Alec Baldwin claims one of the crew members suing him said he bore no responsibility for fatal shooting
‘They’re entitled to change their mind,’ actor says
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Your support makes all the difference.Alec Baldwin has claimed that one of the crew members who filed a lawsuit against him walked up to him right after the Rust set shooting and said that the actor bore no responsibility for what happened.
The 63-year-old actor, who allegedly fired the fatal shot that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins in October, spoke to ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos on Tuesday (30 November) in his first interview since the incident.
During the interview, the Motherless Brooklyn actor said that one of the crew members who is now suing him came up to him after the shooting and said: “You realise that you have no responsibility for what happened here don’t you.”
“Now that person is suing me,” Baldwin said. “They’re entitled to change their mind.”
The head of lighting on the set of Rust filed a lawsuit alleging negligence that caused him “severe emotional distress” that will haunt him forever.
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Baldwin declined to say which crew member it was. However, Serge Svetnoy, one of the crew members who filed a suit, told ABC that he did say that to the Drunk Parents actor but later changed his mind.
Svetnoy said in the suit that the bullet that killed his close friend Hutchins, narrowly missed him, and he held her head as she died.
The lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court names nearly two dozen defendants associated with the film including Baldwin, David Halls, the assistant director who handed Baldwin the gun; and Hannah Gutierrez Reed, who was in charge of weapons on the set.
“Simply put there was no reason for a live bullet to be placed in that .45 Colt revolver or to be present anywhere on the ‘Rust’ set, and the presence of a bullet in a revolver posed a lethal threat to everyone in its vicinity,” the lawsuit says.
The suit says Svetnoy was setting up lighting within 6 or 7 feet (2 metres) of Baldwin.
“What happened next will haunt Plaintiff forever,” the suit says. “He felt a strange and terrifying whoosh of what felt like pressurised air from his right. He felt what he believed was gunpowder and other residual materials directly strike the right side of his face.”
The lawsuit seeks both compensatory and punitive damages to be determined later. It was filed in Los Angeles County because the plaintiff and most of the defendants are based there.
Additional reporting by AP
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