I was shocked when I heard the news late last night. I thought that after Brandon Lee had died in a startlingly similar way, that there had been significant changes to the safety protocols involved in using prop guns and blanks on set. I don’t believe there were. However, there are many safety protocols and cross checks in place specifically to avoid tragedies likes these. And here’s something I learned this morning: All prop guns are not fake guns, some are real guns—all property of the studio, ergo the term prop. Prop guns used for shooting are simply loaded with different ammunition: blanks. To be clear though, a blank round can also produce projectiles and kill people like in the case of Brandon Lee. The difference between a blank and a live round is that a blank does not have a bullet on the end and a live round does. That rounded tip you see on one end of a round is the bullet. Apparently the prop gun on the Rust set contained a single live round, at least that’s what NBC News is reporting right now.
“A live single round was accidentally fired on set by the principal actor, hitting both the Director of Photography, Local 600 member Halyna Hutchins, and Director Joel Souza,” the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) Local 44 said in an email to its members.
Fred Hayes / Getty Images
Halyna Hutchins was 42 and a rising star in her field of cinematography. She was well respected and loved, may she rest in peace.
Alec Baldwin has just recently commented via social media and indicated that the is cooperating fully with police during the investigation.