One of the new details to emerge from the interview, given to the ABC News presenter George Stephanopoulos, was Baldwin’s claim that he did not in fact pull the gun’s trigger, but the release of the firing mechanism appeared to be the result of a mechanical fault of some sort. “I let go of the hammer of the gun and the gun goes off,” he said – again repeating the line to ensure that it landed.
With a formal investigation into the shooting still underway, it was no surprise that Baldwin’s answers sounded – to this critic’s ears, at least – rather carefully scripted. Any human being who played an instrumental role in the death of another would surely feel strong feelings of guilt, however unwitting that role might have been. But when Stephanopoulos asked if Baldwin felt guilt, he instantly said that he did not, adding: “Someone is responsible for what happened and I can’t say who that is, but I know it’s not me.”
Later on, he almost sounded like a detective summarising the plot before a drawing room of suspects. “There is only one question to be resolved: where did the live round come from?” he mused. But of course there are many more, including the matter of his own responsibility as a producer for the running of a safe and responsible set.
Later still, Stephanopoulos asked Baldwin if he believed his career was over as a result of the incident: Baldwin replied that it could be. “I couldn’t give a sh– about my career anymore,” he said.
Yet the very fact of this extremely cinematic outpouring would suggest he does. There were any number of possible forums in which Baldwin could have addressed this tragic accident, from a newspaper interview to a statement in concert with the IATSE film crew union, which had been raising the alarm about unsafe conditions on sets just as the Rust shooting took place. Instead, he chose a sit-down TV interview which will serve as the centrepiece of a two-hour primetime show about the shooting, due to air in the US next week.
A three-part preview of the broadcast was posted yesterday on ABC News’ YouTube channel. And with its solemn lighting and careful dialogue, the scene felt as calculated as the climax of an Oscar-hungry drama – the bit where the stoic hero finally breaks down and lays out his regrets while the audience gropes for the Kleenex.
