Actor Alec Baldwin discharged a prop firearm on the set of the Western movie, “Rust,” killing the director of photography and injuring the film’s director, authorities said.
Santa Fe County Sheriff’s officials said Halyna Hutchins was airlifted to University of New Mexico Hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Director Joel Souza was also shot.
A spokesperson for Baldwin said there was an accident on the set involving the misfire of a prop gun with blanks.
Local media reported that the 63-year-old actor was seen outside the sheriff’s office in tears.
The International Cinematographers Guild confirmed that the woman fatally shot was Hutchins, a cinematographer.
“The details are unclear at this moment, but we are working to learn more, and we support a full investigation into this tragic event,” guild president John Lindley and executive director Rebecca Rhine said in a statement.
Hutchins, a 2015 graduate of the American Film Institute, worked as director of photography on the 2020 action film “Archenemy,” starring Joe Manganiello. She was named a “rising star” by American Cinematographer in 2019.
“I’m so sad about losing Halyna. And so infuriated that this could happen on a set,” said “Archenemy” director Adam Egypt Mortimer on Twitter. “She was a brilliant talent who was absolutely committed to art and to film.”
Film colleague Manganiello called her “an incredible talent” and “a great person” on his Instagram account. He said he was lucky to have worked with Hutchins.
-Bloomberg