Alec Baldwin’s post-Rust-shooting plans reportedly include Broadway
The actor is reportedly following up the deadly chaos of the Western gone wrong with a revival of Yasmina Reza's play Art
Aux News Alec Baldwin
There are many enticing prospects that can draw a celebrated screen actor to the stage: an EGOT, an especially musical break from action movies, or even living out the real-life character arc of your most iconic role.
But for Alec Baldwin, the motivations are altogether different and depressingly unique: Baldwin reportedly plans to return to Broadway for one of his first roles since he accidentally shot and killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins in 2021 on the set of the Western Rust. The weapon, which Baldwin had understood to be cold (in other words, not loaded with live ammunition), misfired, also injuring director Joel Souza. Baldwin will reportedly star in a revival of Yasmina Reza’s Art, per the New York Post, his first role since the incident.
Art, which first premiered in 1994, follows three friends whose relationships begin to shift and falter after one of them purchases an expensive and divisive painting. Tony Shalhoub and John Leguizamo will reportedly round out the principal cast, with Tony-winner Matthew Warchus directing. Warchus is a veteran of the production, having previously staged Art in 1998.
Beyond the fanfare of Baldwin’s casting (which it’s worth noting he nor his representatives have confirmed), details about the Art revival are simultaneously amorphous and oddly set in stone. In an unusual turn for a Broadway show, Art already has a venue, cast, and director, but has yet to select a producer. Per the Post, Creative Artists Agency, the group currently handling production duties, is “auditioning” producers in New York.
The announcement of Baldwin’s new role comes just shortly after the actor spoke out about the Rust shooting in a CNN interview, where he lamented the fact that the incident has cost him roles before.
“I got fired from another job yesterday,” he says. “There I was all set to go to a movie, jump on a plane … I’ve been talking with these guys for months and they told me yesterday we don’t want to do the film with you because of this… There is just this torrent of people attacking me who don’t know the facts.”
In the same interview, Baldwin even went so far as to point fingers at who he feels is responsible for Hutchins’ death—although he pulled the trigger, Baldwin seems not to consider himself one of those people.
In Baldwin’s eyes, he explains, armorer Hannah Gutierrez Reed, who was responsible for loading and handling ammunition, and assistant director Dave Halls are culpable for Hutchins’ tragic death. Both Halls’ and Gutierrez Reed’s respective attorneys have made statements accusing Baldwin of deflecting blame. Halls handed Baldwin the gun, which Baldwin insists he believed was cold.
“There are two people who didn’t do what they were supposed to do,” Baldwin says. “I’m not sitting there saying I want them to, you know, go to prison, or I want their lives to be hell. I don’t want that, but I want everybody to know that those are the two people that are responsible for what happened.”
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“I got fired from another job yesterday,” he says. “There I was all set to go to a movie, jump on a plane … I’ve been talking with these guys for months and they told me yesterday we don’t want to do the film with you because of this… There is just this torrent of people attacking me who don’t know the facts.”let’s all take a moment to remember the real victim of the Rust shooting, Alec Baldwin.
*You* point the gun at someone and the trigger goes off, *You* are responsible. Sure, the gun was supposed to be COLD ~ BUT IT WASN’T. The *final* responsibility rests on whoever picks up the gun, points it at someone and pulls the trigger. You can’t HIRE other people to do your ‘GUN SAFETY’.
I think often when people say “Sure, you’re the REAL victim”, it’s a false dichotomy.
Poor Alec Baldwin he’s really suffered. Those space aliens really had it in for him.
Alec Baldwin is frequently a pretentious douchebag. There are genuine questions about what went on on the set of Rust. But unless some wrongdoing by Baldwin is uncovered that he loaded the gun himself, this idea that he is responsible for this tragedy seems odd given on-set protocols.If he was handed a gun and told it was cold and then told to point it during rehearsal where he pointed it and pull the trigger, he has no more liability than the actor who shot Brandon Lee did. He’s not wrong in saying that the armorer and the AD likely share the brunt of the responsibility here. Whether he has civil liability as a producer who helped hire people is a separate question, but as an actor on a film set, the tone of this whole discussion seems more predicated on the fact that Baldwin isn’t terribly likable than how a film set actually works.
Yea, but if we acknowledge the obvious fact that actors aren’t responsible for ensuring prop weapons aren’t actually deadly non-prop weapons, then we can’t keep writing shitty, smarmy clickbait at Jim Spanfeller’s request that completely undermine the credibility of this once great website.
Yeah. Actors are virtually never supposed to begiven a loaded gun on set, and in the extremely rare case that they are, they are supposed to be made abundantly care that it’s loaded. While it’s not a bad practice for actors to make sure that weapons are unloaded, it’s not their really their job. He’s doing a terrible job of defending himself though. His comments here come off as he’s making himself to be the biggest victim in the incident.
It is shocking to me too for these reasons you state that people seem to call him a murderer. This was like grade 9 drama class knowledge.
Say, that’s a good idea. I bet he would kill on Broadway!
If you’re going to try to make dark and edgy, at least try to be original about it and not just use the same type of joke we’ve been hearing about it for months.
Not reuse old jokes? Sir, this is the A.V. Club.
of COCK!
Alec Get Your Gun
I think the truth of all this is that Alec Baldwin, the actor on set, is not to blame for this tragic death. Alec Baldwin the producer who agreed to shoot in a state where the Hollywood unions don’t have control to save some money is to blame because saving money cost someone’s life. The gunsmith on set also is totally to blame as well but the producers hired them.