Eliza Hutton is breaking her silence after 28 years to speak about the death of her fiancé, Brandon Lee, and to call on filmmakers to stop using live guns on set following the accidental fatal shooting that took place during filming for Alec Baldwin's "Rust."
Lee died at 28 in March of 1993— just over two weeks before he was set to marry Hutton— in a similar accident that killed "Rust" cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounded director Joel Souza. He was filming for "The Crow" when another actor shot him using a gun that was supposed to have only been loaded with blanks. This incident, as well as the accidental shooting that took place on the set of "Rust," were both "avoidable," Hutton told People in a new interview.
"Twenty eight years ago, I was shattered by the shock and grief of losing the love of my life, Brandon Lee, so senselessly. My heart aches again now for Halyna Hutchins' husband and son, and for all those left in the wake of this avoidable tragedy," she said. "I urge those in positions to make change to consider alternatives to real guns on sets."
Hutton also spoke up in an Instagram post that featured a photo of herself and Lee together on the day they got engaged, in October 1992.
"There's no such thing as a prop gun," she wrote in the caption that appeared on her private Instagram account.
Since the tragic "Rust" shooting, there have been growing calls for a ban on the use of real firearms in film and television productions. A Change.org petition has been launched by Bandar Albuliwi, a director who graduated from the American Film Institute Conservatory, which has garnered over 41,550 signatures as of Tuesday morning. In wake of the incident, producers of "The Rookie" put an end to the use of live guns on the set while "Mare of Easttown" director Craig Zobel also made his voice heard on the topic in a Twitter thread.
"There’s no reason to have guns loaded with blanks or anything on set anymore. Should just be fully outlawed. There’s computers now. The gunshots on Mare of Easttown are all digital. You can probably tell, but who cares? It’s an unnecessary risk," he tweeted.
"I concede live rounds have a role on set: I do think there are protocols to doing it safely, and I’ve had live rounds on sets for years," Zobel continued. "Always made me nervous, though. So this last project we didn’t. I think it took a level of anxiety away. We still used squibs, dust caps, etc."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.