The conversation regarding the shooting that left a director of photography dead and a director injured has left Alec Baldwin in the crosshairs of critics. We reported on the tragic shooting that occurred in New Mexico on the set of Rust that resulted in DP Halyna Hutchins’s death. There has been an outpouring of support to everyone involved, including director Joel Souza who was injured.
While it has been established that Alec Baldwin pulled the trigger, it has also been clearly noted that he was operating a prop gun. It was an accident as the award-winning actor was not aware that there were real bullets in the firearm, and Baldwin was reportedly beyond distraught following the incident. However, that hasn’t stopped his critics from jumping online to have him “canceled” for being a “murderer.”
As the reactions to the tragedy continue to take over news feeds, a brief clip of Rust actor Jensen Ackles has gone viral. Ackles is known for his long-running appearance on the megahit series Supernatural, and in the video, which was reportedly taken days before this shooting incident, the actor spoke about being questioned by the armorer, or the weapons master, when handling firearms on set.
Ackles delivered his story in front of a live audience of fans who laughed at the armorer’s inquiries.
“I’ve got a six a.m. call tomorrow to have a big shootout,” Ackles said in the video. “They had me pick my gun, they were like, ‘Alright, what gun would you like?’ and I was like, ‘I don’t know,’ and the armorer was like, ‘Do you have gun experience?’” The audience began to laugh at how Ackles would answer the question because he spent years handling weapons on the set of Supernatural.
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“I was like, ‘A little.’ And she’s like, ‘Okay, well, this is how you load it, this is how we check it and make sure it’s safe,'” he continued. The armorer apparently went on to ask more questions before letting Ackles know that she was “going to put in some blanks” so that he could “fire off a couple rounds.”
“I walk out and she’s like, ‘Just make sure you pull the hammer all the way back and aim at your target,’ I was like ‘All right, I got it,'” he teasingly said as he showed off how he handled the weapon without a problem. The video was quickly taken down but it was too late; the internet had already recorded the moment and caused the video to go viral.
Ackles has not come forward to address this fatal incident, nor has any of the production crew or the armorer. Watch Jensen Ackles below.