Matt Hutchins shared that their 9-year-old son, Andros, didn't speak for days afterwards.
Matt Hutchins, the husband of the late cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, emotionally recalled the moment he learned of his wife's death on the set of the Rust film this past October.
In his first television interview, Matt spoke with Today show's Hoda Kotb about how he discovered his wife had been fatally shot with a prop gun, and how he broke the news to their 9-year-old son, Andros.
"I remember the production team told me that Halyna had been shot and my heart sank right away," he shared. "Completely inexplicable to me that it could have happened. The first thing I thought, I sat down, was 'I have to get my son' because I have to be with him. I rushed home and on the way decided that we had to go to Santa Fe."
After speaking with the doctor and learning Halyna hadn't survived being shot, Matt decided the best course of action was to immediately tell his son.
"I was heartbroken, and I knew that I had to tell my son right away when I saw him," he said. "Just had to be very direct and blunt because going to pick him up and go to the airport to Santa Fe, I didn't want him to think we were going to be seeing her and having fun together, to get his hopes up. I told him sitting together that his mother had been shot and died. And of course he didn't believe it right away, didn't want to believe it."
He said he repeated the news several times so Andros would believe and understand, saying they "cried together" then.
"Every holiday is difficult without her for me and Andros," he shared.
Hoda added that Matt told her Andros "wasn't speaking" for several days after hearing the news, but that he "recently got him to laugh," which was an achievement for the little boy.
In the interview, Matt also expressed anger toward actor and producer Alec Baldwin, who was holding the gun which shot Halyna.
Baldwin spoke out on Good Morning America in December, saying he felt grief but not guilt for Halyna's death. He also claimed that he did not pull the trigger on the prop gun that killed Halyna.
"Yeah. But watching him I just felt so angry," Matt said. "I was just so angry to see him talk about her death so publicly, in such a detailed way and then to not accept any responsibility after having just described killing her."
Reflecting on Baldwin's tearful interview, Matt said the 63-year-old actor presented the story in a way in which it "almost sounds like he was the victim."
Matt added that while gun safety was important, there were many factors that led to Halyna's death, which Baldwin, as a producer, is also partially responsible for.
"The idea that the person holding the gun causing it to discharge is not responsible, is absurd to me," Matt said. "But gun safety was not the only problem on that set. There were a number of industry standards that were not practiced and there’s multiple responsible parties."
This month, Matt --on behalf of himself and their son -- and a wrongful death representative for Halyna filed a lawsuit against Alec and other individuals and companies associated with the film for negligent, intentional, willful or reckless misconduct resulting in wrongful death and loss of consortium.
RELATED CONTENT:
