Alec Baldwin has said “there are no words to convey my shock and sadness” following the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the film Rust.
The actor, 63, confirmed he is “fully co-operating” with the police investigation after he fired a prop gun on the US set of the Western, killing Hutchins and injuring director Joel Souza.
In a statement posted on his arts foundation’s social media account, Baldwin described the event as a “tragedy” and said he is in communication with Hutchins’s husband.
He said: “There are no words to convey my shock and sadness regarding the tragic accident that took the life of Halyna Hutchins, a wife, mother and deeply admired colleague of ours.
“I’m fully co-operating with the police investigation to address how this tragedy occurred and I am in touch with her husband, offering my support to him and his family.
“My heart is broken for her husband, their son, and all who knew and loved Halyna.”
Rust’s director of photography Hutchins was killed during the incident on Thursday, officials in Santa Fe, New Mexico, previously confirmed.
The 42-year-old was airlifted to University of New Mexico Hospital but she was pronounced dead.
Actress Frances Fisher, who stars in the film, said on Friday that director Souza, 48, had been discharged from hospital.
Director Joel Souza told me he’s out of hospital.
— Frances Fisher (@Frances_Fisher) October 22, 2021
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“Director Joel Souza told me he’s out of hospital,” she wrote on Twitter.
Photographs published by The Santa Fe New Mexican newspaper show an emotional Baldwin doubled over and apparently in tears outside the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office.
Shannon Lee, the sister of late actor Brandon Lee, has said “no-one should ever be killed by a gun on a film set” following the incident.
Lee, 28, the son of martial arts superstar Bruce Lee, was killed in 1993 after he was shot on the set of the film The Crow.
The gun was supposed to have fired a blank, but a post-mortem examination found a .44-calibre bullet lodged near his spine.
The incidents that killed Lee and Hutchins are part of a long history of tragedies on film sets.
Our hearts go out to the family of Halyna Hutchins and to Joel Souza and all involved in the incident on “Rust”. No one should ever be killed by a gun on a film set. Period. 💔
— Brandon Bruce Lee (@brandonblee) October 22, 2021
In 1984, actor Jon-Erik Hexum died after shooting himself in the head with a prop gun blank while pretending to play Russian roulette with a .44 Magnum on the set of the television series Cover Up.
During the filming of Twilight Zone: The Movie in 1982, a helicopter crash killed actor Vic Morrow and two children, Myca Dinh Le and Renee Shin-Yi Chen, while filming a scene involving explosions, which damaged the helicopter’s rotors.
In 2002 Vin Diesel’s stunt double on the action film xXx, Harry O’Connor, died while he was performing a paragliding stunt.
A stunt expert was also killed on the set of Batman film The Dark Knight.
Conway Wickliffe was leaning out the window of a car operating a camera when the vehicle crashed into a tree.
