‘Rust’ director Joel Souza says there are no hard feelings and understanding those who are on the fence about seeing the movie three years after cinematographer Halyna Hutchins died in an accidental on-set shooting in 2021. However, he hopes they will give the movie a chance.
Souza spoke in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, November 20, as ‘Rust’ made its world premiere at the 2024 Camerimage Festival in Poland.
“If people don’t want to watch this movie, for any reason, they certainly don’t need to and there’s no hard feelings from me,” Souza told the outlet. “But what I hope is that people give it a chance — and if they do, that they look closely at the visual aspects, particularly the cinematography.”
“It’s a very unique opportunity to look through Halyna’s eyes and see how she saw the world,” he continued. “How much she is missed is evidenced by the fact that so many people came back to finish this film for her. They came back and stepped into a very difficult and loaded situation because they were touched by her, and it was important to them to finish this for her.”
Hutchins’ mother, Olga Solovey did not attend the event. She explained her absence in a statement issued by her lawyer, Gloria Allred: “It was always my hope to meet my daughter in Poland to watch her work come alive on screen. Unfortunately, that was ripped away from me when Alec Baldwin discharged his gun and killed my daughter.”
Hutchins, 42, died on Oct. 21, 2021, after a prop gun Baldwin, 66, held discharged during a rehearsal in New Mexico. Souza was also hit in the shoulder by the bullet, and Baldwin has insisted he didn’t pull the trigger or know why the prop gun contained live ammunition.
The actor was indicted on an involuntary manslaughter charge in January, but a judge later dropped the criminal case against him in July after Baldwin’s lawyers argued that the prosecution buried evidence.
In September, ‘Rust’ armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to 18 months in prison.
