He’s not letting him off the hook.
In July, a New Mexico judge dismissed the involuntary manslaughter case against Alec Baldwin over the fatal shooting of “Rust” cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
But, Quentin Tarantino isn’t so fast to move on.
During an appearance on Bill Maher’s “Club Random” podcast in an episode released Sunday, the “Kill Bill” director discussed the case with Maher.
“It’s a situation, I think — I’m being fair enough to say that the armorer, the guy who handles the gun, an armorer is 90% responsible for everything that happens when it comes to that gun,” Tarantino said.
The “Inglourious Basterds” director added, “But, but, but, but, but, but, the actor is 10% responsible. The actor is 10% responsible. It’s a gun. You are a partner in the responsibility to some degree.”
Baldwin — who’s currently shooting a TLC reality TV show with his wife, Hilaria, and their seven young kids — had faced a maximum of 18 months behind bars for the death of Hutchins, the cinematographer for “Rust.”
Baldwin was accused of recklessly flouting gun safety when he fired a real gun mistakenly loaded with a live round on the set of the Western “Rust,” killing Hutchins, 42, and wounding director Joel Souza in October 2021. The judge tossed out the case in July, slamming prosecutors for withholding critical evidence from the defense.
The movie’s armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, 26, meanwhile, was sentenced to 18 months in prison for involuntary manslaughter in April.
The “Pulp Fiction” filmmaker said that actors such as Baldwin should know how to use a gun on set.
“They show it to you. If there are steps to go through, you go through them, and it’s done with due diligence, and you know it’s f–king for real,” Tarantino said.
He added, “If an actor knows he has three hot rounds in his gun, and he knows that, ‘OK, I’m going to do a scene, blah-bla-blah-bla-blah-bla-blah,’ and he knows he’s got three hot rounds as he’s doing the scene, and then at this point, bam bam bam. And then he’s going to continue on and say a few more things.”
The Oscar-winning director continued, “Okay, if one of the rounds doesn’t go off as he does his ‘bam bam bam,’ then he should cut the scene and say, ‘guys, one of the rounds didn’t go off, I think I’m still holding a hot gun here.’”
Maher suggested that there should be “nothing” in a gun on set, and the effects can be added in post-production.
“Yeah, I guess I can add digital erections to porno movies, but who wants to f–king watch that?” said Tarantino.
“It’s exciting to shoot the blanks, and to see the real orange fire, not add orange fire.”
The “Reservoir Dogs” director defended the process of shooting blanks on set.
“I think for as many guns as we’ve shot off in movies, we only have two examples of people being shot on the set by a gun mishap. That’s a pretty f–king good record,” Tarantino added.
He was referencing Hutchins’ death, and the tragic death of Brandon Lee in the original “The Crow” in 1993.
Tarantino said that the “Rust” tragedy is “the kind of f–k-up that happens that undermines an entire industry. You don’t need nervous people. You want people to go for it. That’s the last thing you want, is nervous people. You want, ‘No, we’re all in this together, and we’re going to do this cool thing, and we’re going to capture this exciting thing on film.’”
Maher and Tarantino also discussed how Baldwin broke down and cried in court.
“Well of course,” Tarantino said, “he f–king ended up shooting somebody — that’s not something most of us human beings have to go through.”
