Nicolas Cage Responds to 'Rust' Shooting, Says Movie Stars 'Need to Know' How to Shoot a Gun
In The Hollywood Reporter's Actors Roundtable, Cage said that actors 'need to know' how to shoot a gun as part of their training.
Nicolas Cage is sharing his thoughts on the fatal Rust shooting.
The 57-year-old actor, among others, was asked about having guns in films during The Hollywood Reporter's Actors Roundtable. Cage expressed the need for actors "to know" how to use a gun as part of their training.
"I don't want to cast blame anywhere, but I do think, and I'm not talking about anybody, but people don't like the word movie star. We want to be humble actors. But a movie star is a bit of a different kind of presentation because you need to know how to ride a horse," the Pig star said. "You need to know how to fight. You're going to do fight scenes. You need to know how to ride a motorcycle. You need to know how to use a stick shift and drive sports cars, and you do need to know how to use a gun. You do."
"You need to take the time to know what the procedure is. Those are part of the job profiles," he continued. "Now, the stuntman and the movie star are two jobs that co-exist, they co-exist. Every stuntman needs to be a movie star and every movie star needs to be a stuntman. That's just part of the profile...And that's all I'm gonna say about it."
Peter Dinklage and Andrew Garfield also added that change needs to happen and that it's a no brainer to stop using real guns on set.
"That should never happen again," Dinklage said about an on-set shooting. "So anything we can do to move away from that, that's our responsibility. Clearly a no brainer."
Garfield added, "Yeah that's kind of a no brainer. Like, if it can be avoided, [it should be]."
The former Game of Thrones actor then interjected, adding, "And it can be avoided because look at what you can do with movies. You know that also calls into question, are there too many guns in movies? We've all held guns in movies, probably, and I always think about that being anti-gun myself, but the character isn't. That's a very complicated thing. But that made it very clear that there has to be change, like, now. One hundred percent."
Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins died in October on the set of Alec Baldwin's western film, Rust, after a prop gun was discharged. The film's director, Joel Souza, was also injured. Baldwin was holding the gun at the time and an investigation is underway as to what exactly happened. Baldwin has since publicly stated that he did not pull the trigger on the prop gun.
According to Baldwin, the assistant director, Dave Halls, allegedly told him that the gun was "cold," meaning it did not contain ammunition that could be discharged -- including blank rounds. During his sit-down interview with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos, the actor shared that he's been haunted by the incident and hadn't slept in weeks. He also said that while he felt terrible about Hutchins' death, he doesn't feel guilt because he doesn't believe it was truly his fault.
"Someone is responsible for what happened, but I know it's not me," he stated. "I might have killed myself if I thought I was responsible, and I don't say that lightly."
For more on the Rust tragedy, see below.
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