Alec Baldwin’s First Extensive Interview About ‘Rust’ Shooting To Air As ABC News Special — Update

Alec Baldwin’s First Extensive Interview About ‘Rust’ Shooting To Air As ABC News Special — Update

UPDATE, Wednesday, 5:07 AM PT: Alec Baldwin will sit down with ABC News’s George Stephanopoulos for a one hour special to talk about what happened on the set of the movie Rust. It will be Baldwin’s first extensive interview about the shooting.


“I have done thousands of interviews at ABC News over the last 20 years. This was the most intense that I have ever experienced,” Stephanopoulos said on Good Morning America on Wednesday. He described Baldwin as “raw” but “very candid” and “very forthcoming.” He said that Baldwin “went through in detail what happened on the set that day,” and talked about meeting with the family of Halyna Hutchins. Stephanopoulos said that the interview lasted for one hour and 20 minutes.

ABC News also announced that 20/20 will focus on the deadly shooting in a two-hour special on Dec. 10, with clips of the Baldwin interview.


Thursday’s interview is being produced by George Stephanopoulos Productions, the new production company set up by Stephanopoulos earlier this year. The special, to air at 8 PM ET, also will stream later in the evening on Hulu.


PREVIOUSLY: According to a report, Alec Baldwin has spoken for the first time at length about the tragedy on the set of the film Rust where a gun he was holding, which was supposed to be filled with blanks, went off and killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. The actor, who produced and starred in Rust, sat down for “his first formal interview” with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos today, reported CNN.


Baldwin, of course, has close ties with ABC via Match Game, which he hosts. He also has longtime links to NBC via his work with Lorne Michaels on SNL and 30 Rock.


One day after the October 21 shooting, Baldwin posted a brief statement to social media.


“There are no words to convey my shock and sadness regarding the tragic accident that took the life of Halyna Hutchins, a wife, mother and deeply admired colleague of ours,” Baldwin tweeted. “I’m fully cooperating with the police investigation to address how this tragedy occurred and I am in touch with her husband, offering my support to him and his family. My heart is broken for her husband, their son, and all who knew and loved Halyna.”


On Oct. 30, Alec Baldwin told a group of paparazzi following him in Vermont that the Rust production was “well-oiled” despite weapons discharges and crew resignations before the fatal shooting of Hutchins.


“A woman died,” the actor told the paparazzi. “She was my friend. She was my friend. The day I arrived in Santa Fe to start shooting, I took her to dinner with Joel, the director. We were a very, very well-oiled crew shooting a film together and then this horrible event happened.”

He followed that up on Nov. 2 by reposting on his Instagram the lengthy Facebook post by Rust costume designer Terese Magpale Davis who defended the indie Western, writing claims of “unsafe, chaotic conditions are bullsh*t.”


There is no announced air date or timeslot for the Baldwin sit down.