Director Rory Kennedy on 'The Trial of Alec Baldwin' and Why the Star of 'Rust' Initially Reacted Negatively to Her Film

The fatal shooting on the set of Alec Baldwin's Western 'Rust', which claimed the life of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, remains a mystery. Did the actor pull the trigger of a prop gun during the rehearsal of a scene (he denies this), or did the weapon malfunction and fire? How did a live round […]

Deadly shooting on the set of Alec Baldwin's Western Rest, the mysterious incident that claimed the life of cinematographer Halina Hutchins. Did the actor pull the trigger on a prop gun while rehearsing for a scene (he denies it), or did the weapon malfunction and fire? How did a direct bullet enter the revolver and who brought the deadly ammunition to the complex? Why were prosecutors in Santa Fe, NM so intent on charging Baldwin with what many, if not all, neutral observers would consider a tragic accident?

Some of these questions are answered in Rory Kennedy's new documentary The Trial of Alec Baldwin, which opens in Los Angeles on Friday. The film begins by dispelling a false rumor - that Baldwin started the project as some kind of attempt to repair his damaged reputation. "Baldwin had no editorial control; he received no financial support or compensation," the blurb says.

Kennedy made the point at the Bend Film Festival in Oregon over the weekend, where the documentary was screened. In a post-screening Q&A, the Oscar-nominated filmmaker told the audience that it wasn't Baldwin who came up with the idea for the documentary, but the other way around. "I approached him," he explained. Watch on Deadline

They had met years before the Rust tragedy. "I've known Alec for probably 20 years," Kennedy said. I mean, we were friends, we didn't go out to dinner, but I knew him. Alec is actually a big supporter of documentaries and is associated with the Hamptons Film Festival and also does a summer documentary series. And so I've been fortunate enough over the years to have a number of my films be a part of that. In this way, I got to know him to a great extent."

The documentary project began at a time when it seemed unlikely that the actor would face criminal charges.

"Coming into this story, it really seemed like the Rust story was going to be resolved very quickly, and [the documentary] is really a biopic with the Rust story, maybe woven together as a thread, sort of the backbone of it, but it's very thin," Kennedy told the festival audience. And then he would just come back and continue. And we were always there when it took dramatic turns."

Those dramatic twists involved Baldwin and Rust's armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reid, who was charged with manslaughter in January 2023. A few months later, the charges against Baldwin were dropped. But then in January 2024, a grand jury indicted Baldwin on a charge of involuntary manslaughter, and special prosecutors reopened their case. The film strongly suggests that Baldwin's trial was less about the evidence than about the special prosecutor's personal animosity toward him as a Hollywood star with a history of volcanic behavior.

"It just seemed so clear that people were going after him and prosecuting him [for shooting Rust] in a way that didn't seem entirely justified or fair. Then as the film and the story unfolded, you realized how that social media narrative started to affect the justice system."

Kennedy outlined the larger concerns raised by prosecutor Baldwin. “You start to think, well, how does this kind of [social media] chatter that we're all doing...how does it affect our larger institutions? For example, what effect does it have on the government? ... How does it affect the justice system? "I think this is an important question that we need to pay attention to and ask ourselves."

It turns out that Baldwin was tried twice - in the court of public opinion and in the court of law. The film builds to a surprising climax and is dismissed mid-trial (I won't reveal what happened. Close observers of the case, including my colleague Dominic Patten, who covered it for Deadline and appears as an expert on the documentary, know the ins and outs, but they came as a revelation to me).

Judging by how the court case ended, it appears that Baldwin appreciated Kennedy's film. and still…

"When they [Baldwin and wife Hilaria] first saw the movie, they didn't like it," the director said. The cause of their displeasure has to do with scenes woven throughout showing how Baldwin gained a reputation for angry outbursts — such as confronting the paparazzi over the years. Kennedy also delves into a serious stain on Baldwin's reputation from 2007 — the infamous voicemail he left for his 11-year-old daughter, Ireland, in which he called her a "rude, thoughtless little pig." The sordid scandal came amid a bitter custody battle over Ireland between Baldwin and his ex-wife Kim Basinger.

This is a very important background because the special prosecutor mentioned in private communications that incident where he hated the actor. "Because I think the prosecutors were going after his reputation and not what he did on set, we had to show what that reputation was and we had to show it honestly," Kennedy said.

A little too honest, perhaps for Baldwin's liking. "I think it was very hard [for him] to see all of that ... to show his ex-wife there and then [he wondered], 'Why are we doing this?'

Baldwin seems warm to the film after hearing audience feedback.

"I think he's come around now and is a lot more supportive of it," Kennedy noted. "I think there's a lot of people who would say ... this movie is important and it saves him in a lot of ways and it also really helps people understand him and understand what he went through and understand the injustice that happened to him."

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