Alec Baldwin set to earn $250,000 for ‘Rust,’ Halyna Hutchins just $48,000 and the armorer $8,000

By Alec Baldwin’s standards, his salary for starring in the Western film “Rust” and producing it was relatively modest — $250,000, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

But that amount was five times the $48,945 that cinematographer Halyna Hutchins expected to earn and almost astronomical, compared to the $7,913 being paid to armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who was responsible for overseeing the guns used on the set and making sure they were handled safely.

These figures come from a draft of the production budget for the New Mexico-set film, according to the Hollywood Reporter. The film was slated to cost $7.2 million, which would put it into the “low-budget” category of films. A-lister Baldwin helped developed “Rust” as a “passion project,” not as “a money gig,” added the Hollywood Reporter.

“Rust” began filming outside Santa Fe, New Mexico on Oct. 6 and employed 75 crew members, 22 principal actors and 230 “background talent” from the nearby area. Production was shut down on Oct. 21 when Baldwin fatally shot Hutchins and wounded director Joel Souza during a rehearsal for a gunfight scene.

While the budget only reflects a plan for the production’s spending, not what was actually spent, it also supplies “a roadmap of the filmmakers’ priorities,” the Hollywood Reporter said.

Among the priorities noted by the Reporter is making sure that Baldwin and the five other producers were comparatively well-compensated, including earmarking a total $650,000 to divide amongst themselves. Producers also budgeted $350,000 as a contingency in case anything went wrong.

One industry source told the Reporter that it’s not clear why all six producers needed to be taking fees. “They’d be falling all over each other if they’re really on set. But it’s not unheard of,” the source said. It appears that only three of the producers were on set every day.

The producers also budgeted $25,000 for hotel rooms for five of them, and $95,000 for rooms for below-the-line crew members, an amount that covers 21 people.

These figures may be noteworthy given that complaints about inadequate and inconvenient accommodations was one of the reasons that the camera crew declared the workplace conditions unsafe and walked off the set the morning Hutchins died.

Baldwin likely used his name to attract financing for the film, the Hollywood Reporter said. He was set to earn $150,000 as the lead actor, and his production company, El Dorado, was taking a $100,000 fee. While that amount is considered modest for a veteran TV and film star of his stature, it’s possible that he stood to earn more on the “backend,” though such participation isn’t mentioned in the budget.

As for the other key players in the tragedy, Souza, of Palo Alto, was to earn $221,872 for directing the film and assistant director Dave Halls was to earn $52,830.

Halls handed Baldwin a .45 Long Colt revolver and reportedly told him it was safe to use. However, as Baldwin was pointing the revolver in the direction of Hutchins and Souza, it discharged a suspected live round, killing Hutchins, 42, and wounding Souza, 48.

An affidavit released by the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s office last week reported that Halls told a detective that he should have inspected each round in each chamber of the prop gun, but he did not.

Gutierrez-Reed, 24, who was only working on her second film as a lead armorer, prepared the gun for Baldwin to use in the gunfight scene. Industry sources told the Reporter that her expected $7,913 salary wasn’t necessarily low, though it may seem so for a job that carries such responsibility. Experts told the Reporter that her salary was typical for a film with a budget between $2.75 million and $7.5 million.

In addition to Gutierrez-Reed’s salary, producers also budgeted $7,469 for the “armorer crew,” $17,500 for the rental of weapons and $5,000 for rounds, the Reporter said.

Gutierrez-Reed’s attorneys have been defending her actions in the media. They claim she loaded the Colt with rounds that were taken from a box that should only contain dummy rounds, which are incapable of firing. They have suggested that someone, perhaps a disgruntled crew member, “sabotaged” the film by mixing live rounds in with the dummy rounds, though they have provided no proof of such sabotage.