LOS ANGELES — Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson is joining the call to make movie sets safer after fellow actor and producer Alec Baldwin accidentally shot and killed a cinematographer working on Baldwin's film "Rust."
Johnson said the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins left him "heartbroken." He said his production company, Seven Bucks Productions, will stop using real firearms.
"You know, I can't speak for other production companies, I can't speak for other studios, but what I can tell you is -- this has created a new lens and a new perspective on how we can operate moving forward," he told reporters at the Wednesday L.A. premiere for his newest action film "Red Notice."
Instead, Johnson said the company will use fake firearms and add special effects in post-production.
"Moving forward, on any Seven Bucks production... we will not use real guns ever again. We are gonna be using rubber guns, and we'll take care of it in post," Johnson said.
Seven Bucks is behind blockbusters like Disney’s "Jungle Cruise," Universal’s "Hobbs & Shaw" and Sony’s "Jumanji" series.
According to court records, Baldwin fatally shot Hutchins after an assistant director handed him a gun and said it was "cold," or safe. Baldwin also wounded director Joel Souza. Investigators said there was “some complacency” in how weapons were handled on the set, but it's too early to tell whether charges will be filed.
In his first on-camera statement since the shooting, Baldwin said Hutchins was his friend and that the shooting was a “one-in-a-trillion event."
Seven Bucks president of production Hiram Garcia told Variety that the "Rust" shooting "should never have happened."
“I think the rest of the industry has felt the ripples,” Garcia told Variety. “I know, for us, going forward, we’re never going to deal with live guns again on-set at all, even for blanks — it’s just not necessary. Forever, moving forward, we’re going to use rubber guns because it’s just not necessary.”
According to the Associated Press, District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies said investigators cannot say yet whether anyone was negligent in the complex case.
