Alec Baldwin accused of recklessly firing gun on 'Rust' set in new lawsuit

Alec Baldwin recklessly fired a gun when he shot and killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injured director Joel Souza on the set of Rust, a lawsuit claims.

The suit, from script supervisor Mamie Mitchell, is the second after the fatal shooting last month. It says Baldwin fired the weapon when it was not called for in the script of the Western.

Similar to the lawsuit filed last week by head of lighting Serge Svetnoy, this one was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court and names many defendants including Baldwin, who was both star and a producer, David Halls, the assistant director who handed Baldwin the gun, and Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who was in charge of weapons on the set.

Mitchell’s lawsuit focuses mainly on Baldwin’s actions, saying she was standing next to Hutchins and within four feet of the actor, and was stunned when he fired the gun inside the tiny church on Bonanza Creek Ranch.

According to discussions before the scene was filmed, it called for three tight shots of Baldwin: one on his eyes, one on a blood stain on his shoulder, and one on his torso as he pulled the gun from a holster, the lawsuit said.

There was no call for Baldwin to point the gun towards Hutchins and Souza, nor to fire it, the lawsuit said. “Mr Baldwin chose to play Russian roulette when he fired a gun without checking it, and without having the armorer do so in his presence,” Mitchell’s lawyer Gloria Allred said.

A veteran script supervisor who has worked on nearly 100 productions, Mitchell was on a set for the first time since the pandemic began and was the first to call 911 after the shooting, the lawsuit said. She is seeking compensation and punitive damages in amounts to be determined later.

Lawyers and other representatives for the defendants had no immediate comment. Baldwin previously said the shooting was a “one-in-a-trillion event”. “We were a very, very well-oiled crew shooting a film together and then this horrible event happened.”

The lawsuit also alleged that the armorer on the production, Gutierrez-Reed, had minimal experience, and she was hired as one of several cost-cutting measures that proved dangerous.