Alec Baldwin Does Not Want to SeeRust's Final Cut, Says Situation Has 'Traumatized' Wife Hilaria

Mar. 15, 2025

Alec Baldwin and Hilaria Baldwin on May 18, 2023.Photo:Jamie McCarthy/Getty

Jamie McCarthy/Getty

Alec Baldwinis speaking out about the painfulRusttragedy.

The 66-year-old actor, who is the recipient of the Torino Film Festival’s lifetime achievement honor,spoke toVarietyin an interview published Monday, Nov. 25, and called the ordeal around the film “the most difficult thing I’ve ever dealt with in my life.”

Baldwin was holding a prop gun on the New Mexico set of the Western in 2021 when it accidentally discharged, killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injuring director Joel Souza.

The Emmy winner, who insisted he did not pull the trigger or know why the gun contained live ammunition,was charged with manslaughterand stood trial in July, but the judge dismissed the case against him on the third day of proceedings after learning that the prosecution withheld evidence from the defense.

Alec Baldwin in court on July 10.Ross D. Franklin/Pool/Getty

Ross D. Franklin/Pool/Getty

Baldwin and wife, Hilaria, 39, who showed up to court every day and sat behind her husband,both cried after the judge issued her decision.

“Beyond the victims themselves, the thing that most pains me is what it did to my wife. My wife has been very, very traumatized from this,” he told the outlet.

“There has been a lot of pain. When you are married to somebody and everything was going fairly well and we had seven kids … and the floor falls out.  It’s very frightening and very disturbing,” continued Baldwin, who shares daughtersCarmen Gabriela, 10,María Lucía Victoria, 2, and Ilaria Catalina Irena, 15 months, as well as four sonsRafael Thomas, 8,Leonardo Ángel Charles, 7,Romeo Alejandro David, 5, andEduardo “Edu” Pao Lucas, 3, with Hilaria. He is also dad to Ireland, 27, whom he shares with ex-wifeKim Basinger.

Alec Baldwin and wife Hilaria Baldwin embrace in court on July 12.RAMSAY DE GIVE/POOL/AFP via Getty

RAMSAY DE GIVE/POOL/AFP via Getty

“That’s sad because when we started, I put my shoulder into this the way I did, helping them to write a script and to bring all these other things. I endured multiple rises and falls with this like a soufflé: up, down, up, down, trying to find a location, to find money and stuck with this for a couple of years,” he told the outlet.

“Then we finally got it made. When we arrived on set, we were all elated. We were so happy! Like all independent films, there were a lot of time considerations, we were on a tough schedule. But we were all happy to be there, we were happy to make the film. And I am happy that the film got completed. It’s been such a tragedy, which of course we would do anything to undo,” Baldwin said.

As of now, Baldwin toldVarietyhe has no intention of seeing the final cut — but he’s rooting for the film’s success.

Alec Baldwin on the set of ‘Rust.'.Santa Fe County Sheriff/Splash News

Santa Fe County Sheriff/Splash News

“I was sent a rough cut early on, before everything got a little more sticky and difficult. So I haven’t seen the film. But, again, I hope the film is released, that it comes out. That it makes its money back for its investors. You never want these people who believed in your project to be left high and dry,” he said.

Baldwin said he was “very sick” and “physically drained and ill” following Hutchins’s death and doctors recommended he not continue working on the movie, which resumed filming in Montana. But he went anyway.

Halyna Hutchins in 2018.Mat Hayward/Getty

Mat Hayward/Getty

“I said to Joel, ‘Are you going to do it? If you think it’s important to do this, I’ll do it. If it’s the only way we can settle the case with [Hutchins’] husband and the estate is to finish the film, let’s do it,’” said Baldwin.

“So we go to Montana. We finish … And I waived my fee. I gave them back the fee in the budget. I waived all my backend. I gave everything to her husband,” continued Baldwin. (PEOPLE reached out to a lawyer for Matthew Hutchins, but did not immediately hear back.)

“And I hope the movie is sold, and that he gets his money. We all made a deal with him and we all want to follow through. But this idea that people — who shall remain nameless — say, ‘You are profiting from this!’ That is absolutely wrong,” Baldwin claimed.

As the film premiered at the Polish Camerimage Festival on Nov. 20,Hutchins’s mother, Olga Solovey, released a statementthrough her attorney Gloria Allred, claiming the actor “seeks to unjustly profit from his killing of my daughter.”

source: people.com