Quentin Tarantino recently appeared on Bill Maher’s “Club Random” podcast, where the two discussed Alec Baldwin‘s role in the shooting death of “Rust” cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. Maher did not think it was fair that Baldwin was prosecuted for involuntary manslaughter, but Tarantino said the actor was responsible to a certain degree. The gun Baldwin was holding on the “Rust” set had live rounds in it, and Hutchins was killed and director Joel Souza was injured when Baldwin fired it.
“It’s a situation I think I am being fair enough to say that the armorer, the guy who hands him the gun, is 90% responsible for everything that happens when it comes to that gun. But the actor is 10% responsible,” Tarantino said. “The actor is 10% responsible. It’s a gun! You are a partner in the responsibility to some degree.”
Tarantino, who is no stranger to having guns on his film sets, said that actors should always be shown the guns they’re meant to handle on camera before filming starts and “if there are steps to go through, you go through them. It’s done with due diligence, and you know it’s fucking for real.”
“Here is how an actor can handle it,” Tarantino continued. “If he went through the steps that he was supposed to go through … Like the barrel is clear, they show you the barrel is clear and that there is nothing … wedged in there. They actually show you the barrel. And then they show you some version of ‘here are the blanks and here is the gun.’ Now it’s ready to go.”
While the armorer is responsible for everything that happens with the gun, Tarantino thinks the actor still has to play their part in making sure the gun they are holding is safe. The armorer on “Rust,” Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and will serve 18 months in prison. The movie’s first assistant director, Dave Halls, agreed to a plea bargain for a misdemeanor charge of negligent use of a deadly weapon. Baldwin, meanwhile, was prosecuted for involuntary manslaughter, but the case was dismissed on July 12 when the judge found authorities had withheld evidence.
Maher asked Tarantino why guns on film sets can’t all just be fake, with VFX later used in post-production to add the gun shot and sounds. It’s a mentality that many creatives in Hollywood adopted after Hutchins’ death. Dwayne Johnson, for instance, told Variety that all movies and television shows made under his Seven Bucks Productions banner would switch to “rubber guns.”
“I guess I can add digital erections to porno movies, but who wants to fucking watch that?” Tarantino said in apparent opposition to using fake guns on sets. “It’s exciting to shoot the blanks and to see the orange, the real orange fire, not add orange fire.”
Tarantino then tried to note that “for as many guns as we’ve shot off in movies we only have two examples of people being shot on the set by a gun mishap,” referring to the “Rust” shooting and the death of Brandon Lee on the set of “The Crow” film. “That’s a pretty fucking good record.”
Listen to Tarantino’s full interview on the “Club Random” podcast here.