admired,” Baldwin said during the Stephanopoulos interview.
No criminal charges have been filed. The film’s producers have said they are also conducting an internal probe.
Santa Fe authorities are focusing on how a live bullet, rather than a blank, ended up in the gun and how other live rounds got onto the set. Court documents on Wednesday showed that authorities had recovered some suspected live ammunition from a local supplier of movie props and weapons.
Baldwin was photographed in distress after the shooting and said in a statement that he was shocked and heartbroken for Hutchins’ husband and young son.
He spoke briefly with paparazzi on a roadside in October when he called the shooting a “one in a trillion” episode.
Two crew members have filed civil lawsuits accusing Baldwin, the producers and others on the production of negligence and lax safety protocols.
