Joel Souza is unpacking a traumatic memory.
Three years after the Rust shooting incident—which saw a prop gun held by Alec Baldwin go off, and subsequently kill cinematographer Halyna Hutchins—the film’s director, who was also hit in the crossfire, detailed the moment.
“Things get a little fuzzy for me,” Souza recalled in an interview with Vanity Fair published Aug. 15, explaining he was trying to look at Hutchins’ camera monitor just before the gun went off. “All hell broke loose.”
Although he was disoriented after being shot in the shoulder, the 52-year-old was able to detail the immediate aftermath of the misfired gun.
“The noise was much louder,” he noted. “It felt like a horse kicked me in the shoulder or someone hit me with a bat. The whole right side of my body went numb, completely numb, but it also hurt excruciatingly at the same time.”
And just as awful as he felt physically, the chaos on set was memorable—and he recounted his recollection as a series of “quick flashes.”
