NEED TO KNOW
Filmmaker Rory Kennedy says her new documentary, The Trial of Alec Baldwin, reveals never-before-seen sides of the actor.
Kennedy, who is the daughter of Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Kennedy, caught up with PEOPLE exclusively while at the DOC NYC Visionaries Tribute Luncheon in New York City on Nov. 12.
During the conversation, Kennedy, 56, said that the project is an intimate and revealing portrait of the actor that cuts through the tabloid noise.
It follows Baldwin, 67, while he was facing charges of involuntary manslaughter following the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the movie Rust. (A judge eventually dropped the charges in July 2024.)
“I think the film is a very intimate portrait and shows a very raw side of Alec, [and] he acknowledges in the film that people will never have seen him in the light that we capture him on this journey,” Kennedy says.
Jared Siskin/Getty
“And so, I think that he was extraordinarily … brave and courageous just to allow us to document him during this very tumultuous time, and I think people will see something in him and sides to him that they’ve never seen before,” she adds.
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
She continues, “It’s a character portrait, but it’s also looking at what happens when social media and other chatter kind of trickles its way up into the justice system, and how that, in turn, can — I think — become injustice.”
Baldwin, who was a producer and star of the film Rust, was holding a prop gun containing a live round while on set in New Mexico on Oct. 21, 2021. The gun went off in his hand, and at least one bullet was dislodged, fatally shooting Hutchins and injuring director Joel Souza. Baldwin maintained that he did not know that the gun — which was handed to him by the on-set armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed — was loaded, and also said he did not pull the trigger.
The charges against Baldwin were ultimately dropped in 2024.
Ross D. Franklin – Pool/Getty
While speaking with PEOPLE at the DOC NYC Visionaries Tribute Luncheon, Kennedy said that Baldwin was initially “resistant” to participating in the film.
The PEOPLE Puzzler crossword is here! How quickly can you solve it? Play now!
“I reached out to Alec Baldwin after the Rust accident had happened, but before he had returned to the set of filming Rust again. The criminal charges had been filed, and I had approached him about making a documentary about him and also what he was going through. And he was, I would say, resistant at first. And I said, ‘Sit on it, think about it. If you’re interested, I would love to talk more.’ And then, just before he went into production, just before the criminal charges got dropped, he phoned me back and said that he was open to it,” she recalls.
She adds, “And I said to him, ‘I would love to do this. I need full editorial control and you can’t get any compensation financially from the film.’ That was really important to me. And we had a contract within a week and an understanding and I was on the journey with him, and have been on it for the last three years.”
Kennedy went on to say that her decision to explore Baldwin’s experience during this specific period of his life in no way undermines the tragic loss of Hutchins, who was 42 at the time of her death.
“And obviously — I will say all of this, and I always do — that this is all in the backdrop of the horrendous tragedy and loss of Halyna,” she says, adding, “And I guess I feel that in the world that we live in today, there should be enough space to explore more than one tragedy that can occur in a situation like this. So I think this film is about that exploration.”
The Trial of Alec Baldwin premiered at the DOC NYC film festival on Nov. 13.
