Alec Baldwin feels "very hopeful" that he won't be held criminally responsible for the fatal shooting on the set of Rust.
Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was killed and director Joel Souza was injured in New Mexico in October when the prop firearm Baldwin was holding during rehearsal fired.
The Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office is still investigating the incident and no arrests or charges have been made. However, Baldwin and his fellow producers were recently hit with a wrongful death lawsuit from Hutchins' family.
Speaking about the legal aftermath of the tragedy at the Boulder International Film Festival on Saturday, the 30 Rock actor said, "I'm very hopeful when the facts come out we will not be held criminally responsible. But it has changed my life, and I don't mean this in the ordinary sense that I was involved in something or somebody passed. I mean, I was involved in a situation with somebody was killed. It's changed my life just in terms of the function of weapons in films and television."
Baldwin and other defendants have also been sued by crew members such as script supervisor Mamie Mitchell and head electrician Serge Svetnoy. Discussing the legal fallout, the actor implied some individuals are financially motivated and going after those with money.
"We have dealt with a situation where specific people are not as interested in finding out what really happened," he told the audience. "What you have is a certain group of litigants on whatever side, who their attitude is, well, the people who likely seem negligent have no money and the people who have money are not negligent, but we're not gonna let that stop us from doing what we need to do in terms of litigation. Why sue people if you're not going to get money? That's what you're doing."
The 63-year-old once again stated that he was following the typical chain of command for handling weapons on a set and said he is looking forward to changes being made to gun safety protocols.
