After a very “painful” three years since he accidentally shot and killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of his Western “Rust” in 2021, Alec Baldwin was supposed to enjoy the opportunity to celebrate his career this week by being honored in Europe with a Lifetime Achievement Award.
But as is typical for Baldwin, he opened his mouth to reporters. During a press conference at the Turin Film Festival, the often polarizing actor ended up saying things about Americans and female directors that have aggravated some corners of the internet. During another interview, he sought sympathy for his almost equally controversial influencer wife, Hilaria Baldwin, insisting that she was particularly “traumatized” by the death of Hutchins.
So, where to begin with Baldwin’s headline-making media remarks in Italy?
Alec Baldwin speaks on the phone in the parking lot outside the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office in Santa Fe, N.M., after he was questioned about a shooting on the set of the film “Rust” on the outskirts of Santa Fe, Thursday, Oct. 21, 2021. Baldwin fired a prop gun on the set, killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounding director Joel Souza, officials said. (Jim Weber/Santa Fe New Mexican via AP) (Jim Weber/Santa Fe New Mexican via Associated Press)
First off, during the press conference, Baldwin expressed concerns about Americans’ lack understanding of politics and the state of the world in the wake of Donald Trump’s election to a second term as president, according to The Hollywood Reporter. While Baldwin was asked about his concerns for America after Trump retakes office, the veteran actor, a lifelong Democrat who famously parodied Trump on “Saturday Night Live,” didn’t mention the former reality TV star by name.
Still, he said: “There’s a hole, a vacuum… a gap in information for Americans. Americans are very uninformed about reality, what’s really going on — climate change, Ukraine, you name it.”
“The biggest topics in the world, Americans have an appetite for a little bit of information,” Baldwin continued, with comments sure to stir up outrage among critics who see him as arrogant and elitist. “That vacuum is filled by the film industry,” Baldwin said. “Not just the independent film industry, not just the documentary film industry but narrative films as well.”
Baldwin also was asked about the role of female directors in the industry, according to The Hollywood Reporter. On one hand, he tried to praise female directors by saying it’s “a good thing” that more women are directing major films.
“In the cinema of the ’80s and ’90s, out of 100 directors there were 98 men and two women,” Baldwin said. “Now, it’s not like that, and that’s a good thing.”
But then Baldwin couldn’t help himself. He said, “For some films you need an energetic director who moves the camera continuously and maybe a male director is better.”
“But for a comedy or a drama with a lot of talk, what’s the difference between a male director and a female director?” Baldwin said. “In fact, there’s more introspective capacity in a female director.”
So women can’t be energetic?
It’s possible that Baldwin was referring to his belief that women are not particularly suited to directing male-oriented action films, with lots of fighting and big-budget special effects. But Kathryn Bigelow famously became the first woman to win an Academy Award for best director for helming “The Hurt Locker,” the intense 2009 Iraq War film that won best picture. Jane Campion, certainly known for dramas “with a lot of talk,” also won best director for the 2022 Western “The Power of the Dog.”
It was reported that Baldwin only agreed to be the guest of honor at the Turin Film Festival if Italian reporters at the press conference were barred from asking him about Hutchins’ death in October 2021, Variety said.
But Baldwin ended up talking to a reporter for Variety about “Rust,” “candidly sharing his feelings” about the film’s premiere and “cancel culture.”
Hutchins was killed on the film’s New Mexico set when Baldwin was handling a prop gun during a rehearsal and pointed it in her direction. The gun was supposed to be loaded with only dummy rounds, but held a live round, which fatally wounded Hutchins when the gun fired. Baldwin was put on trial for involuntary manslaughter, but the judge dismissed the charges after learning the prosecution withheld evidence.
Baldwin, director Joel Souza and other members of the cast and crew ended up completing the film, saying they wanted to honor Hutchins. The film received a mostly “polite” response when it had its world premiere last week at the EnergaCamerimage festival in Poland. However, some audience members were visibly “uncomfortable” watching scenes of Baldwin “shooting people” in the film, a critic for Vulture reported.
Baldwin was not invited to the premiere, because festival organizers said they were concerned that his presence would be “too distracting.”
In his interview with Variety, Baldwin said he hasn’t seen a final cut of “Rust” and doesn’t want to “right now.”
“Only because this is obviously the most difficult thing I’ve ever dealt with in my life,” said Baldwin, who then went on to explain why the shooting and its aftermath was particularly difficult for his wife.
US actor Alec Baldwin and his wife Hilaria Baldwin arrive for the PEN America Literary Gala at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City on May 18, 2023. This year’s gala, hosted by US comedian Colin Jost, is honoring Canadian writer and producer Lorne Michaels. (Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP) (Photo by TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images)
“Beyond the victims themselves, the thing that most pains me is what it did to my wife,” Baldwin said. “My wife has been very, very traumatized from this. 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. And we are trying to get the wind in our sails, to get away from this stuff.”
While it may be that the shooting was “traumatizing” for Hilaria Baldwin, the former yoga teacher and once-aspiring lifestyle and parenting influencer also faced criticism for appearing to exploit the tragedy and in ways that involved her use of their seven young children. In the weeks after Hutchins’ death, Hilaria Baldwin, known for her love of media attention, continued to post multiple images of their children on a daily basis.
The posts on Instagram included potentially private content about the Baldwin family’s home life amid her husband’s crisis for the on-set shooting. Some images showed the children playing and enjoying Christmas. But other images showed the children acting out or looking sad and distressed, leading PR and crisis experts to accuse Hilaria Baldwin of using her children as “props” to garner sympathy, while also appearing to be “narcissistic” and “callous,” given that Hutchins’ young son lost his mother.
Both Hilaria and Alec Baldwin faced criticism more recently of exploiting their children, including in the weeks leading up to his manslaughter trial this summer. In a “bizarrely”-timed move before the start of the trial, the couple announced that they and their seven children would star in a new TLC reality TV show about their hectic family life.
Starring in a reality TV show is seen as a career let-down for Baldwin, an Emmy winner and Oscar nominee who was once on track to be a Hollywood leading man before becoming valued as one of the industry’s most valued character actors. But a reality show gig was considered to be more in tune with the professional aspirations of his wife, whose once lucrative career as an influencer was derailed when she was embroiled in a scandal over damning evidence that she spent more than a decade faking a Spanish accent and identity.