The director of ill-fated Western Rust has recalled the moment he was shot by Alec Baldwin with a prop gun in court at the trial of the film’s weapons supervisor.
Joel Souza was hospitalised after he was hit by the same bullet that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set in Santa Fe in October 2021. He did not press any legal charges.
Weapons supervisor Hannah Gutierrez-Reed is on trial charged with involuntary manslaughter, to which she is pleading not guilty. Baldwin will be on trial for the same charges in July and has also plead his innocence, even claiming he never pulled the trigger.
Souza testified at the trial on Friday (March 1) and said that he moved behind Hutchins to get a closer look at the camera angle, but he never saw the gun that shot him.
“I got up behind her just to try to see on the monitor and there was an incredibly loud bang,” he told the court. “This was deafening.”
He saw Gutierrez-Reed after he was shot, and she purportedly said to him: “I’m sorry. I’m sorry Joel.”
“And I remember somebody just screaming at her and they just ushered her out,” he continued.
In 2021, not long after the incident, Souza said in a new affidavit obtained by The New York Times, that he had been told the gun was safe and was described as a “cold gun” in safety announcements. He revealed that firearms were typically checked by armourer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed before getting checked again by assistant director Dave Halls, and then handed to actors.
The director said that prior to the incident, the crew were taken somewhere else for food during a lunch break after setting up a scene in a church, though when they returned he was “not sure if the firearm was checked again”.
On Thursday (February 29), the jury was shown footage of Baldwin waving a gun before the shooting.
Assistant director David Halls also testified that day. Last year, he entered a plea bargain for negligent use of a deadly weapon, receiving a six-month suspended sentence. He admitted in an emotional testimony: “I was negligent checking the gun properly.”
Halls said he was standing around a metre away from Hutchins when she was shot. He asked her if she was alright when she was on the ground, to which she answered: “I can’t feel my legs.”
He added that he didn’t understand how a live round could have been fired. “The idea that it was a live round of ammunition that went off… it wasn’t computing,” he said.
Halls also defended Baldwin, arguing that he hadn’t put safety at risk by rushing production, as prosecutors allege.
Gutierrez-Reed’s lawyers have argued problems on the set were beyond her control – there had been delays at the time with six members of the camera crew quitting over late pay and safety conditions and a new crew was subsequently hired. Prosecutors say she is to blame for illegally bringing live ammunition on set.
In January, SAG-AFTRA issued a statement defending Baldwin. “An actor’s job is not to be a firearms or weapons expert,” the union said. “Performers train to perform, and they are not required or expected to be experts on guns or experienced in their use. The industry assigns that responsibility to qualified professionals who oversee their use and handling in every aspect.”