Alec Baldwin opens up about his urgent hope to be cleared in the newly released trailer for an upcoming documentary centered on his Rust shooting trial.
The case stems from the fatal incident on the New Mexico set of the Western Rust in October 2021, when a prop revolver Baldwin was holding discharged, killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounding the film’s director, Joel Souza.
Baldwin, 68, has repeatedly denied pulling the trigger and maintained that he had been told the weapon did not contain any live ammunition.
He was later charged with involuntary manslaughter, but the case was dismissed in 2024 after a New Mexico judge cited prosecutorial misconduct.
The first look at The Trial of Alec Baldwin, which is set to hit theaters on October 1, offers a closer glimpse at the actor’s private ordeal as the legal battle unfolded.
‘I want to be acquitted so I can walk out the door and everybody just leave me alone,’ he is shown saying. ‘I never dreamed of my life that this would come down to this.’
Alec Baldwin shared his desperate hopes for an acquittal in the trailer for the upcoming documentary The Trial of Alec Baldwin about the aftermath of the Rust shooting
In October 2021, while filming the Western movie Rust in New Mexico, he was holding a prop revolver that went off and killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins (pictured)
Baldwin, seen here outside the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s offices on the day of the shooting, strenuously denied pulling the trigger of the prop gun
Baldwin, who periodically plays Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live, was followed by cameras from 2023 onward amid the unfolding legal drama.
The documentary is directed by Rory Kennedy, a sister of Robert F Kennedy Jr, who is currently Trump’s Secretary of Health and Human Services.
Kennedy joined a number of her family members in denouncing her brother for running a third party campaign in the 2024 presidential election.
In a confessional shown in the new trailer, Baldwin somberly reflected on the Rust shooting, saying: ‘When they told me she died, I was in shock. I was in disbelief.’
Later, he reflected: ‘If you said to me: “Hike up Mt Everest and she’ll come back,” I’d be packed and ready to do. Whatever I could do. But there’s nothing you can do.’
The sneak peek ends with Baldwin acknowledging: ‘People who watch this will see so much of me at my worst.’
His wife Hilaria, 42, with whom he shares seven children under the age of 13, also appears in the ad, noting that the ‘paparazzi are already coming’ and sternly advising her husband: ‘You need to take the kids out of town.’
Hilaria infamously went viral days after the Rust shooting when she interrupted Baldwin as he gave an impromptu roadside press conference.
In a confessional shown in the trailer, Baldwin somberly reflected on the shooting itself, saying: ‘When they told me she died, I was in shock’
‘I want to be acquitted so I can walk out the door and everybody just leave me alone,’ he is shown saying: ‘I never dreamed of my life that this would come down to this.’
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Rust’s armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to the maximum 18 months before being released early for good behavior
His wife Hilaria, 42, with whom he shares seven children under the age of 13, also appears in the ad, noting that the ‘paparazzi are already coming’
She scolded a reporter for briefly forgetting Hutchins’ name, said she had driven the family to Vermont to ‘limit the PTSD’ and even filmed part of the back-and-forth.
When Hilaria cut off one of Baldwin’s answers and admonished the media: ‘No details,’ he bristled at her: ‘Do me a favor? I’m going to answer the question.’
A New Mexico judge dismissed the manslaughter case against Baldwin in July 2024, arguing that the prosecution made errors in handling certain bullets regarded as evidence and that the mistakes ‘impacted the fundamental fairness of the case.’
The prosecutor had countered that the bullets in question were left out of the Rust case file because they came from a source she mistrusted and did not ‘even match the evidence that was found at the scene’ of the shooting.
Upon hearing the charge against him had been thrown out, Baldwin dissolved into tears in Hilaria’s arms and shared a kiss with her in the courtroom.
Rust’s armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to the maximum 18 months – the same penalty Baldwin would have faced if convicted – before being released early for good behavior.
In January 2025, Baldwin filed suit accusing several people in the Santa Fe, New Mexico District Attorney’s office of ‘malicious’ prosecution, but the case was thrown out that July after he neglected for months to file additional documents.
Halyna Hutchins’ widower Matthew Hutchins acquired a producer credit on Rust as part of a wrongful death settlement in the aftermath of the shooting.
The documentary is directed by Rory Kennedy, a sister of Robert F Kennedy Jr, whom she is pictured with in 2015, nine years before her public denunciation of him
Hilaria infamously went viral days after the Rust shooting when she interrupted Baldwin as he gave an impromptu roadside press conference
Upon hearing the charge against him had been thrown out, Baldwin dissolved into tears in Hilaria’s arms and was shared a kiss with her in the courtroom
He expressed dismay at the dismissal of the charge against Baldwin, saying he ‘respects the court’s decision’ but was hoping for further legal proceedings in future.
‘We look forward to presenting all the evidence to a jury and holding Mr Baldwin accountable for his actions in the senseless death of Halyna,’ he said.
Rust ultimately had its world premiere at a film festival in Poland in September 2024 before opening in the United States in May 2025 to a polarized critical response.
Rory Kennedy discussed what she perceived as the complexity of the case ahead of her documentary’s premiere at the 2025 DOC NYC film festival last November.
‘This story is a tricky one because there is Halyna, who is the victim in this story and I, of course have enormous empathy for Halyna and her family given my own background and experience,’ she told Variety.
‘But I think there should be room to see how there can be more than one victim. There can be a spectrum of victims in different situations, and it’s important to have space for that,’ said the filmmaker, whose father Robert F Kennedy Sr was assassinated while her mother Ethel Kennedy was pregnant with her.