Safety concerns surfaced in the past regarding the assistant director who was said to have provided Alec Baldwin a prop gun that shot a cinematographer on the set, a crew member said.
In a statement, crew member Maggie Goll said she raised an internal complaint in 2019 with Hulu’s “Into the Dark” series’ executive producers due to the concerns about the behavior of assistant director Dave Halls.
Halls allegedly ignored safety protocols in handling pyrotechnics and weapons, Goll said through an email, adding that he even attempted to resume the work on set after one of the members of the crew “slipped into a diabetic fugue state.”
On Thursday, at a New Mexico set of the film “Rust”, Baldwin accidentally fired at Halyna Hutchins, 42, and left another director, Joel Souza, injured.
Court records said the actor used one of the guns prepared at a cart near the building where the action was being practiced. The gun was provided to him by assistant director Halls, saying it was a “cold gun”, but it turned out to be loaded.
In an email, Goll, a licensed pyrotechnician and prop maker, said that she raised concerns on how Halls has been acting on the set while they work on “Into the Dark.” She alleged that the assistant director does not follow protocol like announcing a firearm’s presence on set, and even fails to conduct safety meetings. He was already cautioned by the assistant prop master multiple times for discharging actors and actresses even if the return of the weapons on the props table was not yet secured.
“The only reason the crew was made aware of a weapon’s presence was because the assistant prop master demanded Dave acknowledge and announce the situation each day,” Goll said.
She said she submitted an internal complaint with the Blumhouse Productions’ executive producers.
“To my knowledge nothing was done after my complaints,” she said, KRON4 reported.
“I am gutted at not pushing harder for greater accountability and safety. Many of us have messaged each other wondering the same thing: is there something we could have done then that would have prevented the tragedy?” she added. “It is a horrible feeling.”
