Millions of people across the world were left shocked after news broke that Alec Baldwin had discharged a prop gun during a movie rehearsal of ‘Rust’ and killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
Before last week, the term armourer wasn’t familiar to many people. Now, with a frenzy of reports publishing every detail from the fateful moment, it’s not just common knowledge that an armourer is a role on a movie set that’s in charge of weapons, but that the armourer on ‘Rust’ was named Hannah Gutierrez-Reed.
Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was also the armourer on a movie starring Nicholas Cage’s called The Old Way. Stu Brumbaugh, the key grip on the movie has told news outlet The Wrap that Cage stormed off set after Gutierrez-Reed fired a gun without warning for a second time in August this year.
“There were some incidents that kind of raised some red flags with me,” Brumbaugh remembered.
“[Cage] just said, ‘Can we please make an announcement when we’re firing guns? You blew my eardrums out.’ He was visibly upset and walked off,” Brumbaugh added.
The Key Grip said that he told the assistant director of the armourer “She needs to be let go.”
“After the second round, I was pissed off. We were moving too fast. She’s a rookie,” Brumbaugh revealed to the publication.
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After the explosive article was released, CNN also spoke to Brumbaugh and shared more insight into the The Old Way incident.
“She [Gutierrez-Reed] was talking to the stunt coordinator and she just fired off around, it sounded [like she fired] at the ground, and that’s when Nick really laid into her. That’s when I said she needs to be let go, she’s the most inexperienced armourer I had ever worked with. I have no idea why she wasn’t let go,” he said.
“There’s a universal way to handle weapons on set and immediately red flags went up and when I worked with Hannah,” Brumbaugh added. “This is why I asked for her dismissal.”
“This is why people get injured, because of rookie mistakes,” he added.
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