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Rust tragedy, for George Clooney it is “madness to economize on firearms on sets”

“It’s madness to economize on firearms on sets, madness.” He is very angry George Clooney that in an interview with the American podcaster Marc Maron returned to the case Rust, the western film on which director of photography Halyna Hutchins was killed by a pistol shot from a gun that should have been loaded with blanks. For his death he is now also under investigation Alec Baldwin, protagonist and co-producer, who actually fired the shot. “He should have checked the gun before firing», Clooney says today,« And he probably did, at least I hope so, but the truth is that those blank bullets are deceptive, they look like real bullets. I don’t know Alec that well, but when I saw the news, well I have to say, I immediately thought it wasn’t his responsibility. “

Alec Baldwin

Jim Spellman/Getty Images

After the tragedy, Hollywood rallied to promote a reform of the laws on the use of guns on the sets, but for George Clooney something should have already been done for some time. Since Brandon Lee’s death on the set of The Raven: «Since that absurd tragedy the security measures have increased», Clooney recalls, «But they must be respected by everyone. It is not possible to entrust the responsibility for weapons to young and inexperienced people just to save on production costs. It is madness, madness that infuriates. “

The inexperienced accused are the young gunwoman Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, 24-year-old daughter of well-known Hollywood gunsmith Thall Reed in her second set stint, and assistant director David Halls, who recently admitted that he didn’t check the gun before giving it to Baldwin. Halls – according to Clooney – shouldn’t even have come close to stage weapons. “It seems he shouted” cold gun “, to give the green light to the use of the weapon, but in 40 years of career I have never heard this expression”, said the 60-year-old star, who more than he once found himself with weapons in hand in his films. “Whenever I’ve had to use a gun on sets, I’ve used the only way you can make sure you have a blank firearm in your hand: shoot on the ground. If you know you have six bullets inside, you fire six times. The gun has to be given to you by the person in charge of the props, no one else, and you have to give it back to the person in charge of the props, to no one else. “

The set of Rust just before the accident in which Halyna Hutchins died (from the Facebook profile of Serge Svetnoy, lighting technician)

According to reports from the sheriff of Santa Fe, the city he was shooting in Rust when Hutchins was killed, the pistol was loaded by Hanna Gutierrez-Reed with bullets contained in a locked briefcase: the briefcase was supposed to contain only blank bullets, but apparently there were live ammunition inside as well. It was she, according to Clooney, who should have checked and she who should have passed it to Baldwin, not the assistant director, but he probably didn’t know from inexperience. Except, Clooney reiterates, “you can’t improvise with people’s lives and you don’t have to save on people’s lives, even if the films are low-budget”.

According to what theHollywood Reporter Hanna Gutierrez-Reed had a contract below 8000 dollars for his work on the set. The protagonist would have earned $ 150,000 and the lawyers – in case something went wrong – $ 350,000. The entire budget of the film was approx 7 million and 280 thousand dollars.

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