‘Rust’ Director Remembers ‘Distraught’ Armorer Apologizing After Accidental Shooting
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Rust director Joel Souza recalled the disorienting moments that followed being accidentally shot on set, and the apology he heard armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed utter, during the latter’s manslaughter trial, Variety reports.
Souza — who has not previously shared his recollections of the incident publicly — was shot in the shoulder, while cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was fatally hit in the chest, when Alec Baldwiin accidentally discharged a prop gun while they rehearsed a scene for the movie. In court Friday, March 1, Souza remembered hearing the shot go off and then feeling like “somebody had taken a baseball bat to my shoulder.”
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In the moments that followed, Souza said he remembered screaming in pain, seeing blood on Hutchins’ back, and spotting Gutierrez-Reed in the church where the scene was being rehearsed. “She looked distraught,” Souza said. “I remember her saying, ‘I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Joel.’ And I remember somebody just screaming at her, and they just ushered her out.”
Gutierrez Reed is facing charges of manslaughter and evidence tampering, to which she’s pleaded not guilty. She’s accused of negligently loading a live bullet into the .45-caliber Colt revolver that Baldwin accidentally fired.
In another key moment from his testimony, Souza said he didn’t know how a prop gun with live rounds ended up in Baldwin’s hand. “I didn’t see anybody give it to him,” he admitted, adding there was “an enormous amount going on” at the time (via Deadline). Souza testified later that, while he was at the hospital, he refused to believe that he’d been shot, or that there’d been a live round in the gun.
“It just could not compute for me,” he recalled. “I just kept saying, ‘You don’t understand. No, no, no. This is a movie set. That’s not possible… It’s just not possible there’s a live round.”
Souza added: “They eventually grew tired of me protesting about it and they showed me the X-ray of my back and there was a very large bullet.”
Souza also answered a few questions regarding on-set safety. He acknowledged some shortcomings of his own, saying he only learned what “dummy” round was after the shooting, and that he didn’t know much about the safety bulletins used to oversee the use of guns on set. He said that David Halls, first assistant director on Rust, was the production’s official safety officer but added that all crew members were responsible for safety.
(Halls entered a no-contest plea to a misdemeanor charge of negligent use of a deadly weapon last year; he was sentenced to six months of unsupervised probation.)
Gutierrez-Reed’s trial began on Feb. 22, and it’s expected to last two weeks. Baldwin is also facing a charge of involuntary manslaughter, to which he has pleaded not guilty. His trial is tentatively set to begin on July 10.
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