Without getting into great detail, I've worked in and adjacent to this industry, as well as my wife who stage managed professionally for several years. We both have friends who have been or are weapons wranglers and fight directors. There are multiple layers of safety that *should* be built in anytime firearms are used on set. The final safety cut out is *always* the actor holding the weapon. They're responsible for knowing if and how it's loaded, and maintaining blocking in such a way that the muzzle is never actually in line with another human. (Execution "gags" are always done with a dummy weapon, for instance).I'd like to make clear - this post is not intended to get into the specifics of the deeply unfortunate incident involving Alec Baldwin. It's a sensitive topic and there's much that's not known. What does seem clear however is that there was a poor safety culture in play on set, and that the wider film industry has failed to learn from previous lethal events.
I'm posting because I'm interested in what the discussion is revealing on other forums and media. I'm mystified at the level of feeling (in the UK at least) that he as an actor was not responsible in any way for the incident.
My instinct is that when a potentially lethal object / material / process is in use in a workplace, the system needs to be robust and include a requirement of basic competency on the end user. Many, many others disagree with me. I am ex-Forces and don't think it's an onerous expectation for the end user to be competent enough to differentiate between live rounds, cosmetic rounds, blanks and squibs.
What do people here feel?
The reality is, actors don't always take those things seriously. Mrs. Scandalous was "shot" with a blank round the very first rehearsal where the weapons were used, in a production of Assassins. Immediately after the rather lengthy safety lecture, no less. She was fortunately not seriously injured, but had a massive bruise on her shoulder as a result. Most productions take this stuff deadly seriously, because it *is* deadly, and not following procedures will get an actor replaced and blacklisted. Usually.
I know another fight director who made a video of what blank rounds will do to melons, and makes actors and production staff watch it prior to any fight work involving any weapons, blank-modified, dummy, or otherwise.
Again, the final cutout is always the actor. Not all of them take it seriously, and that's how people get hurt or dead.
(none of this covers how live rounds made it on set, but that's an entirely different problem).