Hollywood tough guy Mickey Rourke says there’s “no way in hell” Alec Baldwin should be blamed for his deadly shooting on the “Rust” movie set, calling the manslaughter charge “terribly, terribly wrong.”
The one-time boxer came out swinging in defense of his fellow actor Thursday in a social media post quickly liked by Baldwin himself.
“It’s a terrible tragedy what happened to a cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. But no way in hell actor Alec Baldwin should be charged with any negligence whatsoever,” the 70-year-old “Barfly” star wrote.
He reckoned that “most actors don’t know anything about guns especially if they didn’t grow up around them.”
“Alec didn’t bring the gun to the set from his house or his car,” he wrote, saying that gun handling is the sole responsibility of armorers.
“No way in hell should Alec Baldwin be blamed for this unfortunate tragedy.
“Why the powers to be [are] charging Baldwin with this responsibility is terribly wrong,” he said.
“I am sure Alec is already suffering enough over what happened. But to lay a blame on him is terribly, terribly wrong,” he wrote.
He ended his caption by sending “deepest condolences to Halyna Hutchins, to her family and her friends.”
Baldwin, 64, was among more than 5,000 people to like the post, which had the option to comment switched off.
His attorney, Luke Nikas, earlier called the charges “a terrible miscarriage of justice.”
“Mr. Baldwin had no reason to believe there was a live bullet in the gun — or anywhere on the movie set,” Nikas said. “He relied on the professionals with whom he worked, who assured him the gun did not have live rounds.”
In interviews after the charges were announced, New Mexico prosecutors said the “30 Rock” star was equally to blame because he was a veteran of using guns on sets well aware of safety protocols.
“He’s an actor who’s probably starred in 40-plus gun movies” and has said in interviews that “he’s very familiar with the use of guns,” special prosecutor Andrea Reeb told NBC News
Yet “the gun was not checked by him or with the armorer, which is standard protocol,” she said of Baldwin’s “reckless” behavior in the October 2021 deadly shooting.
Baldwin then also “pointed a firearm at somebody” despite the universal understanding that “you don’t point a gun at somebody unless you’re intending to actually shoot them,” the prosecutor said.
“He understands what the proper protocol is for safety, and he was just disregarding that,” Reeb maintained.
“He did all those things which ultimately resulted in Halyna Hutchins’ death,” she said of the 42-year-old mom.
This was something that was more than mere negligence. It was people acting recklessly, people not doing their jobs, violating all of the standards that we all have to follow if we have a gun in our hands.
“And so because of that, I would say this is not just an accident — this is a criminal accident,” Reeb said
