That my friend is a good question since only one person was dead.
He pulled the trigger. Someone else loaded the gun.
I read ALL of the stories on this and one of them leaped out at me. There was one story where one of the actors on set with some other people were doing target shooting with the prop guns. This is a big BIG no no in the business. Nobody does any range time with the prop firearms purely for the simple fact that accidents can and do happen.
So why Alec Baldwin’s gun in particular? Also, why that specific cinematographer? Could be because her husband was a lawyer that happened to be working for a law firm that was being looked at with things in connection to Hillary Clinton? Because that is exactly who her husband was.
What kind of logistics would it take to arrange an assassination to send a message?
Well, it takes a phone call or two to find out what they are shooting for the next day’s shots and roughly what times. An on set director and armorer would know that shooting schedule as they would have to be on set to re-load firearms for each scene.
So who has access to the firearms? Directors, and armorers. That’s supposed to be it. The likelihood that this firearm was sabotaged or armed with a live rounds is extremely high and that this was not an accident. Especially when the armorer and director in question had questionable activities on previous movie sets.
If I had to bet money, it’s someone who did not like Alec Baldwin who wanted to send a message that he might not be Mr. Perfect after all. That is my best case scenario because this was clearly not an accident. Nothing like this happens without someone wanting it to. Jobs in Hollywood are so cool that the majority of people doing them rarely if ever get paid what they are worth. Nobody is going to fuck up that kind of job. Even extras don’t ever want to fuck up a job like that.
This was done on purpose. Someone wanted to course correct Alec Baldwin. The question in my mind is who.
Not by any means defending Alec Baldwin, but my take is that it basically comes down to the fact that Hollywood is filled with careless, incompetent idiots with over-inflated egos. Are you familiar with the death of Brandon Lee? Seems similar.
The death of Brandon Lee is an entirely different thing as the blank in that revolver had a wax plug that was not discharged on the previous round shot. When the next round was fired, the wax became a projectile and killed Lee. The difference in these two cases is that this was a full lead round fired from a gun that was reported to be a cold gun. Cold meaning that there are NO blanks in it, and NO live rounds. The Rust film and film set was full of problems from day one. I know of one person who is loosely connected to that production and apparently after last night’s discussion there was a lot of contention on that set with regards to safety. Apparently half the second unit had left because this was not the first live round fired.
Michael Massee the guy who shot Brandon Lee on accident did not not go on television to get in front of the controversy or to lie about never having pulled the trigger. After that event, he did not finish the shoot and took a year or so off in order to recover from the emotional damage and guilt. He was never the same actor after that. Alec Baldwin on the other hand, lied. Went to TV to do a PR campaign to make everyone believe he was innocent and that he never “pulled the trigger”.
These are two entirely different productions, with two entirely different caliber of prop masters and armorers. Alex Proyas for all his faults, is one of those directors who along with any and all cast members take gun safety incredibly seriously. So much so that Alex Proyas did not do any films for a long time that had firearms in them for fear that there would ever be a chance to lose another actor like Brandon Lee.
There were a lot of people held accountable for the Brandon Lee shooting, but they never had a full on live round with a lead bullet on set. RUST on the other hand, lots and lots of idiots and ineptitude with cast and crew using live rounds doing target practice and fucking around.
I still think producer/prop master deserves the charge. I don't give a shit if Baldwin denied pulling the trigger, that was his job (in that role). Normally, if you hand an idiot a gun and tell them to shoot someone, you are culpable, but in Hollywood there is a different level of responsibility. Actors should not have to think "is this gun loaded?" It's a fucking prop - or at least it is supposed to be. Murder rap belongs to whoever loaded that surprise.