Entertainment
'Rust' director Joel Souza describes being injured in Alec Baldwin shooting: 'Nothing made sense'
“Rust” director Joel Souza, who was injured in the Alec Baldwin shooting, said he couldn’t wrap his head around what had transpired on the New Mexico film set — even after being rushed to a hospital.
“I knew something got me,” Souza testified Friday in a Santa Fe, N.M. courtroom, the seventh day of testimony in the involuntary manslaughter trial of Hannah Gutierrez. The 26-year-old Arizona woman could spend up to three years in prison if convicted of felony charges filed against her related to the on-set death of Halyna Hutchins on Oct. 21, 2021.
Friday marked the first time Souza has publicly described details of the tragic accident that claimed the life of Hutchins, an up-and-coming cinematographer. She had impressive credentials and had sought the job on “Rust” because she wanted to work on a western.
In disbelief that afternoon, Souza recalled arguing with medical personnel at the Santa Fe hospital where he was taken by ambulance. He said he insisted that his injury could not have been caused by an actual bullet.
Hollywood safety protocols forbid having actual ammunition on a movie set.
“I just kept saying: ‘You don’t understand,’” Souza testified before the 12-member jury and four alternate jurors. “This was a movie and that’s not possible. And they kept saying: ‘No, no, no. It is [an actual bullet].’ They eventually grew tired of my protesting because they showed me the X-ray of my back and there was a very large bullet in it.”
Moments before the shooting, Souza entered the wooden church on the movie set at Bonanza Creek Ranch and moved in behind Hutchins, who had been discussing Baldwin’s next scene. The actor was sitting in a pew, in full costume, facing the door. Souza testified that he didn’t know who had brought the gun in the church or who handed it to Baldwin.
“I went in to look to see what was going on with the camera angle,” Souza said. “What I wanted to do was get behind Halyna to try to sneak a look over her … to see what [the camera view] was looking like, but I never even got to look at that.”
That’s when the gun went off.
“There was an incredibly loud bang,” Souza said. “This was deafening. It felt like somebody had taken a baseball bat to my shoulder. I remember that distinctly, and sort of stumbling back and shouting. I don’t remember exactly what I said.”
Souza testified that he watched crew members help lower Hutchins to the ground. “Nothing made sense. I remember initially thinking that [perhaps] she’d been startled by it. … Then I saw the blood on her back.”
Baldwin — who was indicted in January by a grand jury on involuntary manslaughter charges — has said he didn’t pull the trigger, but that the gun went off during the rehearsal. Baldwin has pleaded not guilty. If convicted, he would face as much as 18 months in prison.
The bullet entered Hutchins on the right side of her chest, passed through her and lodged in Souza’s shoulder. The 42-year-old mother died later that afternoon after being airlifted to an Albuquerque trauma hospital.
Souza described interviewing about eight cinematographers for the job on “Rust.” He said he was impressed by Hutchins’ backstory — she was born in Ukraine and grew up on a naval base in the Arctic Circle — and her film credentials, including her American Film Institute education.
“As a woman cinematographer, I think that’s doubly impressive,” Souza said. “Because if you look at the numbers [of women cinematographers] in our business, they’re sort of atrocious in that regard. … She was very keen to do a western.”
They bonded over Zoom calls during the pandemic, he said.
“There was something about Halyna,” Souza said. “We were really in tune with what we both thought the movie should be.”
After deciding on Hutchins, Souza said he told the film’s producers and production managers to hire her: “Please don’t botch the deal because she’s really great.”
Gutierrez’s trial, which is expected to last through next week, is being broadcast by Court TV.
Souza testified that he didn’t have much experience with guns and ammunition, and “Rust” was only the second film that he worked on to have guns and require an armorer. He said he wasn’t responsible for hiring Gutierrez, who was only working on her second film as head armorer.
Trial testimony has touched on whether Gutierrez was sufficiently qualified; special prosecutors have said witnesses described her work as “sloppy” and “unprofessional.”
But the director, who also wrote the screenplay for “Rust,” said the third day of production was a complex day of filming, with scenes that called for gun shootouts and a western town bustling with horses, a donkey and extras brought in to portray town folk. After that day unfolded successfully, Souza acknowledged that he sent a message to Gutierrez complimenting her on her work that day.
A Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office car leaves Bonanza Creek Ranch on Oct. 22, 2021 — one day after cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was killed when Alec Baldwin’s gun went off.
(Sam Wasson / Getty Images)
Souza said he wasn’t sure of Gutierrez’s actions on the day of the shooting. But he had a distinct memory of seeing the young armorer in the church doorway when he was on the ground after being shot.
“She looked distraught. I remember her saying, ‘I’m sorry. I’m sorry, Joel,’” Souza testified. “And I remember somebody just screaming at her and they just ushered her out.”
Souza testified that Baldwin had initially hired him to write the screenplay for “Rust,” and the two men were eager to collaborate on a western film. New Mexico was selected because of its generous tax incentives and the picturesque high-desert vistas, which conjure up the Old West.
During Friday afternoon’s session in the trial, drama heightened during testimony by on-set medic Cherlyn Schaefer — who struggled to treat Hutchins’ extensive wounds as the cinematographer lay dying on the wooden planks on the church floor. Schaefer has sued Baldwin and other crew members, saying she has suffered trauma because she did not have other sufficiently trained medical personnel, or equipment, available to help while they waited for Santa Fe County paramedics to arrive.
A defense attorney suggested that she appeared at the trial to boost her case for monetary damages. Schaefer bristled, saying her legal efforts began as a way to bring a greater focus on safety to New Mexico’s film community.
Schaefer said she wanted to explain further, and New Mexico First Judicial District Court Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer agreed.
“I went home that night and I looked at my little boy who is the same age as Halyna’s son,” Schaefer said. “And all I could think about is how I could not save his mother’s life and how he was going to grow up without a mother. And how her spouse lost the love of his life …”
Sommer abruptly stopped Schaefer in mid-sentence.
“I mean no harm to you,” the judge told Schaefer. “But we’re going to strike that testimony.”
Sommer told the jury to disregard Schaefer’s personal narrative.
The sixth outing in the director’s chair for filmmaker Kirk Jones, I Swear dramatizes the real-life story of touretter John Davidson (played by Robert Aramayo). Tourette’s Syndrome, for those unfamiliar with the condition, is a nervous system disorder that causes various tics, the most prolific being erratic and explicit language. However, as I Swear expertly showcases, the syndrome is far more than ill-timed outbursts of curse words. Davidson’s story is one of societal frustration, finding your people (both with and without the condition), and using your voice to help others rise. The subject and subject matter are handled with absolute care and understanding under Kirk’s measured vision and Robert Aramayo’s BAFTA-winning performance.
The film kicks off with the greatest exclamation to democracy ever uttered (*%#! the Queen!), as a nervous John Davidson prepares himself before entering an awards ceremony hosted by Britain’s royal family. Right away, the film tells us what it is: a triumph over adversity that blends humor and human drama with education. It’s an important setup, as the film flashes back to Davidson’s 1980s youth, where we see his time as a star soccer recruit flatline as his condition takes hold. Davidson’s life spirals from there. Some aspects, like school bullying and accidental run-ins with authority figures, are expected but important to empathizing with young Davidson’s (young version, played with heart by Scott Ellis Watson) new everyday life. The more tragic, a complete meltdown of his family system, is unsettling if quick. His father (Steven Cree) is never given enough screen time to explore his alcohol coping tendencies. However, his mother Heather’s descent into easy fixes and blaming is crushing and convincing. Harry Potter series actress Shirley Henderson (Moaning Myrtle) gives a layered performance as Heather. Someone who loves her son, but also feels cursed by him as the entire family exits the picture. It’s bitter, she’s tired, and fills each conversation with ‘only medication and your mother can save you’ energy.
From there, the viewer and Davidson find refuge in a host of characters. Maxine Peake plays Dottie, the mother of a childhood friend and a retired mental health nurse. Screen vet Peter Mullan plays maintenance man Tommy Trotter. Together, they help Davidson build a life and an understanding of himself that carries the film forward into its second half. After that, the film is primarily a 3-actor show as director Kirk fills the screen with these tour-de-force performances. Peake and Mullan are great vessels to get the film’s main message across: patience, love, and a shared responsibility between the diagnosed and those who understand their struggle can help change the path for people quickly left behind by a normative world. Together, they are the soul of the movie, with the filmmakers clearly hoping the audience will follow their lead after they exit the theater (in my case, the beautiful Oriental Theater for the Milwaukee Film Festival). Both performances are perfectly warm and reflective and shouldn’t be left out in discussions of I Swear.
I say this because the movie is anchored by The Rings of Power actor Robert Aramayo, who leaves Elrond’s elf ears behind to bring an acute naturalism to his performance of main character John Davidson. Aramayo’s physicality and timing of the fitful Tourettes Syndrome never feel out of place or overplayed. In fact, the movie as a whole does an amazing job of never veering into sentimentality. While many moviegoers left with tissues dabbing their eyes, the filmmaking never felt like it was forcing that reaction out of audiences. It straddles the line between feel-good and reality with every story beat and lands squarely on the side of letting the real inform our feelings. Anyone with an ounce of empathy will grasp the film’s message and hopefully take it with them into life.
I Swear continues at the Milwaukee Film Festival on Tuesday, April 21st, and releases nationwide April 24th, 2026, courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.
Several private equity firms and Hollywood power players, including United Talent Agency and longtime agent Patrick Whitesell, have expressed interest in buying parts of Casey Wasserman’s music and sports management firm after it abruptly went up for sale.
Wasserman became ensnared in controversy earlier this year after his salacious decades-old emails to Ghislaine Maxwell, an accomplice of child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, were released as part of the U.S. Justice Department’s trove of Epstein files.
The agency auction is in the early stages, according to three people close to the process but not authorized to comment.
Earlier this week, several interested parties submitted proposals to meet a preliminary deadline in the auction, two of the sources said.
The company, which changed its name to the Team last month, is expected to be valued at around $3 billion.
Providence Equity Partners holds the majority stake. The private equity firm has discussed selling the entire company or carving off Wasserman’s minority interest. Providence also has considered selling the bulk of the firm and staying on as a minority investor, one of the sources said. Another scenario could involve separating, then selling the individual business units that make up the Team.
Wasserman and Providence’s company boasts an enviable roster of music artists, including Kendrick Lamar, Coldplay and Ed Sheeran. Its sports marketing practice is viewed as particularly lucrative and has potential to grow in value as big dollars flow into sports that draw large crowds.
Wasserman, who declined to comment, has a veto right over any sale of the company that he has spent a quarter of a century building.
UTA, which also declined to comment, is among the most aggressive suitors, the sources said. The Team’s sports marketing and music representation divisions would dramatically boost the Beverly Hills agency’s profile and client roster.
Whitesell, former executive chairman of Endeavor, separately has been motivated to make investments in sports, media and entertainment since last year when he left the talent agency that he and Ari Emanuel built. Whitesell launched a new firm with seed money from private equity firm Silver Lake, and last spring he started WIN Sports Group to represent professional football players.
Whitesell wasn’t immediately available for comment.
European investment firm Permira also has expressed interest, according to a knowledgeable source. Permira declined to comment.
The New York Times first reported that Permira, UTA and Whitesell had expressed interest.
The sales process is expected to stretch into summer, the knowledgeable people said. The auction could become complicated particularly if Providence decides to unwind the business.
For example, UTA could not buy the entire company because of the Brillstein television unit. The agency is bound by an agreement with the Writers Guild of America that prevents it from owning television production.
Investment bank Moelis & Company is managing the sale. A representative of the firm declined comment.
Wasserman also is the chairman of LA28, the nonprofit group that will be staging the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles in two years.
Following revelations of Wasserman’s 2003 emails with Maxwell, several musicians and athletes — led by pop artist Chappell Roan and soccer star Abby Wambach — said that, to stay true to their values, they would leave the agency then known as Wasserman.
Wasserman apologized to his staff for “past personal mistakes” and said he would sell the agency.
He had limited dealings with Epstein, flying on the financier’s jet along with former President Clinton for a September 2002 humanitarian trip through Africa.
Wasserman, a prolific Clinton fundraiser whose legendary grandfather, Hollywood titan Lew Wasserman, helped the Democrat win the 1992 presidential election, was joined on Epstein’s jet by his then-wife, Laura, actor Kevin Spacey, Epstein, Maxwell — who was convicted of sexual abuse in 2021 — and others, including security agents.
The LA28 board’s executive committee unanimously voted to keep Wasserman as chairman, citing his “strong leadership” of the Games.
Pizza Movie (2026) Director: Nick Kocher and Brian McElhaney, Star: Gaten Matarazzo and Sean Giambrone
Somehow, I got through an hour of this movie. I was seconds away from turning off in the first fifteen minutes because of the juvenile humor. Pizza Movie is too silly, repetitive, and the characters are annoying. Stranger Things Gaten Matarazzo and Sean Giambrone star as college friends, Jack and Montgomery. College angles are rarely seen in films right now, and that’s the one saving grace of the film. Similar to high school, people are also trying to fit in. The story and visuals were too corny. You can only watch someone’s head exploding for so long without letting yours.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie (2026) Director: Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, Stars: Chris Pratt, Charlie Day, Anya Taylor-Joy
I never saw the first Super Mario Brothers Movie when it was out, but I heard it got positive reviews. My brother always loved playing Super Mario video games as a kid, and I’d watch him. I tagged along with my friends to see Super Mario Galaxy Movie, and it’s a cute and fun film. I like it when movies explore the video game world. The animation creates unique worlds and characters. The characters are split into their own storylines, and for me, I felt like it worked. It adds more action, especially for kids who are seeing the films.
Emily in Paris Season 5 (2025) Creator: Darren Star, Stars: Lily Collins and Ashley Park
After a bright spot in season 4, I thought season 5 of Emily in Paris would continue its growth in the story and its protagonist, but no, it’s all drained out in the usual Emily (Lily Collins) mishaps. Ashley Park (Mindy) has become too good for this show. Emily and Mindy waste several opportunities because of their love lives. The whole relationship angle is ruining it. I don’t understand why Alfie (Lucien Laviscount) is still in the show. I thought writers learned their lesson, but by the last episode, they’re continuing to bring the past into an apparent season 6.
Sarah’s Oil (2025) Director: Cyrus Nowrasteh, Stars: Naya Desir-Johnson and Zachary Levi
There’s always history lurking right beneath our noses. Sarah’s Oil (2025) tells the true story of Sarah Rector, an Oklahoma-born African American girl who became the first black female millionaire in the U.S. Naya Desir-Johnson is fierce and driven as Sarah. Zachary Levi is also along for the ride as Bert, a man who helps Sarah. Kate (Bridget Regan) was another favorite character as an intelligent woman. Cyrus Nowrasteh was drawn to the subject for its story and its themes. Nowrasteh’s direction is compelling as he unearths a hidden story from history. The film is streaming on Amazon Prime.
Jack Goes Boating (2014) Director and Star: Phillip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Ryan
Jack Goes Boating (2014) didn’t quite work for me, largely because of its slow pace and uneven storytelling. The film stars the late Seymour Hoffman as Jack, who also directed the film. This was Hoffman’s first and only time in the directing chair. Amy Ryan also stars in the film, giving a solid performance. This was also based on a play that Hoffman starred in. Jack wants to participate in a swim championship. That’s hardly what the film is about, tracking other characters’ stories. While the film aims for quiet intimacy, it ultimately drags, making it an underwhelming viewing experience.
You Kill Me (2016), Director: John Dahl, Stars: Ben Kingsley, Tea Leoni, Luke Wilson
Meet You Kill Me (2016), yet another film that I found in the museum of underrated gems. The concept revolves around Frank (Ben Kingsley), a hitman, who is sent to an A.A. meeting to get his mind focused again. A different story happens, where Frank falls in love with Laurel (Tea Leoni). Leoni is one of my favorite actresses. It also stars the funny Luke Wilson. I liked the trio’s dynamics. You Kill Me is a mental health movie. It’s okay to make changes if you’re not happy. I recommended that you keep an eye out for this movie.
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