Almost three years and two criminal trials removed from one of the biggest events to shake up Hollywood in recent memory — the deadly “Rust” shooting — one of Hollywood’s biggest directors who uses more guns than most, Quentin Tarantino, has given his two cents on the tragedy.
Speaking to Bill Maher on the “Club Random” podcast in the below video, Tarantino weighed in on “Rust,” Alec Baldwin, and why filmmakers still use real guns on set. The auteur also acknowledged that the killing of “Rust” cinematographer Halyna Hutchins could potentially derail how movies are made going forward.
“That’s the kind of fuck up that happens that undermines an entire industry,” Tarantino said of the shooting. “You don’t need nervous people; you want people to go for it. That’s the last thing you want is nervous people, you want, ‘We’re all in this together, and we’re going to capture this exciting thing on film.’”
Meanwhile, podcast host Maher revealed that he thought the whole trial against in “Rust” star Baldwin was silly and done in bad faith. The criminal lawsuit was thrown out in July 2024 after a judge ruled the prosecution withheld evidence from the defense. Maher argued that Baldwin, who also was an executive producer on the film, either deliberately intended to shoot Hutchins or he didn’t.
Tarantino pushed back on that ever so slightly.
“The armorer, the guy who handles the gun, the armorer is 90 percent responsible for everything that happens when it comes to that gun,” Tarantino said. “But the actor is 10 percent responsible. It’s a gun: you are a partner in the responsibility to some degree.”
Tarantino then explained to Maher just what an actor — not necessarily Baldwin in that specific circumstance — is supposed to do when given a gun. He explained that the armorer is supposed to show the actor the barrel of the gun to ensure that it’s clear, then show the blanks and demonstrate what they sound and look like. According to Tarantino, armorers even count out how many rounds are in the weapon by saying “it’s for two” or “it’s ready for three.”
He clarified that if an actor knows they have three hot rounds in the gun when doing a scene, and notices after firing that it appears one of the rounds didn’t go off, the actor is supposed to stop the scene and alert the director or armorer by saying, “Guys, I think I’m still holding a hot gun here.”
“They show it to you, [and] if there are steps to go through, you go through them. It’s done with due diligence, and it’s fucking for real,” Tarantino said.
Maher then wondered why filmmakers even bother with real guns when it’s something productions can now just do digitally in post. This debate has gained a lot of traction in the wake of the “Rust” shooting, with some filmmakers vowing to ban guns from their sets. “Rust” director Joel Souza revealed that when “Rust” itself returned to filming, they didn’t use real guns that could physically fire at all.
Tarantino simply called fake gunfire in films “bloodless,” and said he wants to see the real thing.
“Yeah, I guess I can add digital erections to porno movies, but who wants to watch that,” he said.
Tarantino even nerded out about the nuance it takes to make sure you can actually “catch” the “orange fire” spark from a gun in a camera. He added that the reason movies actually get up close and personal, sometimes even with the gun pointed right at the camera, has all to do with how incredible and “liberated” action movies looked in the late ’80s and ’90s coming out of Hong Kong compared to American films at the time.
At the end of the day, Tarantino said it’s surprising that in the whole history of guns being shot in movies, there are only two truly famous, notable examples of a serious, deadly accident involving a shooting: Brandon Lee on “The Crow,” and now Hutchins on “Rust.”
Elsewhere on the podcast, Tarantino discussed why he’ll never watch “Toy Story 4” or its other upcoming sequel, and how entertainment media ran wild with rumors about him directing “Star Trek” or that he was casting Paul Walter Hauser in his now canceled 10th film “The Movie Critic.”
Watch the full interview below, and see the “Rust” discussion at the 1:02 hour mark.
