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This story was originally published May 9, 2023.
Baldwinsmanslaughter case was dismissedon July 12, 2024, making him a free man.
Hilaria stayed by Alecs side throughout the trial.
Can you hear me?
Can you hear me?
Can you hear me?
Baldwin called his wife again.
How is everyone at home?
he asked after getting through.
How are the kids?
The kids are great, the kids are great, Hilaria said before Alec cut her off.
Hold on a second, c’mon, Alec said.
He asked if Hilaria had told their eldest child what happened.
Hilaria and their kids had been planning to join Alec in New Mexico.
Their 8-year-old daughter was even scheduled to film a small role.
Are you convinced you dont want to come tomorrow?
he asked his wife.
I dont think its a great idea, Hilaria said.
Let me just say this to you, just to be clear, Alec said.
This is really I mean … Alec said.
Im so sorry, Hilaria said.
What I am is someone who I dont want to do this for a living anymore.
He seemed to be speaking with sudden clarity: I dont want to be a public person.
(Souza, the director, survived.)
There is no right way to get through a tragedy.
The Baldwins seem to have decided, for better and worse, to try posting through it.
He quickly opened Instagram to post a blurry photo of Hilaria from the early days of their relationship.
I owe everything I have to this woman, Alec wrote, before offering parenthetical thanks to his attorney.
Just do me a favor, Alec said.
My kids are in the car crying.
Because you guys are following them, and they know, Hilaria said.
As a courtesy to you, I came to talk to you, Alec said.
Now, just, would you just not follow us?
Go home, Hilaria said.
The article didnt offer Baldwin much hope.
They experienced nightmares and hallucinations.
(There was this voice: You dont deserve to feel happy.
Look what happened last time you felt happy.)
Baldwin felt much of this.
I shot this woman with a gun today, he said during his initial interrogation in Santa Fe.
If you dont think I feel really, really shitty about that, I do.
Donald Trump Jr. started selling T-shirts: GUNS DONT KILL PEOPLE.
ALEC BALDWIN KILLS PEOPLE.
I dont think you ever get over something like that, he said in 2005.
Sitting in silence isnt the Baldwins preferred mode.
(Dumb, David Simon, who createdThe Wire,replied.)
Hilaria resumed posting too.
Parenting through this has been an intense experience, to say the least, she wrote.
Baldwin knew it wasnt likely, but he had always been attracted to conspiracy theories.
(He admits to a lifelong obsession with John F. Kennedys assassination.)
Six weeks after the shooting, Baldwin decided to sit down for a prime-time interview on ABC.
But he also seemed to see the incident as something that had happened to him.
He said he and Hutchins shared something profound in common in that they both believed the gun wasnt loaded.
He claimed he didnt even pull the trigger.
Baldwin said he did not.
But I know its not me.
There was no question that his tears were genuine.
Watching him, I just felt so angry, Hutchins said.
Mr. Baldwin, whos here?
Alec turned from Allens door and charged toward Levine.
In a previous era, the umbrella in Alecs hand might have ended up lodged in Levines gut.
Hilaria posted her own video of the encounter on Instagram.
Speaking out may spark more backlash, but I dont want to live in fear, she wrote.
My husband has PTSD, has had for a long time, now, worse than ever.
Some take advantage by poking at him, trying to rile him up, messing with his mental health.
I venture to ward it off.
Its almost like shes taking care of him, McGlynn said.
Hilaria wrote in a birthday message to her husband last year.
Id do it a million times, Alec.
Hilaria was the 27-year-old co-owner of a popular downtown yoga studio; Alec was 52 and unhappy.
The message leaked, and the ensuing avalanche of negative attention led him to consider suicide.
(Alec is one of six kids.)
Hilaria was confident and beautiful, with an alluring accent, and presented a chance to rectify that.
Before they had even kissed, Alec asked if Hilaria was interested in having children and soon.
They moved in together three months later.
In a nutshell: Los Angeles, not New York.
(ThePost: Livid!
Its Alec Brawldwin!)
(Thats not true, Alec replied.
But Im gonna tweet at your funeral.)
Hilaria was annoyed by his many dustups with the press and tried to make peace.
I just think New Yorkers work too hard and the New YorkPostneeds more namaste, she said.
Hilaria brought the same relentless positivity to motherhood.
In a time-warping twist, the Baldwins announced the birth of another child just six months later.
(The Baldwins later acknowledged that they had used a surrogate.)
She was no longer teaching yoga regularly, instead posting prenatal workout routines from her Hamptons bathroom.
He missed three out of four.
At the end of that year, the Baldwins transformed from a public curiosity into a COVID-era punch line.
Her podcast, co-hosted with Dr. Ozs daughter Daphne, stopped releasing new episodes.
In response, the Baldwins were defiant.
Who is to say what youre allowed to absorb and not absorb growing up?
The Baldwins were squarely in each others corners.
When you love somebody, Alec said, you want to defend them.
The job in question was a movie called97 Minutes,an even lower-budget thriller thanRustabout a hijacked airliner.
Baldwin was playing the director of the National Security Agency, tasked with bringing the plane down safely.
Movies likeRustand97 Minuteswere a step down for Baldwin, but they were also his new reality.
TheRustfilming was supposed to be just 21 days long.
Baldwin has always had a tortured relationship to his career.
(To be Leo!
he once toldThe New Yorker,meaning DiCaprio.)
(Hilaria and the Baldwinitos all showed up at the premiere wearing suits and ties.)
The shooting had made things even more difficult.
He has told others that he has been dropped by seven different movies since the shooting.
It did become a little more difficult after the Stephanopoulos interview, he said.
But they persevered, and Baldwin arrived ready to work.
He didnt even complain when the set lost power and he had to warm himself by a fire.
(Grover, the resident doctor, took Baldwins temperature to confirm he didnt go hypothermic.)
He got a lot of criticism for getting back to work, Grover said.
I probably need to work some more, regardless of where that leads me.
Money, Baldwin replied.
How much money do you should probably have in the bank to feel comfortable if you couldnt work again?
I dont know, Baldwin said.
You wanna have a million in a trust fund for each kid for school and beyond.
And then you want to leave your wife a minimum of $30 million clean cash.Minimum.Probably more.
The point was that it could have been anyone.
Marshal tracking Baldwins character, told the police.
Next on theRustfilming schedule was an actual shoot-out.
Was I about to get in a firefight with Alec Baldwin and we were shooting live rounds?
Were we about to Swiss cheese each other?
First, Baldwin was the one holding the gun.
But Baldwins work as a producer was limited to creative matters, not budgets and safety.
Dummies are often loaded with a tiny BB that allows someone to shake the round and hear it rattle.
Where did it come from?
Somehow, it seems, a real bullet was placed in a box labeled DUMMY ROUNDS.
The prosecutors office also walked itself into a number of unforced errors nudged along by Baldwins legal team.
(Gutierrez-Reed, who has pleaded not guilty, still faces a charge of involuntary manslaughter.)
While the prospect of finishingRustcould feel unseemly, doing this is a Hollywood tradition.
A blank round was in the chamber.
The force of the explosion was enough to push a quarter-size piece of his skull into his brain.
In 1994,The Crowwas released with Brandon Lees face digitally superimposed on his stunt doubles body.
The movie got three sequels.
He was tried for murder but ultimately acquitted.
He never acted again.
I realize that many people have had harsh feelings toward him, Baldwin wrote.
Today, I want to remember him as the incredibly gifted actor he was.
The immediate concern is finishingRust,which he hopes to do this month.
And by that, I mean, like, David Geffens yacht in Nice.
Why do I put my head down and keep going?
What choice do I have?
Sleep in separate rooms!
It took Baldwin a moment to get the joke.
Oh, you mean that oh God, oh God, Baldwin replied.
Youre certainly securing a legacy, Cuomo said.
But you better keep working.
I told people Im going to be a greeter in Vegas … How are you, everybody?
hey, table No.
9, Frank, Baldwin said.
Im gonna be a greeter in Vegas any day now.
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