Rory Kennedy Says Alec Baldwin Found It ‘Very Difficult’ to Watch Her ‘Rust’ Documentary

Rory Kennedy confirms Alec Baldwin has watched her documentary about the 2021 incident on his movie Rust that left cinematographer Halyna Hutchins dead.

Documentary filmmaker Kennedy, 56, premiered The Trial of Alec Baldwin at DOC NYC on Thursday, Nov. 13. During a Q&A after a screening held on Friday, Nov. 14, the director confirmed that Baldwin, 67, has seen the film.

“I don’t feel comfortable speaking for him in that respect,” she said, after an audience member asked her about Baldwin’s reaction to the movie. “I think it’s very difficult to watch this film, for him. I think this is a horrible word, but triggering, and I think it’s just a very difficult journey that this captures. And I can’t even put into words what the experience is for him to watch it.”

The Trial of Alec Baldwin follows Baldwin and his wife Hilaria from the immediate aftermath of the Oct. 21, 2021 accidental shooting incident that left Hutchins, 42, dead on the New Mexico set through his July 2024 involuntary manslaughter trial.

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The charges against Baldwin were dismissed with prejudice mid-trial after a judge ruled that prosecutors sat on evidence that would have helped shed light onto how live ammunition was brought onto the set.

Kennedy, who is the daughter of Robert F. Kennedy and Ethel Kennedy, said during the Q&A that Baldwin was initially resistant to her pitch to document his life during the investigation into the Rust incident.

“He was kind of like, ‘That’s a terrible idea. Why do you think that’s a good idea?’ and so on and so forth,” she said.

The actor eventually agreed to participate in the movie after he was initially charged with involuntary manslaughter in 2023, Kennedy said.

When Kennedy caught up with PEOPLE at DOC NYC’s Visionaries Tribute Luncheon on Nov. 12, the director said her movie “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.”

“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 added.

The Trial of Alec Baldwin does not yet have a release date.