(Headline USA) Alec Baldwin will remain the lead actor in Rust as it restarts production this year despite being criminally charged with manslaughter, according to the film’s lawyer.
“The film is still on track to be completed,” Rust Movie Productions lawyer Melina Spadone said in a statement this week.
The late cinematographer Halyna Hutchins’s widower, Matt, will return as an executive producer, as will director Joel Souza.
Baldwin was charged this week with involuntary manslaughter for the 2021 death of Hutchins, whom he shot on the set of Rust.
Prosecutors argued there was more than enough evidence to prove Baldwin acted negligently, ultimately costing Hutchins’s her life, despite his claims that he didn’t pull the trigger of the set gun.
Baldwin’s legal team said this week that the actor will appeal the charges against him, calling them a “terrible miscarriage of justice.”
However, Santa Fe District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies said she is confident that charging Baldwin was the right decision.
“Every person that handles a gun has a duty to make sure that if they’re going to handle that gun, point it at someone and pull the trigger that it is not going to fire a projectile and kill someone,” she said. “An actor does not get a free pass just because they are an actor. That is what is so important. We are saying here in New Mexico, that everyone is equal under the law.”
Carmack-Altwies said the investigation into the Rust shooting revealed there were live rounds mixed in with dummy rounds, and crews were not checking ammunition regularly. Baldwin had the responsibility to check his gun’s rounds, she said.
“He didn’t check it. He didn’t do any of things he was supposed to do to make sure that he was safe or that anyone around him was safe,” she said.
If Baldwin is convicted, he could face up to 18 months in prison.
