Alec Baldwin is planning a Hollywood comeback after Rust tragedy

Alec Baldwin will make his first Hollywood appearance since the on-set shooting that claimed the life of Halyna Hutchins.

Alec Baldwin will make his first professional appearance since the on-set shooting that claimed the life of Halyna Hutchins.

Days after his first TV interview since the tragedy, Baldwin has been announced as the master of ceremonies for the Ripple of Hope Award Gala, to be held in New York on Thursday.

Per The Hollywood Reporter, the event will be staged by the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights organisation, and Baldwin is due to appear alongside Vice President Kamala Harris and poet Amanda Gorman.

Baldwin is due to MC the event, which features the Robert F. Kennedy Ripple of Hope Award to honour “leaders across the international business, entertainment and activist communities who have demonstrated a commitment to social change”.

Alec Baldwin will make his first work engagement since the Rust shooting tragedy at a charity event in New York. Picture: ABC

Meantime, the actor’s return to work came after deleted his Twitter account days after his first sit-down interview since the Rust tragedy.

His account @AlecBaldwin was removed from Twitter with a message saying “this account doesn’t exist”. It is understood that Baldwin has a private second account which remains active.

The actor had been tweeting from his verified account about the on-set tragedy that claimed the life of Rust cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins. This is not the first time Baldwin has deleted his Twitter – he also deactivated it around the time of the controversy over wife Hilaria’s fake Spanish heritage.

Meantime, Hilaria also deleted her Twitter feed however, she remains active on Instagram.

In a revealing interview with US network ABC, Baldwin claimed that he fired the gun that killed cinematographer Hutchins without actually pulling the trigger.

“I let go of the hammer of the gun,” Baldwin told ABC in the tell-all interview.
“And the gun goes off,” he said.

But the assertion has been disputed by a leading weapons expert. Armourer Bryan W. Carpenter told Fox News that pulling the hammer back and releasing it, causing the gun to fire, is still considered a “negligent discharge”.

“You have to cock the hammer, you have to pull the trigger, or you have to cock the hammer and let it fly forward, one of the two things, which requires an operator to do it,” Carpenter said.

“And if an operator is doing it, then they’re in control of the weapon.

“And if they’re cocking the hammer, they’re in the two-part process of firing it. And if they slip and let the hammer fall down, that’s still a negligent discharge.

“If you cocked that hammer back, and you let it go, that’s still a negligent discharge,” he said. “You accidentally discharged that weapon, and it’s your fault.”

“So, you were just cocking the hammer back, it slipped and went off.

“It’s not the gun’s fault. It’s your fault because when that gun is sitting in a resting state, it’s in a neutral state.

“And someone, an operator, somebody has to do something to that gun to make it fire or not fire.”

Tom Gresham, a firearms expert, told Fox News that two things could have happened for the revolver to fire without Baldwin pulling the trigger.

“The first is that there is a mechanical problem with the revolver,” Gresham said.
“The investigators will determine this.”

‘I KNOW IT’S NOT ME’

Baldwin said he doesn’t feel guilty for the death of Halyna Hutchins and has told of handling the gun in the final seconds before the cinematographer was killed.

“I feel that someone is responsible for what happened and I can’t say who that is. But I know it’s not me,” the Hollywood actor told ABC America’s George Stephanopoulos.

It was the 63-year-old’s first major interview since the on-set tragedy in October.

“I mean, I honest to God, if I felt that I was responsible, I might have killed myself,” he said of the death of Ms Hutchins, who left behind a husband and young son.

Baldwin and the film crew were rehearsing a scene when the shocking tragedy occurred.

Ms Hutchins told him to hold the gun in her direction and aim it “right below her armpit”, Baldwin said.

“I said to her, ‘in this scene, I’m going to cock the gun, do you want to see that?’” he recalled.

She told him to go ahead – and seconds later she was struck with a live bullet.

“I let go of the hammer and the gun goes off,” Baldwin told Stephanopoulos.

“I never pulled the trigger.”

Ms Hutchins died and director Joel Souza was wounded when the bullet passed through her body and struck him.

Actor Alec Baldwin broke down in tears during the interview. ABC

“I let go of the hammer. Bang. The gun goes off,” he said.

“Everyone is horrified. They’re shocked. It’s loud. They don’t have their earplugs in … the gun was supposed to be empty. I was told I was handed an empty gun.”

The former 30 Rock star said he didn’t believe at first the 42-year-old had actually been shot.

“The notion that there was a live round in that gun did not dawn on me ‘till probably 45 minutes to an hour later.”

“She’s laying there and I go, ‘did she hit by wadding? Was there a blank? Sometime those blank rounds have a wadding inside that packs, it’s like a cloth that packs the gunpowder in. Sometimes wadding comes out, it can hit people, and it could feel like a bit of a poke,” he said.

He was then told to leave the set before he could check on Ms Hutchins.

Despite speculation he could be charged and held liable for her death, Baldwin said he didn’t believe he would be arrested over the shooting.

Halyna Hutchins was killed on the set of Rust.

“A live round isn’t supposed to be anywhere near the set. I don’t have anything to hide.”

Baldwin said it was “highly unlikely that I’d be charged with anything criminally”.

No criminal charges have been filed, but two crew members have filed civil lawsuits accusing Baldwin, the producers and others of negligence and poor safety procedures.

He said the investigation should focus on who brought live rounds onto the set.

The actor told of the emotional meeting with Ms Hutchins husband Matthew and their son.

“I didn’t know what to say … He hugged me and he goes, ‘I suppose we’re going to go through this together.”

The Sante Fe, New Mexico Sheriff’s Department confirmed that Alec Baldwin discharged the prop gun.

Baldwin said he couldn’t stop thinking about what her son Andros, 9, was dealing with.

“I think to myself, this little boy doesn’t have a mother anymore … and there’s nothing we can do to bring her back.”

According to the ABC interview he said: “I told him, ‘I don’t know what to say, I don’t know how to convey to you how sorry I am and willing to do anything I can to co-operate.’”

Baldwin said he would be “stunned” if Mr Hutchins didn't file a lawsuit against producers, as well as Baldwin himself.

Ms Hutchins was “one of the loveliest women I’ve ever worked with” and praised her professionalism on set.

“She was admired as she was loved,” he said.

Baldwin, who was a strong critic of Donald Trump throughout his presidency, said it was “surreal” to have the former president speculate about the shooting.

“Just when you thought things could not get more surreal, here’s the former president of the United States making a comment on this tragic situation,” he said.