George Clooney Weighs in on "Rust" Tragedy

Hollywood actor George Clooney addressed the Oct. 21 fatal shooting of Halyna Hutchins and the wounding of director Joel Souza during the production of the Alec Baldwin-starring Western Rust in New Mexico.

During a discussion with Marc Maron on the WTF podcast, Clooney stated that he doesn’t think Baldwin had any intent to harm.

He also stressed that gun safety should be of the highest priority onset after the deaths of Brandon Lee and Jon-Erik Hexum, both died due to prop guns that were used during shooting that had live rounds/fragments in the chamber.

Erik Hexum had fatally shot himself in the ’80s on the set of CBS’ "Cover Up" with a pistol loaded with blanks. Lee was accidentally shot and killed on the ’90s set of The Crow by another actor who fired an improperly prepared revolver.

“Every single time I’m handed a gun on the set, every time, they hand me a gun, I look at it, I open it, I show it to the person I’m pointing it too, I show it to the crew. Every single take, then, you hand it back to the armor when you’re done.” ,” Clooney noted.

He added that part of it is because of what happened to Brandon, pointing out that everyone does it and everyone knows that is the protocol to follow.

“Maybe Alec did that, hopefully, he did do that, but the problem is dummies are tricky because they look like real. I mean every time I get handed a six-gun, you point it at the ground and you squeeze it six times,” Clooney said, noting “It’s just insane” not to.

The actor also laments the term “cold gun”, which means no ammunition is in the gun.]

“I’ve never heard the term ‘cold gun. I’ve never heard that term. Literally. They’re just talking about stuff I’ve never heard of. It’s just infuriating.” he added.