Alec Baldwin Says He’s Hopeful ‘We Will Not Be Held Criminally Responsible’ For Halyna Hutchins Death

Alec Baldwin said he’s hopeful “we will not be held criminally responsible” for cinematographer Halyna Hutchins’ October death on the “Rust” film set.

Baldwin made the comments Saturday at the Boulder International Film Festival where he served as a special guest programmer, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

“I’m very hopeful when the facts come out, we will not be held criminally responsible, but it has changed my life, and I don’t mean this is the ordinary sense that I was involved in something or somebody passed,” Baldwin said. “I mean, I was involved in a situation (where) somebody was killed. It’s changed my life just in terms of the function of weapons in films and television.”

Hutchins was killed Oct. 21 when a gun Baldwin was holding discharged, shooting her in the chest and striking director Joel Souza in the shoulder. While Souza survived, Hutchins died at a New Mexico hospital.

Investigators are still trying to determine how a live bullet got into the antique revolver.

Baldwin would later insist in a December interview with ABC News that he “didn’t pull the trigger,” but said that the gun just went off during a rehearsal while Hutchins was instructing him where to point the weapon.

Hutchins’ husband Matt Hutchins—who has filed a lawsuit against Baldwin and others connected to the film—told NBC’s “Today” show last month that Baldwin’s comments during the interview had made him “so angry.”

“The idea that the person holding the gun and causing it to discharge is not responsible is absurd to me,” Matt Hutchins told “Today.” “Every individual who touches the firearm has a responsibility for gun safety. But, gun safety was not the only problem on that set. There were a number of industry standards that were not practiced and there’s multiple responsible parties.”

On Saturday, Baldwin briefly referenced the lawsuits filed against him and others, suggesting that “deep pocket litigants” were being targeted even if they “are not negligent.”

“What you have is a certain group of litigants, on whatever side, who their attitude is, well, the people who likely seem negligent have no money. And the people who have money are not negligent, but we’re not gonna let that stop us from doing what we need to do in terms of litigation,” Baldwin said, according to CNN. “Why sue people if you’re not going to get money? That’s what you’re doing it for.”

Baldwin never referenced which lawsuits he was taking about.

He insisted throughout his career that he’s “relied on safety experts there to declare the gun safe and never had a problem” before Hutchins was killed.

“When someone whose job is to ensure the safety of a, of a weapon, hands someone else, whose job is to be the secondary layer of protection for safety of a weapon. And they hand you that weapon, you declare that that weapon is safe. That’s how I’ve done it my whole life,” Baldwin said.

The actor, who had also served as a producer on the film, said he’s still struggling to accept what happened that day.

“This to me sometimes it’s, it’s so surreal,” he said. “I don’t even know what to say.”

According to Baldwin, who described there being “two victims” of the shooting, some “specific people are not as interested in finding out what really happened” as they are in pursuing litigation, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

During another portion of the conversation, Baldwin said he believes the shooting will “in all likelihood” eliminate the use of firearms on movie sets and signal a shift toward CGI.

“The thing to remember is that guns are fired in films because that’s what audiences want. Maybe not this crowd. Maybe not a festival crowd where you want to watch something that’s a little more complicated,” he said. “There’s a place to modify the safety regulations we have to deal with and I’m very much looking forward to our decisions.”

Baldwin described Hutchins as a “lovely woman” who was “talented,” according to CNN Wire.

Baldwin recently returned to work on the independent feature “97 Minutes,” which is being filmed in the U.K, according to The Hollywood Reporter.