Actor Alec Baldwin says he 'does not feel guilt' over fatal shooting as he is 'not responsible'

ITV News Correspondent Rupert Evelyn reports on the incident which sent shockwaves through Hollywood

In his first interview since the fatal shooting of Halyna Hutchins on the set of Rust, Alec Baldwin has admitted he does not feel guilt over her death.

The actor, 63, accidentally shot and killed the cinematographer during filming for the Western in New Mexico but has denied pulling the trigger.

When asked by Good Morning America host George Stephanopoulos on Thursday night if he felt guilt over Hutchins' death, Baldwin said: "No. No. I feel that... someone is responsible for what happened and I can't say who that is, but I know it's not me.

"Honest to God, if I felt that I was responsible, I might've killed myself if I thought that I was responsible. And I don't say that lightly."He added that he dreams about the incident “constantly” and his career may well be over.

“I couldn’t give a s**t about my career anymore," he said.

Stephanopoulos then asked Baldwin “is it over?”, to which he replied: “It could be.”

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In the exclusive interview Baldwin said he cocked the gun, which means to hold the gun in position, that killed Hutchins but “didn’t pull the trigger”.

On the day of the shooting, Baldwin told Stephanopoulos he and Hutchins met to rehearse a scene in which he was playing a character who drew his weapon on two foes.

Baldwin recalled that during the rehearsal, the film’s first assistant director, Dave Halls, handed him a revolver and told him “this is a cold gun” – an industry term for a weapon that is either empty or loaded with dummy rounds.

The actor said Hutchins proceeded to instruct him on where and how to hold the weapon, “which ended up being aimed right below her armpit”.

In order to get a particular shot, Baldwin said he needed to cock the gun but not fire it.

He said: “I cock the gun. I go, ‘Can you see that? Can you see that? Can you see that?’. And then I let go of the hammer of the gun, and the gun goes off. I let go of the hammer of the gun, the gun goes off.”

Stephanopoulos then asked if Baldwin ever pulled the trigger.

“No, no, no, no, no,” Baldwin replied. “I would never point a gun at anyone and pull a trigger at them.”

He said it was Hutchins herself who asked him to point the gun just off camera and toward her armpit before it went off.

Baldwin said at Hutchins’ direction he pulled the hammer back.

“I let go of the hammer and ‘bang’ the gun goes off,” he said.

When Stephanopoulos told Baldwin that many say you should never point a gun directly at someone on a set, he responded, “unless the person is the cinematographer who was directing me where to point the gun for her camera angle.”

Baldwin said it was 45 minutes to an hour before he began to understand that a live round had been in the gun, and didn't know it for sure until he was being interviewed hours later. He thought Hutchins might have been hurt by a blank at close range or had a heart attack.

“The idea that somebody put a live bullet in the gun was not even in reality.”

Although there has been speculation that Baldwin could face criminal charges over the incident, he told Stephanopolous people “in the know” believe that to be “highly unlikely”.

However, he said the events of the day continue to weigh on him.

“I go through my day, and I make it through the day. Then I collapse at the end of the day. Emotionally, I collapse.”

He had one of several tearful moments when he described Hutchins, saying she was “somebody who was loved by everybody and admired by everybody who worked with her.”

Baldwin said he was doing the interview to counter public misconceptions about the shooting and to make it clear that “I would go to any lengths to undo what happened.”

But Baldwin said “I want to make sure that I don’t come across like I'm the victim because we have two victims here.”