Amid his involuntary manslaughter case and health struggles, Baldwin said he “had to get up on a horse and go back there to Montana to finish the film”


Alec Baldwin in 'Rust' Credit: Karen Kuehn

NEED TO KNOW
Alec Baldwin appeared on The Hollywood Reporter's Awards Chatter podcast on April 13

He alleged that between the 2021 incident on the set of Baldwin's film Rust that left Halyna Hutchins dead and its 2025 release, producers “were going to sue” the actor-producer if he didn't complete the film

Rory Kennedy's documentary The Trial of Alec Baldwin was filmed amid the star's ensuing involuntary manslaughter trial in 2024, which was eventually dismissed with prejudice

Alec Baldwin is opening up about the circumstances surrounding his movie Rust.

After the 2021 incident in which a gun Baldwin, 68, was holding on the set of the Western discharged, killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, the actor-producer claimed the film's producers “were going to sue” him, in a Monday, April 13 episode of The Hollywood Reporter's Awards Chatter podcast.

“It impacted me in every way — financially, career-wise, my wife, my kids, my health,” Baldwin said of the tragedy and ensuing involuntary manslaughter case. His July 2024 trial in New Mexico ended by being dismissed with prejudice after the star's attorneys argued that prosecutors had buried evidence.

“We had to go back and finish the movie Rust in Montana as a component of the settlement with her husband. We had to finish,” he told THR. Amid various health issues, Baldwin said, “I had to get up on a horse and go back there to Montana to finish the film, or they were going to sue the s--- out of me.”

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Hutchins died at age 42 in October 2021 after a gun Baldwin was holding during Rust rehearsals discharged, striking her and the film's writer-director Joel Souza. The team later returned to finish filming in Montana after Baldwin and other producers reached a settlement with Hutchins' widower Matthew, who shares son Andros with her.

Rust, starring Baldwin, Josh Hopkins, Patrick Scott McDermott, Frances Fisher and Travis Fimmel, was released in May 2025. It was dedicated to the late Hutchins, with Bianca Cline taking over as cinematographer.

Amid fallout from the shooting incident, documentarian Rory Kennedy shot footage for The Trial of Alec Baldwin, which promises to reveal never-before-seen sides of the Emmy winner. “They were around during the trial in New Mexico, and they were around interviewing me, and she was always asking for more time: ‘Can I grab you for 20 minutes here? … We got the lights and the camera,'” recalled Baldwin.

“When somebody makes a movie about you, you're never going to be happy,” he added, but with Kennedy, “I don't tell her what to do, it's her thing. And I think there's a lot of good things in the movie. I think she's a great filmmaker.”

Baldwin has previously opened up about his health struggles in recent years. Last December, on the podcast Dopey: On the Dark Comedy of Drug Addiction with host Dave Manheim, he said, “I mean, if I told you what my health conditions have been since October 21st of 2021 — it's taken 10 years off my life.”

Who he was “most concerned about,” however, was his wife and kids, he said at the time. The Oscar nominee shares eight children under 13 with wife Hilaria Baldwin, as well as daughter Ireland, 30, with ex-wife Kim Basinger.

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Posted by Temmy
Wed, April 15, 2026 1:17pm