Quentin Tarantino was recently a guest on Bill Maher's podcast “Club Random,” where the two discussed Alec Baldwin's role in the shooting of “Rust” cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. Maher felt it was unfair that Baldwin was charged with manslaughter, but Tarantino said the actor was responsible to some extent. The gun Baldwin was holding on the “Rust” set was loaded with live ammunition, and Hutchins was killed and director Joel Souza was injured when Baldwin fired it.
“I think it's fair enough to say that the gunsmith, the guy who gives him the gun, is 90% responsible for everything that happens with that gun. But the actor is 10% responsible,” Tarantino said. “The actor is 10% responsible. It's a gun! They share in that responsibility to some extent.”
Tarantino, who is used to having guns on his film sets, said that actors should always be shown the weapons they are to handle on camera before filming begins and “if there are steps you have to go through, you go through them. It's done with due diligence and you know it's fucking serious.”
“That's how an actor can handle it,” Tarantino continued. “If he goes through the steps he should go through… Like, the barrel is clear. They show you that the barrel is clear and there's nothing jammed in it. They actually show you the barrel. And then they show you a version of 'Here are the blanks and here's the gun.' Now it's ready.”
Although the gunsmith is responsible for everything that happens with the weapon, Tarantino believes the actor still has to do his part to ensure the weapon he's holding is safe. Rust gunsmith Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was convicted of manslaughter and will serve 18 months in prison. The film's first assistant director, Dave Halls, agreed to a plea deal to face negligent use of a deadly weapon. Baldwin, meanwhile, was charged with manslaughter, but the case was dismissed on July 12 when the judge found that authorities had withheld evidence.
Maher asked Tarantino why the guns on film sets couldn't all just be fake, and that VFX would be used later in post-production to add the gunshots and sounds. It's a mentality that many creatives in Hollywood have adopted after Hutchins' death. Dwayne Johnson, for example, said diversity that all films and television shows produced under his banner Seven Bucks Productions would switch to “rubber guns.”
“I guess I can add digital erections to porn movies, but who the fuck wants to see that?” Tarantino said, apparently opposed to the use of toy guns on set. “It's exciting to shoot blanks and see the orange, the real orange fire, not added orange fire.”
Tarantino then tried to point out that “despite the amount of guns we've fired in movies, there are only two examples of people being shot on set by a gunshot accident,” referring to the shooting in “Rust” and the death of Brandon Lee on the set of the movie “The Crow.” “That's a damn good record.”
Listen to Tarantino’s full interview on the “Club Random” podcast here.
