After the case against Alec Baldwin was dropped, the actor avoided attending the Rust movie premiere.
Alec was a no-show during the Polish event where the loss of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins hung heavy and palpable in the air. Halyna was killed on set after a loaded gun, held by Alec, discharged, striking the movie professional and resulting in her death. Alec was charged with involuntary manslaughter over the incident, but the charges were dismissed with prejudice by the judge during the trial.
With the dust settling on the unfortunate incident, moviemakers opted to finish production on the movie and release it to the general public. Rust premiered at the EnergaCAMERIMAGE Film Festival in Toru, Poland on Wednesday, but without Alec in attendance.
In his absence, the director of the film, Joel Souza, paid tribute to Halyna. He told the crowd: “I’m excited that people will get to see Halyna’s work, you know, I hope they appreciate her work… It wasn’t an easy decision by any means, but it became important to me and important to her husband that people see her final work … That’s one of the nice things about movies. You could sort of see the world the way the people who made it see it.”
He went on to applaud her work, calling the cinematography of the film “stunning.” Joel added: “I hope people can appreciate that.”
According to Joel, the producers were mindful of her list in their preparations for its release. In fact, the church scene which was being filmed ahead of her death, did not make the final cut of the movie. He said: “It’s just gone. It doesn’t exist anymore. We were never going to finish that… I changed the script and so I wiped that out of it.”
Alec was reportedly not invited to the event out of fear that his presence would overshadow Halyna’s legacy. Plus, Olga Solovey, expressed her disdain for Alec, according to the Daily Mail. She said: “Alec Baldwin continues to increase my pain with his refusal to apologize to me and his refusal to take responsibility for her death. Instead, he seeks to unjustly profit from his killing of my daughter.”
DAILY NEWSLETTER: Sign up here to get the latest news and updates from the Mirror US straight to your inbox with our FREE newsletter.