Four months after the death of his wife, Matt Hutchins is addressing the fatal 'Rust' shooting in a televised interview.
Months after the tragic death of his wife, Halyna Hutchins, Matt Hutchins is addressing the world in his first TV interview.
Wednesday's NBC Nightly News aired a preview clip of his sit-down with Today's Hoda Kotb, which will air on Thursday, where Matt was asked if he watched Alec Baldwin's TV interview with Good Morning America co-anchor George Stephanopoulos. Matt said he did watch it, and it made him angry.
"Yeah. But watching him I just felt so angry," Matt said. "I was just so angry to see him talk about her death so publicly, in such a detailed way and then to not accept any responsibility after having just described killing her."
Reflecting on Baldwin's tearful interview, Matt said the actor presented the story in a way in which it "almost sounds like he was the victim."
"Hearing him blame Halyna in the interview and shift responsibility to others and seeing him cry about it, I felt like are we supposed to feel bad about you, Mr. Baldwin?'" he added.
Matt was also asked if he thinks the majority of the blame lays on Alec.
"The idea that the person holding the gun causing it to discharge is not responsible, is absurd to me," Matt said. "But gun safety was not the only problem on that set. There were a number of industry standards that were not practiced and there’s multiple responsible parties."
His interview comes four months after Halyna was shot on the set of her final film, Rust, during a marking rehearsal. The cinematographer was 42 years old.
In his interview with ABC News, Alec, who starred in and produced the now-suspended film, said he was handed a "cold" prop gun and did not pull the trigger. However, after pulling back the hammer on the gun and then letting it go, Alec described, the gun went off, fatally shooting Halyna and injuring director Joel Souza. "I didn't pull the trigger," he told George.
This month, Matt --on behalf of himself and their son -- and a wrongful death representative for Halyna filed a lawsuit against Alec and other individuals and companies associated with the film for negligent, intentional, willful or reckless misconduct resulting in wrongful death and loss of consortium. "Halyna Hutchins deserved to live, and the Defendants had the power to prevent her death if they had only held sacrosanct their duty to protect the safety of every individual on a set where firearms were present instead of cutting corners on safety procedures where human lives were at stake, rushing to stay on schedule and ignoring numerous complaints of safety violation," the lawsuit, obtained by ET, alleged. "This lawsuit seeks justice for the losses of her survivors and to hold responsible those who caused her tragic death."
In a statement shared with ET, an attorney for Alec and other Rust producers denied that the actor was "reckless."
"Everyone’s hearts and thoughts remain with Halyna’s family as they continue to process this unspeakable tragedy. We continue to cooperate with the authorities to determine how live ammunition arrived on the Rust set in the first place. Any claim that Alec was reckless is entirely false. He, Halyna and the rest of the crew relied on the statement by the two professionals responsible for checking the gun that it was a 'cold gun' – meaning there is no possibility of a discharge, blank or otherwise. This protocol has worked on thousands of films, with millions of discharges, as there has never before been an incident on a set where an actual bullet harmed anyone. Actors should be able to rely on armorers and prop department professionals, as well as assistant directors, rather than deciding on their own when a gun is safe to use."
You can watch Hoda's full interview with Matt Thursday morning on Today at 7 a.m. ET on NBC.
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