George Clooney is sharing his thoughts on the recent on-setRusttragedy while remembering his late friend Brandon Lee, who died in 1993 after an accidental shooting while making a movie.
On anew episodeof theWTF with Marc Maronpodcast, the actor/director addressed the situation that led to actor Alec Baldwinaccidentally shooting and killing cinematographerHalyna Hutchins on Oct. 21 while making the Western filmRustin New Mexico.
“I’ve been on sets for 40 years and the person that hands you the gun, the person that is responsible for the gun is either the prop or the armorer, period,” said Clooney, 60. “This is one of those things. I was friends with an actor named John-Erik Hexum, whoaccidentally pulled a gun up witha blank in it and put it to his head and died from the concussion. And then I was good friends — really good friends — with Brandon Lee.”
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Brandon died at age 28in a similar accident in March 1993on the set of his filmThe Crow.
“My cousin Miguel Ferrer was gonna be his best man the next week at their wedding. Brandon and I played ball and hung out at the Hollywood YMCA three days a week,” Clooney recalled. “We were buddies and this was his big break.”
Brandon and fiancée Eliza Hutton had planned their wedding for April 17, 1993, afterThe Crowwas scheduled to wrap production. Brandon, son of martial arts star Bruce Lee, was killed on set on March 31 during the final week of production. He was killed when another actor shot him using a gun that was supposed to have only been loaded with blanks.
Clooney said, “Now every single time I’m handed a gun on the set, every time they hand me a gun I look at it, I open it. I show it to the person I’m pointing it to, I show it to the crew. Every single take you had to back to the armorer when you’re done. You do it again and part of it is because of what happened to Brandon, everyone does it. Everybody knows and maybe Alec did that, hopefully he did do that.”
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Clooney said dummy bullets are “tricky because they look like real bullets,” which presents a “problem.” He called the tragic on-set mix-ups and mistakes “infuriating” and called on productions to ensure their crews are highly experienced and trained.
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Clooney reflected of Brandon’s death further, saying, “After Brandon died, it really became a very clear thing of open the gun, look down the barrel, look in the cylinder. It’s harder with dummy bullets, I have to say, because if you stuck six dummy bullets in your hand, you would think they’re real bullets.”
“It’s a series of tragedies but also a lot of mistakes,” the filmmaker added. “A lot of, you know, stupid mistakes.”
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Last month, Brandon’s fiancée Eliza Hutton came forward for the first time since he died,telling PEOPLE that the accidenton the set ofRustis yet another “avoidable tragedy.”
“I urge those in positions to make change to consider alternatives to real guns on sets,” she added.
source: people.com
