“Rust” Director Who Survived Bullet Wound Says Resuming Filming with 'Fake Guns' Was 'Unnerving' for Alec Baldwin

"I can only imagine how difficult that was," Joel Souza said of Alec Baldwin returning to finish filming 'Rust' in 2023, adding, "But we got through it."

• Alec Baldwin's movie Rust premiered at Poland's Camerimage Festival on Nov. 19, more than three years after its cinematographer Halyna Hutchins died on Oct. 21, 2021, after a prop gun Baldwin held discharged during a rehearsal for a scene.

• The movie's director Joel Souza, who was also injured in the incident, said in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter that he believes Baldwin's return to the production in 2023 "was an unnerving thing for him to do."

• Souza said that while he understands why people may not want to engage with Rust, he hopes people view the finished product as a means of honoring Hutchins' work.
  

Rust director Joel Souza is reflecting on the journey his production went through following the accidental on-set death of its cinematographer, Halyna Hutchins.

At the 2024 Camerimage Festival in Poland — where Rust made its world premiere on Wednesday, Nov. 20 — Souza, 51, who was hit in the shoulder by a bullet during the Oct. 21, 2021 incident that killed Hutchins, 42 — told The Hollywood Reporter about how the movie's cast and crew, including star/producer Alec Baldwin, felt when production on the movie resumed in April 2023.

"I’m sure we had conversations about it. I can’t remember the substance of them," he said when asked if he and Baldwin, 66, discussed what it would be like for Baldwin to resume portraying a character who wields a gun. "But I have zero doubt that it was an unnerving thing for him to do and a large moment for him."

Hutchins died after the prop gun that Rust cast member Alec Baldwin was holding discharged while he was rehearsing a scene. The actor has said he did not pull the trigger of the gun or know why it contained live ammunition; he was indicted by a grand jury on an involuntary manslaughter charge in January, but New Mexico Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer ended up dropping the criminal case against the actor on July 12 after Baldwin's defense team argued that prosecutors buried relevant evidence that came to light mid-trial.

Related: Rust Cinematographer's Mom Says Alec Baldwin 'Continues to Increase My Pain with His Refusal to Apologize'

When asked if he noticed any change in Baldwin's approach to his performance in the movie when filming resumed, Souza added, "It was tough for him, you know. I think he was going through all of his own stuff the whole time. I can only imagine how difficult that was. But we got through it."

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Rust's premiere in Poland has been met with a certain amount of controversy — Hutchins' mother Olga Solovey released a statement through her attorney Gloria Allred on Nov. 19 stating that she would not attend the movie's premiere and alleged that Baldwin has never reached out to her family in Ukraine "to take responsibility for her death." Baldwin did not attend the movie's premiere in Poland.

Related: Alec Baldwin Reflects on 'Painful' Loss of His Dad 41 Years After His Death: He 'Was an Important Part of My Life'

"If people don’t want to watch this movie, for any reason, they certainly don’t need to and there’s no hard feelings from me," Souza told THR elsewhere in the interview, adding that he hopes those who do watch the film pay attention to the cinematography work that Hutchins started.

"Because it’s a very unique opportunity to look through Halyna’s eyes and see how she saw the world," he added. "How much she is missed is evidenced by the fact that so many people came back to finish this film for her. They came back and stepped into a very difficult and loaded situation because they were touched by her, and it was important to them to finish this for her. A large part of our business only got to know Halyna’s name because of what happened to her — and I think that’s a shame." 

Rust does not yet have a release date in the U.S.