Photo: Reuters
Alec Baldwin (pic) is opening up about the “surreal” experience of misfiring a prop gun and fatally shooting cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the 2021 set of Rust, and the tragedy’s impact on the actor.
The 66-year-old Emmy winner – whose involuntary manslaughter case was dismissed last summer – revealed in the upcoming premiere of TLC’s The Baldwins that sometimes he “can’t get up” and is now “happier when I’m asleep than when I’m awake,” according to People.
“Everyone who is close to Alec has seen his mental health decline,” said wife Hilaria, with whom the actor shares seven children – aged two to 11.
That includes exacerbated obsessive compulsive disorder and a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder, according to the 41-year-old yoga instructor.
“He says in his darkest moments, ‘If an accident had to have happened this day, why am I still here? Why couldn’t it have been me?'” shared Hilaria.
Baldwin shares in the episode that he has come to the realisation they have seven children together “to help carry me and you through this situation.”
On Oct 21, 2021, while on the set of the Western Rust, which starred and was produced by Baldwin, the actor misfired a prop weapon which mysteriously contained live rounds. The shooting fatally wounded 42-year-old Hutchins and injured director Joel Souza.
Baldwin was twice charged with involuntary manslaughter, once in January 2023 and, after those charges were dropped, he was charged again a year later. In July, while in the midst of trial, a New Mexico judge dismissed the case, a decision she upheld in October.
Last spring, the film’s armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was sentenced to the maximum of 18 months behind bars. – New York Daily News/Tribune News Service
