'Rust' Director Avoided Alec Baldwin’s Reality Show: 'Was Busy Hitting Myself In The Face With A Frying Pan'

“Rust” director Joel Souza is making it clear that he is no longer friends with Alec Baldwin.

The “30 Rock” actor was the star of his Western film, which has been making headlines ever since the October 2021 fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.

It appears that Souza and the “Saturday Night Live” alum are not on good terms. When speaking with The Guardian ahead of Rust's premiere on May 2, the director revealed that he did not watch Baldwin’s reality series and had absolutely no plans to.

"I think I was busy hitting myself in the face with a frying pan that night," Souza, 51, said, referring to the series’ premiere. The first season is able to stream in its entirety on Max. There has been no word as to whether or not "The Baldwins" will be back for a second season.

During the series’ premiere, Alec Baldwin told his wife, Hilaria Baldwin, that “This has been just surreal” when discussing the “Rust” shooting and the court case that followed.

“I mean, I can't even believe that we're going through this, and I always feel more in pain about you than me, because I think to myself, well, you know, I'm going to try to my best to just get through it, and I think what it's done to you and how much it's hurt you and everything,” he continued.

During the premiere, Hilaria also noted the difficulty that the shooting had on the couple’s seven children: Carmen Gabriela, 11, María Lucía Victoria, 3, and Ilaria Catalina Irena, 2, as well as four sons Rafael Thomas, 9, Leonardo Ángel Charles, 8, Romeo Alejandro David, 6, and Eduardo "Edu" Pao Lucas, 4.

In a confessional, Alec went on to say,

“This past year was just terrible. There were times I'd lay in bed. I'd go, ‘Wow, my kids. I can't get up.’ That's not like me. I'm not like that at all, not in any way am I like that. Never.”

Hilaria agreed, saying that his husband’s mental health took a turn for the worse after he was charged with involuntary manslaughter.

“Everyone who is close to Alec has seen his mental health decline,” Hilaria explained, noting that his OCD worsened as well. “He was diagnosed with PTSD, and he says in his darkest moments, ‘If an accident had to have happened this day, why am I still here? Why couldn't it have been me?’”

When speaking about his movie to Vanity Fair last year, Souza said that it “was tough” resuming production on the film in Montana over a year after the shooting. He also discussed his relationship with Baldwin.

“Getting through it was tough. We got through it. I got the performance I wanted. We’re not friends. We’re not enemies,” he explained, adding, “There’s no relationship.”

Although he admitted that  “there was a very long period of time where I thought I was just done ever doing this for a living,” he decided to finish making the film for Halyna Hutchins’ family.

“I knew that the movie being finished would financially benefit Halyna’s family, which is very important to me,” he told the publication. “And I know this can sound trite for people who aren’t creative, but her last work matters. People seeing her last work matters. That was the tipping point for me in the decision.”

Ultimately, he hopes that audiences will see the movie in order to remember her talent and not the tragedy that claimed her life.

“As a cinematographer, Halyna should have been out of my reach if this business made any sense, but it doesn’t,” Souza said. “She should have been doing big studio movies. She should have outgrown a movie the size of ours. She should have been doing $100 million movies, not $7.5 million movies. Anybody who worked with her knew what she had and what she was.”