Alec Baldwin broke down in tears during an interview in which he did not apologize for the fatal shooting

Alec Baldwin broke down in tears in his first interview months after fatally shooting Rust’s cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.

In the now-infamous interview with ABC News host George Stephanopoulos, the embattled actor denied pulling the trigger on a real gun on Oct. 21, 2021, going as far as saying he “would have killed himself” if he thought he was responsible. . .

Baldwin, 64, blamed the prop managers, claiming they failed to check to see if the gun was loaded before handing it over to him.

The actor also shared how he “loved” Hutchins and had bonded with her widower after accidentally killing her, claiming he was told by cops on the scene that he would not be charged for the shooting.

But today, New Mexico authorities announced that he will be charged with manslaughter in Hutchins’ death.

New Mexico 1st Judicial District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies and Special Counsel Andrew Reeb said Thursday they would file manslaughter charges against Baldwin in the fatal shooting. If he is found guilty, he could face up to 18 months in prison.

Gunsmith Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, 25, will also face manslaughter charges.

Baldwin has previously claimed that he did not pull the trigger on Hutchins, saying the gun simply “went off” while in his hands on the set of his western.

‘I drop the hammer, bang. The gun fires. Everyone is horrified. They are shocked. It’s loud,’ she said in the December 2021 interview.

He also revealed that he did not learn Hutchins had died until hours later, at the end of his interview with police, when he was photographed in the sheriff’s parking lot in Santa Fe.

But, he said at the time, he had been told by “in the know” people that it was “highly unlikely” that he would face criminal charges.

‘Someone is responsible for what happened, and I can’t say who it is, but it’s not me.

Honestly, if I had thought I was responsible, I could have killed myself. And I don’t say that lightly.

In his version of events, the 30 Rock star said he was filming a scene inside a church on set when the gun was handed over to him.

“She’s making me put the gun down, it’s all in her direction,” he said of Hutchins.

I draw the gun, to his marker. I’m not shooting at the camera lens, I’m shooting right next to it. In your direction. This was a completely incidental shot that may not have ended up in the film.’

He said he cocked the gun and was discussing with Hutchins how it looked on camera.

I’m just showing. I say, ‘How about that? That works? You see it? You see it?’ And then she’s like, “Yeah, that’s good.”

‘I drop the hammer, bang. The gun fires. Everyone is horrified. They are shocked. It’s noisy. They don’t have earplugs.

He went on to say that the “gun was supposed to be empty”, claiming that he “was told I was given an empty gun”.

But Hutchins soon fell to the ground, at which point Baldwin said he thought she must have passed out.

“The notion that there was a live bullet in that gun didn’t occur to me until probably 45 minutes to an hour later.”

He added, ‘Well, she’s laying there and I’m like, ‘Did the wadding hit her? Was there a blank space?’ Sometimes those blank cartridges have a wadding inside that is packed, it’s like a piece of cloth that packs the gunpowder. Sometimes the wadding comes out, it can hit people and it can feel like a little pinprick.

But no one could understand it. He had a heart attack? Because remember that the idea that someone put a live bullet in the gun wasn’t even real.”

I never pulled the trigger. No no no. You would never do that.

Baldwin went on to claim that “nobody had any idea” that live ammunition was used until a police officer showed a photo of shrapnel removed from director Joel Souza’s arm.

He said that then began ‘the agony, the madness, that someone put a live bullet in the gun. She was laying there and she was there for a while. She surprised me how long they didn’t put her in a car or get her out, but they waited until a helicopter arrived,” she said.

‘When he finally left, I don’t know how long he was there. She kept saying, it’s stable, just like you don’t think there’s a live bullet in the gun, you don’t think it’s going to be a fatal accident.

‘At the end of my interview with the sheriff’s department, I was told, “We’re sorry to inform you that you didn’t make it.” They told me then and there.

He added: “That’s when I went out and called my wife.”

Baldwin further insisted that he is not to blame for the shooting, saying someone else was to blame, though he would not name that person at the time.

The Oscar-nominated actor said he had been given the antique gun and told it was safe, and that he trusted the people who told him that.

“The gun was supposed to be empty,” Baldwin added. They told me they gave me an empty gun.

He said that he relied on others on set to do his job.

Among them were Gutierrez-Reed, the gunsmith, and Dave Halls, the assistant director.

“A person has a responsibility to maintain the weapon,” Baldwin said.

“Halyna and I had something profound in common: we both assumed the gun was empty,” he said.

Baldwin added: ‘There’s only one question to answer, just one. And that is: where did the live round come from?

The actor would later file a lawsuit against four people involved in the movie, saying they were negligent in providing him with the gun.

Among those named in the civil suit are the film’s gunsmith and prop assistant, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed; assistant director David Halls; prop teacher Sarah Zachry; and Seth Kenney, who supplied weapons and ammunition to the film set.

In his lawsuit, Baldwin accuses Gutierrez-Reed of failing to verify that a Colt revolver he was using in the trial was safe. She will now also be charged with manslaughter for her role in Hutchins’ death.

The lawsuit also states that Halls failed to check the gun before declaring it safe and turning it over to Baldwin, and that Zachry failed to ensure that the guns used on the New Mexico set were safe.

All those named in the lawsuit have denied any guilt.

Baldwin also used the interview with Stephanopoulos to tell how he met Hutchins and what he thought of her work.

She said Souza first introduced her to the Ukrainian cinematographer, and when she saw her work, she thought she was fantastic.

“Her work was beautiful,” Baldwin told Stephanopoulos. “She was someone loved by everyone who worked with her, liked by everyone who worked with her, and admired.”

Baldwin later broke down in tears, saying that he rarely makes movies because they would involve long periods of time away from his wife Hilaria and their six children.

But he said he agreed to produce Rust because he loved the script and was excited about shooting it in New Mexico.

“This movie made me love making movies again,” he said. I really thought we had discovered something.

After the fatal shooting, Baldwin said, she met Hutchins’ husband, Matthew.

“He hugged me and said, ‘I think we’re going to get through this together,'” Baldwin said.

The actor went on to say that he accompanied Matthew to Halyna’s funeral and that they had spoken ever since, but Baldwin believed his lawyers were advising the grieving husband to be more cautious.

He added that he would be “stunned” if Matthew Hutchins did not seek some form of civil relief.

And speaking of Halyna’s son, he said: ‘This child no longer has a mother. And there’s nothing we can do to bring her back.