In October 2021, an event shook the industry when during the filming of a project, actor Alec Baldwin accidentally discharged a firearm, critically injuring a cinematographer and the director on the set of the film. Halyna Hutchins, the cinematographer, later died of her injuries.
Following the grievous incident, Hollywood A-lister Dwayne Johnson has now taken active steps to ensure the tragedy isn’t something that is consciously repeated ever again under the industry’s watch. And as such, Johnson has enforced preventative measures to be put in place, starting with the rearrangement of his own house – the company, Seven Bucks Productions.
Dwayne Johnson Enforces New Rules at Seven Bucks
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s career has been rocky at the beginning, but once the formative actor found his bearings, there was very little anyone could do to prevent his career from catapulting to stratospheric heights. He is now not only one of the most recognizable faces in Hollywood, but also the most sought-after leading man, and the highest-paid actor of 2022 (according to Forbes).
Such advancement in a saturated industry is impressive, especially considering how Hollywood, contrary to what people may think, was not a fan of his physique in the early years and instead asked him to tone it down a notch if he wanted to be a movie star. One of the initial rules that he established early on was drawing the boundary between what was asked of him and what he was willing to deliver. And Hollywood asking him to alter his physical appearance wasn’t something he was ready to deliver upon. Rather, he utilized the potential of his physicality in order to become the biggest action movie star of the modern decade.
Now, Dwayne Johnson is a powerful name among the top-tier Hollywood stars and an incredibly influential producer with reaches far and wide, and the actor looks to usher in a new era of change and evolution at Seven Bucks Productions after the tragic events that unfolded on the sets of Rust in October 2021.
The Rock Calls For Ban on Firearms During Filming
In an interview with Variety, Dwayne Johnson recounted the events regarding the Rust set shooting and claimed:
“I can’t speak for anyone else, but I can tell you, without an absence of clarity here, that any movie that we have moving forward with Seven Bucks Productions — any movie, any television show, or anything we do or produce — we won’t use real guns at all. We’re going to switch over to rubber guns, and we’re going to take care of it in post. We’re not going to worry about the dollars; we won’t worry about what it costs. Any movie we do that Seven Bucks does with any studio, the rule is we’re not going to use real guns. That’s it.
There are safety protocols and measures that we have always taken in the movie business and we take very seriously, and these sets are safe sets, and we’re proud of that. But accidents do happen. And when something like this happens of this magnitude, [that is] this heartbreaking, I think the most prudent thing and the smartest thing to do is just pause for a second and really re-examine how you’re going to move forward and how we’re going to work together.”
A little over a year later, actor Alec Baldwin and armorer on the sets of Rust, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed with two counts each of involuntary manslaughter that could end up with each serving up to 18 months in prison. Charges including allegations of negligence and recklessness were drawn up and filed on January 19, 2023 – the same month filming of Rust was supposed to resume after being halted in October 2021.
Source: Variety
