Actor Alec Baldwin allegedly threatened to assault the director of “30 Rock,” a NBC sitcom of which he was a part, according to a new book.
Baldwin appeared on “30 Rock” as Jack Donaghy, Vice President of East Coast Television and Microwave Oven Programming for General Electric, for seven seasons. But according to Mike Roe, author of the upcoming book “The 30 Rock Book: Inside the Iconic Show, from Blerg to EGOT,” Baldwin was “difficult” to work with and rude to others on set.
Baldwin even allegedly threatened to hit director Adam Bernstein during the first season of the show, Roe claimed. Bernstein had held two thumbs up to frame a shot, which set Baldwin off for some reason.
“According to [editor Doug] Abel, Alec turned to [Bernstein] and said that if he did that one more time, he was going to assault him. And he didn’t say it with a smile on his face,” Roe writes, according to an excerpt of the book obtained by the New York Post.
Bernstein ended up leaving the show after six episodes, which many speculate had to do with the animosity between him and Baldwin.
Another one of the show’s directors, Paul Feig, admitted to Roe that out of everyone on the show, Baldwin was the most challenging to work with. He disliked doing multiple takes and wanted to spend as little time on set as possible, Feig said.
Baldwin is currently the subject of an ongoing investigation for an incident that happened on the set of one of his other films, “Rust.” While he was filming the movie, he fired a set gun and ended up killing a cinematographer and injuring the director.
Former President Donald Trump has speculated that the shooting, which Baldwin has claimed was an accident, was actually intentional.
“He’s a cuckoo-bird, he’s a nutjob,” Trump said. “And usually, when there’s somebody like that, you know, in my opinion, he had something to do with it.”
