‘Rust’ actor says filming felt ‘life-threatening,’ raised fears of Brandon Lee-style death
An actor on Alec Baldwin’s movie “Rust” said filming felt “life-threatening” — with cast members openly discussing fears of another Brandon Lee-style deadly shooting on set.
Ian A. Hudson told TMZ that he was terrified filming a scene where his outlaw character was gunned down by others using 20 pistols and two rifles — all real weapons.
“Everyone on the camera crew was protected by shields — and the camera was protected by a shield,” he said, noting that only the lens could be seen poking through the protection.
“So that made me question me being in front of the camera and sort of in between all that fire,” he told the outlet in an interview posted early Tuesday.
“I actually did feel the blanks hitting my face and my body. I could feel the wind from the shotgun being discharged,” he said, calling it a “terrifying” production on a “rushed schedule.”
“It was heavy. It was strong … It was life-threatening. It felt too surreal.”
Even before Baldwin accidentally shot dead cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, actors on the New Mexico set openly discussed their fears that such a tragedy could happen, Hudson told TMZ.
“I would talk to my fellow cast members afterward, and we all agreed how intense that was and how scary and real it was,” the New Mexico local told the outlet.
“Brandon Lee having died in ’93 — that conversation came up a couple times between my fellow cast members and I,” he said, referring to Bruce Lee’s actor son who was shot dead in an eerily similar accident on the set of “The Crow.”
“Just, you know — we’re doing this the same way they did it then, 30 years ago,” he said.
Hudson said that he “held his tongue” over a lot of his concerns because he is a “new actor” who didn’t “want to cause trouble.”
“But some of the other actors … were double- and triple-checking our weapons after the armorer gave them to us, whether they were cold or hot,” he said.
The risks that led to Hutchins’ death were particularly pointless because “they were just trying to make a movie,” the actor told TMZ.
Still, Hudson defended rookie armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed, insisting the 24-year-old ex-model had been “doing a fantastic job” while “pressed for time as much as she was.”
“I even overheard Joel Souza, the director, praise her a couple of times for being as safe as she was and as consistent — and speedy, too, keeping up with the rushed schedule,” he said of the director, who was also injured in the shooting.
Gutierrez Reed was on only her second job as chief armorer responsible for weapons on the set.
Meanwhile, it emerged Monday that detectives recovered two boxes of “ammo” from the set after the deadly accident, listed as “loose ammo and boxes” as well as “a fanny pack w/ammo.”
The inventory of seized items did not specify if they included live or dummy bullets or blank cartridges.
