Joel Souza, the writer-director of Rust who was wounded by the same bullet that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, is speaking out for the first time since the tragic incident.
On Oct. 21, 2021, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Rust star and producer Alec Baldwin held a prop gun that unknowingly held a live bullet. Baldwin claims the gun went off without him pulling the trigger, which fatally stuck Hutchins in the chest. The remnants of the bullet went into Souza's shoulder and nearly hit his spine.
Last month, a judge dismissed the involuntary manslaughter case against Baldwin, agreeing that the prosecution suppressed evidence. The movie's armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed is serving an 18-month prison sentence after being found guilty of involuntary manslaughter in March. She is now seeking to have her conviction overturned.
In a nearly four-hour interview with Vanity Fair published Thursday, Souza, 51, raved over his friend Hutchins, who he claimed was "too cool for me to know" and revealed audiences will never see the scene that led to the fatal accident.
"It vanishes in its entirety," Souza told the outlet about the final cut of the movie, which he reluctantly returned to finish to preserve Hutchins' cinematography. But it will also benefit her family, who reached a settlement with producers, including Hutchins' husband, and will collect a percentage of Rust's earnings.
Souza revealed he had "wake-me-up-in-a-cold-sweat kind of nightmares" every night for over a year following the tragic event. He also went through six therapists, but nothing seemed to help.
"I remember specifically going to sleep that night and hoping I didn't wake up the next morning," he recalled of the night of the shooting. "I hoped I would just bleed out overnight because I didn't want to be around anymore. It was a very difficult moment. I remember just thinking, Maybe I'll just sort of bleed to death—that would suit me just fine."
Souza also shared his thoughts on guns on movie sets.
"My recommendation is this: that no guns should ever be allowed," he said. "Nothing real that can fire anything. It should all be fake from here on to eternity. And there should still be armorers even because it's fake, because they're still not safe unless there's an armorer.
As for where he currently stands with Baldwin, Souza said, "Getting through it was tough. We got through it. I got the performance I wanted. We're not friends. We're not enemies. There's no relationship."
The filming of Rust wrapped in March but its release is still uncertain. Souza says reports that the film has been presented to unaccepting distributors are not accurate.
Newsweek has contacted reps for Souza for comment.
Professional Weighs Rust Shooting Impact
Dutch Merrick has been an armorer and prop master for nearly 30 years. He's worked on feature films and TV shows including Euprohia, SEAL Team, and CSI New York. At the time of the Rust shooting, Merrick was President of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) Local 44, the largest union that represents prop masters and armors.
The Rust tragedy inspired him to create the Prop Gun Safety Training course, an eight-hour hands-on curriculum that teaches basic gun safety, set awareness, and handle any prop that simulates a firearm, as well as an industry guidebook.
"Then we do a scene study in front of a camera where we do blank fire on camera hands-on with the participants," Merrick told Newsweek about his course.
"We have more than an hour dedicated to breaking down the rust tragedy, and then we touch on Brandon Lee and Jon-Erik Hexum," he said of other on-set gunshot tragedies.
Merrick says some Hollywood projects took "overcorrection" safety measures to avoid a Rust-like incident following the shooting, resulting in costly post-production measures to make airsoft or toy guns look real.
Instead, Merrick wants to see technical changes in the industry. He says there is currently no occupation code for armorers in IATSE, meaning "you are an armor if you say you're an armorer." Merrick believes an armor occupation code "is crucial because that would negotiate our wages, and it would set a minimum standard for licensing and training."
He also says the IATSE Local 44 only requires property masters and property crafts to take a 90-minute online course which could also benefit other roles on film sets.
"I think everyone should have to take that course, just as an informational course and a confidence-building course. And then the people handling the guns, such as the prop masters and the prop assistants, and if there was an occupation code for the armorer, they would have to take a far more intensive certification, something like eight, 10, or 12 hours."
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