Frances Fisher and Josh Hopkins are among the Rust cast members who have paid tribute to Halyna Hutchins following her death last week.
Hutchins, the film’s cinematographer, was accidentally shot dead on set last Thursday when actor Alec Baldwin discharged a prop gun.
She was 42 years old and a married mother of one.
Leading tributes to the director of photography, Fisher shared a sweet photo of her hugging Hutchins with the caption: ‘Rest in Paradise Dear Halyna – I loved watching you work: Your intense focus and your vibrant command of the room.
‘I asked you to stand next to me in our #IAsolidarity #RUST cast&crew photo because I wanted to make sure you were front and center, seeing as there are so few non-male directors of photography.’
The Titanic actress continued: ‘There is a line from #Unforgiven that maybe someday I will have the courage to put here. It pretty much sums it all up.
‘In the meantime, my prayers are with your family and with all who love and miss you.
‘@halynahutchins See the beauty of her vision.’
Fatal Attraction actress Sharon Stone commented: ‘Oh baby I am so sorry for your loss.’
Hopkins, who was also starring in the movie, joined in sharing his condolences and wrote in an Instagram post: ‘As you might imagine, the entire cast and crew are in a state of absolute surreal grief and shock and I want to thank everyone who has reached out with such beautiful support and love.
‘Secondly, there is already so much hurtful, blind speculation and misinformation circulating,” Josh continued.”Let’s please wait for the results of the investigation so we can avoid repeating a tragedy like this ever again.’
Who is Halyna Hutchins?
Halyna Hutchins, a mother of one, was born in the Ukraine and grew up on a Soviet military base in the Arctic Circle before attending Kyiv National University.
After graduating with a degree in international journalism, she worked as an investigative journalist for British documentaries in Eastern Europe.
However, Hutchins’ true passion lay in filmmaking, and she moved to Los Angeles, where she got work as a production assistant and a grip electric.
She also shot her own short films, inspired by cinematographers including Christopher Doyle and Sergey Urusevskiy.
On the advice of cinematographer Robert Primes, Hutchins enrolled the filmmaking MFA programme at the American Film Institute Conservatory in 2013 and graduated two years later.
In 2018, Hutchins was one of eight female cinematographers selected for the inaugural 21st Century Fox DP Lab, and in 2019, she was chosen as a Rising Star by American Cinematographer magazine.
Hutchins went on to work on films including horrors The Mad Hatter and Darlin’ and police drama Blindfire, and the BET+ series A Luv Tale: The Series.
She also worked on the Joe Mangianello mystery thriller Archenemy, which premiered at Beyond Fest 2020 and received a nomination at the Sitges International Film Festival.
The actor concluded: ‘Halyna was so generous with her kindness, she was an absolutely lovely person and a fierce artist. Her greatest joy was filmmaking. Please keep her husband, Matthew and their son in your thoughts.’
Hopkins also shared a link to the GoFundMe page set up by Hutchins’ husband Matthew so that the public can help honour her memory.
Hutchins died last week after Baldwin, the lead star and producer of Rust, fired off a prop gun accidentally striking her and the movie’s director Joel Souza on set in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
The cinematographer was airlifted to hospital where she was pronounced dead, while Souza was also injured but released from hospital hours later.
Baldwin was questioned by police but not arrested and released without charge pending investigation.
Production on Rust has now been suspended.
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