‘Rust’ Director Admits He Has ‘No Relationship’ With Alec Baldwin

“Rust” director Joel Souza is setting the file straight on his relationship with Alec Baldwin, who was the star of his Western movie.

On October 21, 2021, a gun that the “30 Rock” actor was holding on set went off, hanging and killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. Souza, who was standing immediately behind Hutchins, was additionally shot and hospitalized on account of the incident.

Nonetheless, he was in a position to go on to complete filming “Rust” within the spring of 2023 after transferring operations from New Mexico to Montana. Nonetheless, the deadly taking pictures appears to have modified his relationship with Alec Baldwin, as he now insists that the 2 have “no relationship.”

Whereas rehearsing a scene at Bonanza Creek Ranch in New Mexico, a gun that Alec Baldwin was holding went off. The bullet struck and killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and led to Joel Souza’s hospitalization. When talking concerning the taking pictures to Self-importance Honest, Souza mentioned “It’s bizarre to have been shot,” including, “And then, who was holding the gun? That’s bizarre. I had this weird thought, like, ‘God, I remember watching ‘The Hunt for Red October’ in the movie theater when I was a kid. It’s like your older self whispers to your younger self, ‘Hey, that guy…someday…’”

He additionally went on to explain how the gunshot “felt like a horse kicked me in the shoulder or someone hit me with a bat.”

“The whole right side of my body went numb, completely numb, but it also hurt excruciatingly at the same time, if that makes sense,” he continued. “It’s just like everything went tingly and numb but hurt like hell all at once. And I staggered back and was either on my knees or on my ass — and just…yelling. I don’t even know what the hell I was yelling.”

Though he survived the taking pictures, Joel Souza revealed that the bullet “missed my lung by this much. It stopped about that far away from my spine, fortunately. It was bulging out into the skin, so it created a big bump.” Nonetheless, when interviewer Anthony Breznican mentioned that he should be grateful to be alive, Souza responded, “No, I wasn’t.”

“I remember specifically going to sleep that night and hoping I didn’t wake up the next morning,” he defined. “I hoped I would just bleed out overnight because I didn’t want to be around anymore. It was a very difficult moment. I remember just thinking, ‘Maybe I’ll just sort of bleed to death — that would suit me just fine.’”

The taking pictures led to first assistant director Dave Halls pleading responsible to a misdemeanor cost of negligent use of a lethal weapon, which resulted in his probation. Armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was convicted of involuntary manslaughter 18 months behind bars in March. In July, Alec Baldwin’s involuntary manslaughter trial was dismissed after Choose Mary Marlowe Sommer dominated that the prosecution had labored with regulation enforcement officers to hide proof.

When requested if he thought “justice was served” for Halyna Hutchins, Souza replied, “I don’t know, and I don’t know what that even is anymore — I’ll be very honest with you about that,” including, “No one feels good about someone going to jail. If you feel good about that, take a hard look in the mirror.”

The director additionally made it clear that he doesn’t have an opinion as as to if or not the prosecution was proper to press prices towards Alec Baldwin.

“Does it matter if I think it’s fair or not? There is an argument that says, if he checks it and starts fiddling around with it, he’s creating a safety issue. And then there is another thing that says, it’s common sense, Jesus Christ. Be careful with this godd-mn thing,” he mentioned. “So I don’t know anymore, to be honest with you. The charges got filed. That’s what they decided to do. Was he overcharged? I don’t know.”

Though he did return to finish the movie, Souza admitted that “there was a very long period of time where I thought I was just done ever doing this for a living.” Nonetheless, he made the choice to return to profit Halyna Hutchins’ household.

“I knew that the movie being finished would financially benefit Halyna’s family, which is very important to me,” he defined. “And I know this can sound trite for people who aren’t creative, but her last work matters. People seeing her last work matters. That was the tipping point for me in the decision.”

Cinematographer Bianca Cline took over for the late Hutchins and the scene contained in the church the place she died was minimize from the movie.

“Everything needed to be entirely reconceived there,” Souza mentioned. “There were a few things that came before that now wouldn’t make story sense. So we just sort of eliminated it and came up with something entirely different.”

“I don’t want anyone who ever does see this to be waiting for that,” he added. “No one ever pushed to keep anything like that.”

After the deadly taking pictures in New Mexico, manufacturing moved to Montana within the spring of 2023. When requested about his relationship with Alec Baldwin in Montana, Souza confessed, “Getting through it was tough. We got through it. I got the performance I wanted. We’re not friends. We’re not enemies. There’s no relationship.”

Though the film has been completed, Souza admits that it has but to be shopped to distributors opposite to some stories. However when the film does get launched, he hopes that audiences will keep in mind the expertise she supplied as an alternative of the tragedy that took her life.

“As a cinematographer, Halyna should have been out of my reach if this business made any sense, but it doesn’t,” Souza mentioned. “She should have been doing big studio movies. She should have outgrown a movie the size of ours. She should have been doing $100 million movies, not $7.5 million movies. Anybody who worked with her knew what she had and what she was.”