Brihana Joy Gray discusses safety issues surrounding death on ‘Rust’ set

Brihana Joy Gray, former national press secretary for Sen. Bernie Sanders’s (I-Vt.) 2020 presidential campaign, joined Hill.TV’s “Rising” on Wednesday to discuss the workers’ issues around the “Rust” movie set shooting that led to a person’s death.  

“This was a low budget film that was being run by a low budget company,” Gray said, noting complaints from the staff about how they were overworked. 

The workers have lobbied complaints such as driving 50 miles to the set, working 12 hours and having to drive back. The complaints led to walk-offs by some workers, Gray noted. 

“The implication seems to be a conflation of all of these behaviors. A lack of properly paying people, a lack of looking out for people’s safety seems to have led up to this tragedy,” she added. 

The cinematographer’s family filed suit against Baldwin and the “Rust” team on Tuesday for Halyna Hutchins death on the set last year. Baldwin has denied responsibility for the incident. 

Gray commented on Baldwin’s reaction to the shooting as Baldwin said in an interview he did not feel guilt for the cinematographer’s death because he was not directly responsible for it. 

“It feels like it might be a legal instruction. It feels like it might be a therapeutic instruction to help him wrestle with what is a really difficult thing to wrestle with,” Gray said.


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