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Alec Baldwin slammed for saying he didn't know Halyna Hutchins was shot in farcical interview

Alec Baldwin said he 'didn't know she [Halyna Hutchins] was hit by a gun until 45 minutes to [an] hour later' on the ‘Rust’ movie set

Alec Baldwin was criticized heavily online after he claimed that he had no idea that Halyna Hutchins was hit by the gun for “45 minutes” after he shot the working prop with a live bullet on the set of ‘Rust’ movie. The Ukrainian cinematographer died on October 21 after the Oscar-nominated star accidentally fired the prop gun that also ended up wounding director Joel Souza.

Over a month after the tragedy, Baldwin gave his first interview to ABC 20/20 on Thursday, December 2, where he said: “things are often played very fast and loose”. Speaking with ABC's George Stephanopoulos, the ‘The Boss Baby’ star stated, “[I] didn't know she was hit by a gun until 45 mins to hour later. It did not dawn on me to probably 45 minutes to an hour later ...Well she's laying there.”

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Baldwin went on to say, “I was told that this was a completely incidental shot. An angle that may not have ended up in the film at all. But we kept doing this. So I take the gun and like start to cock the gun and I'm not gonna pull the trigger. I just reduce the issue. We'll just keep it down until the gun a little bit like that and I cocked the gun. I would never point a gun at anyone and pull the trigger at them, never.”

“I was never planning to pull the trigger. Now that was the training that I had. You know when it goes bad and perfect. From day one of my instruction in this business people said to me never take a clinical click-click-click-click-click because even though it's incremental you damage the firing pin on there. It's loud. They don't have their ear plugs and everyone was like the gun was supposed to be empty. But I was told I was handed an empty gun. If it were cosmetic brass nothing with a charge at all or flash round nothing she goes down,” the 63-year-old added.

When asked if he felt guilt over her death, the Baldwin said: "No. No. I feel that... someone is responsible for what happened and I can't say who that is, but I know it's not me. Honest to God, if I felt that I was responsible, I might've killed myself if I thought that I was responsible. And I don't say that lightly."

During the interview, Baldwin also insisted that he’ll fight to abolish guns from film sets. He said, “A good four or five people were killed and believe me I will do everything in my power I could do anything in my power to undo what was done. I don't know how that bullet arrived in that gun but I'm all for doing anything that will help take us to a place where this is less likely to happen again every,” before mentioning, “Someone put a live bullet in a gun, a bullet that wasn't even supposed to be on the property.”

But people were not in a mood to be impressed by his side of the story. A critic sarcastically tweeted, “Remember how Alec Baldwin is a great actor?” The second one commented, “Alec Baldwin is given the platform & sympathy to cry on mainstream media after manually cocking & firing a gun at someone An 18-year-old who defended himself against grown adults threatening to kill him is smeared as a murderer & white supremacist by the sitting President.” “I can smell the bull crap through my screen.” the third one wrote.

A tweet read: “Alec Baldwin won't get arrest because he is rich, well connected, and the narrative seeded immediately after he killed that woman was that it was an accident Trials today are based on social media and people's willingness to riot.” Another stated: “Alec Baldwin says he feels no guilt?! Even if he didn’t mean to shoot and kill someone it was HIS film. HIS production. And the lack of safety on set is HIS responsibility. That interview last night was done to benefit himself and to sway public opinion of himself.”