Halyna Hutchins’ Husband ‘Just Felt Angry’ Watching Alec Baldwin ‘Rust’ Interview

Matt Hutchins, the husband of Rust cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, appeared on the Today Show Thursday for his first television interview since the tragic death of his wife on the set of the Alec Baldwin movie. 

During the interview, Matt — who filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the Rust production earlier this month — criticized Baldwin for not accepting responsibility for his role in Halyna’s death.

Although Matt Hutchins and Baldwin met in person following the accidental shooting — “There were a lot of emotions for sure on both sides,” he said — Matt was taken aback by Baldwin’s ABC News interview where he said he doesn’t feel “guilt” over Halyna’s death. 

“Watching him, I just felt so angry. So angry to see him talk about her death so publicly in such a detailed way and then to not accept any responsibility after having just described killing her,” Matt Hutchins told Today. “Hearing him blame Halyna during the interview and shift responsibility to others and seeing him cry about it, I just feel like, are we really supposed to feel bad about you, Mr. Baldwin?”

Almost two months after Baldwin’s TV interview, Matt Hutchins filed his wrongful death lawsuit against Baldwin and other Rust producers. “The idea that the person holding the gun and causing it to discharge is not responsible is absurd to me,” Hutchins said Thursday. “Every individual that touches a gun has a responsibility for gun safety, but gun safety was not the only problem on that set. There were a number of industry standards that were not practiced.”

In a statement to the Today Show, Baldwin’s lawyer said, “Any claim that Alec was reckless is entirely false.”

In his Today Show interview, Matt also described the harrowing moment he learned that Halyna had been shot on-set, and how he had to tell their son about the incident.

“A member of the production team told me that Halyna had been shot, and my heart sank right away. Completely inexplicable to me that it could have happened at that moment, and the first thing I thought, I sat down and said, ‘I have to get my son,’ because I have to be with him,” Hutchins said.

Hutchins and his son then went to the airport in order to fly to Santa Fe; before boarding, Matt informed his son of the situation, saying only that Halyna had been shot but not that she had died.

“He didn’t believe it right away. He didn’t want to believe it,” Hutchins said.