Olga Solovey, the mother of Halyna Hutchins, will not attend the Poland premiere of Rust on Wednesday, citing Alec Baldwin‘s handling of her daughter’s death as a constant “increase to my pain.”
“It was always my hope to meet my daughter in Poland to watch her work come alive on screen,” Solovey said in a statement sent to The Hollywood Reporter on Tuesday. “Unfortunately, that was ripped away from me when Alec Baldwin discharged his gun and killed my daughter.”
Rust is set for its first premiere at Poland’s Camerimage International Film Festival on Wednesday, over three years since a revolver held by Baldwin — the film’s star and producer — discharged a bullet that killed Hutchins, the film’s cinematographer.
“Alec Baldwin continues to increase my pain with his refusal to apologize to me and his refusal to take responsibility for her death,” Solovey’s statement continued. “Instead, he seeks to unjustly profit from his killing of my daughter. That is the reason why I refuse to attend the festival for the promotion of Rust, especially now when there is still no justice for my daughter.”
Baldwin‘s involuntary manslaughter trial ended in July with the dismissal of the case after a last-minute hearing over how police and prosecutors treated a handful of bullets. Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed is currently serving out an 18-month prison sentence after a Santa Fe jury found her guilty of involuntary manslaughter on March 6.
“Even though Mr. Baldwin discharged the gun that killed Halyna, he has never called them to apologize,” Gloria Allred, attorney for Hutchins’ family, said in a statement to THR. She also noted that Baldwin “has disrespected Halyna’s mother, father and sister” and that in addition to his lack of apology, “even worse, he argued, through his attorneys, that Halyna was emotionally distant from her family in Ukraine. That is false, hurtful and insulting.”
Her statement concluded, “The decision not to even call the family to say he is sorry is cruel and dishonors Halyna and her memory. Now, a decision has been made to promote Rust to buyers in order to make a profit for Alec Baldwin and others that had a role in Halyna’s death,” noting that the family “will not agree with this plan to exploit Halyna’s death.”
As tickets to the Rust premiere at Camerimage became available early Tuesday morning, the website briefly crashed due to an overwhelming surge in demand.
When the premiere of Rust was announced a month ago, some DPs took to social media to argue that the decision was a promotional move undertaken in poor taste, given that the creation of the work caused the death of one of their compatriots. The festival has emphasized, however, that the premiere was only intended to honor the work and wishes of Hutchins, a past attendee of Camerimage who had privately told her collaborators that she hoped her work would one day screen there. Camerimage director Kazimierz Suwała told THR in an interview prior to the festival that Baldwin was deliberately not invited, because of the distraction his presence at the event would likely generate. He added that “Halyna’s mother, who is Ukrainian, is going to attend the screening if she’s able to leave her country, but it’s not easy right now because of the war.”
THR reached out to Camerimage for comment on Solovey and Allred’s statements, but did not immediately receive a response. THR has also contacted the publicist representing the producers of Rust for a statement.