Rust director Joel Souza has shared his opinion of the TLC reality show The Baldwins, in which Alec Baldwin finds himself facing the cameras after the Rust shooting incident dramatically changed his life. Souza is not exactly friends with Baldwin today, and when asked if he saw The Baldwins when it premiered, the director candidly replied: “I think I was busy hitting myself in the face with a frying pan that night.”
Souza is not enjoying the release of his latest film. Rust, the western thriller starring Baldwin, has finally seen the light of day, but the incident that took place during its production is still hard to process for most. Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was fatally shot in 2021 during a rehearsal in which Baldwin manipulated a pistol that contained a live round. After a dense judicial process, people were sent to jail, others had their charges dismissed, and production eventually resumed. The result landed in theaters today, but it’s nothing but a bittersweet event for everyone involved.
Related
In ‘Rust,’ a Magnificent Western Rises From the Ashes of Tragedy
An infamous outlaw (Alec Baldwin) and his rescued grandson (Patrick Scott McDermott) are pursued across the American frontier in ‘Rust.’
The director spoke to The Guardian about the release of the film, completing it in the aftermath of the incident, and finding himself in a place where he was forced to heal himself for the sake of his colleague’s legacy. “The family wanted it completed. I’d been repelled by the thought of going back, but now it started to appeal,” Souza says about returning to set, and sitting in the director’s chair to complete the movie.
I couldn’t live with the idea of someone else doing it. I was a mess going in and a mess coming out. The crew carried me through. My family carried me through. Emotionally, I was all over the map.
When directing Baldwin again, Souza did so under his own conditions. If he was set to return to set, there were some changes that had to be made: “It’s not that I’m standing there with my foot on anybody’s neck. But there were fights I needed not to have. That was the only way I could get through this.” The film was eventually set for distribution, and there were agreements that all profits were to be handed to Hutchins’ family. Nevertheless, the director faces the trauma of having to relive the incident in which he was injured by the same bullet that killed his partner:
“You think about the chain of events that started that morning. Bad decision after bad decision was made… I wish I never wrote the damn movie.”
Has Hollywood Changed Its Policies After the ‘Rust’ Incident?
What is unbelievable about the Rust shooting incident is that this is not the first time this has happened on a movie set. Brandon Lee was killed during the shooting of The Crow in an eerily similar incident, and accidental deaths on movie sets have occurred much more than you think. Although safety on movie sets must have changed in the last couple of years, it appears that you can never be too careful. Souza said the following about meeting another cinematographer who told him that recently, someone had found live ammo in a prop gun during production:
“It had made its way from the truck and through the initial check, and they only caught it at the absolute last second. He said this was a major studio shoot. He told me, ‘People aren’t changing. They all feel like you guys were just unlucky.'”
Source: The Guardian
- Release Date
-
May 1, 2025
- Director
-
Joel Souza
- Writers
-
Joel Souza
- Producers
-
Alec Baldwin, Anjul Nigam, Grant Hill, Anna Granucci, Matt Delpiano, Nathan Klingher, Ryan Winterstern, Ryan Donnell Smith
This story originally appeared on Movieweb
