Years after a prop gun disaster involving Alec Baldwin left cinematographer Halyna Hutchins dead on set, the scandal-ridden Western film “Rust” has hit theaters. And her family wants you to go see it.
“I watched my daughter’s stunning film twice. I was so happy for the success of my daughter because it was filmed so beautifully,” Hutchins’ mother, Olga Solovey, wrote in a statement to People timed to the movie’s May 2 release.
“I would want everybody to watch it because it was the dream of my daughter and she would want people to see it,” she continued. “I like the film. I want many people to watch it, and I would want more people to remember her for as long as they can.”
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The film stars Baldwin, who also produced it and later faced involuntary manslaughter charges for discharging the gun that ultimately killed Hutchins. Directed by Joel Souza, who was also injured in the shooting incident, it excludes the scene Baldwin was rehearsing when live ammunition struck down Hutchins.
Still, some audience members may feel conflicted about going to see an intentionally rugged and violent movie, with such a gruesome real-life story buried in its making. Souza, however, recently told USA TODAY that filming had resumed after the incident precisely to avoid that reaction.
“Halyna’s family knew just how important her art was to her, how much she lived and breathed it, and they did not want it to simply vanish,” he said via email.
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“Halyna’s mother spoke of how much she wanted her daughter’s film to be completed and to be seen,” he said, adding that her husband, Matthew Hutchins, “made himself available to talk with people (in the production) who wanted to hear his thoughts on all of this.”
In 2023, her husband said in a statement he was “grateful that the producers and the entertainment community have come together to pay tribute to Halyna’s final work.”
Ultimately serving as executive producer of the movie after the incident, Matthew Hutchins sued Baldwin for wrongful death in the process, in a matter that was settled in October 2022.
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In 2024, Baldwin’s involuntary manslaughter charges were dismissed after a judge found state prosecutors and sheriffs investigating the fatal shooting concealed evidence.
Now, Hutchins’ family is hoping audiences will watch “Rust” not for Baldwin’s work but for hers.
“The film is amazing, very beautiful and colorful, the shots are just amazing, the composition, the light, even the weather in the frame transfers through the screen,” her sister, Svetlana Zemko, wrote in a statement to People. ” I would want (Hutchins) to be remembered not for the tragedy but for her talent and hard work.”
Contributing: Marco della Cava, KiMi Robinson
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Alec Baldwin movie ‘Rust’: Halyna Hutchins’s family wants you to watch
