Alec Baldwin is opening up about one of the darkest periods of his life, admitting he desperately wanted to be acquitted so he could finally be left alone.
The 68-year-old actor gets emotional in the trailer for a new documentary, The Trial of Alec Baldwin, which follows him through the legal battle surrounding the deadly Rust shooting.
Baldwin was holding a revolver on the New Mexico set of the Western film in October 2021 when the gun discharged, killing cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injuring director Joel Souza.
Baldwin has repeatedly denied pulling the trigger and said he was told the gun did not contain live ammunition.
He was later charged with involuntary manslaughter, but the case was dismissed by a New Mexico judge in July 2024 after the court found serious problems with how prosecutors handled evidence.
The new documentary gives viewers an unusually personal look at Baldwin as the case unfolded.
“I want to be acquitted so I can walk out the door and everybody just leave me alone,” Baldwin says in the trailer.
He adds, “I never dreamed in my life that this would come down to this.”
Cameras reportedly followed Baldwin beginning in 2023 as he dealt with the possibility of going to trial and potentially facing prison.
At another emotional moment, Baldwin recalls learning that Hutchins had died.
“When they told me she died, I was in shock,” he says. “I was in disbelief.”
Baldwin also says he would do virtually anything if it could somehow bring Hutchins back.
“If you said to me, ‘Hike up Mt. Everest and she’ll come back,’ I’d be packed and ready to do it,” he says. “Whatever I could do. But there’s nothing you can do.”
The trailer ends with Baldwin acknowledging just how vulnerable the documentary may make him appear.
“People who watch this will see so much of me at my worst,” he says.
His wife, Hilaria Baldwin, also appears in the documentary. The couple share seven children together.
In one scene, Hilaria warns that photographers are already gathering and urges Baldwin to get the children away from the chaos.
“The paparazzi are already coming,” she says before telling him, “You need to take the kids out of town.”
Baldwin’s criminal case came to a dramatic end in July 2024 when Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer dismissed the involuntary manslaughter charge.
The judge found that prosecutors had failed to properly disclose ammunition-related evidence to Baldwin’s defense team, ruling that the problems had affected the fairness of the proceedings.
Baldwin broke down in tears after hearing the ruling and embraced and kissed Hilaria inside the courtroom.
Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was separately convicted of involuntary manslaughter in Hutchins’ death and sentenced to 18 months behind bars. She was later released early for good behavior.
Rust eventually premiered at a film festival in Poland in 2024 before reaching U.S. audiences in May 2025, where it received a deeply divided response.
Now, Baldwin is giving viewers a behind-the-scenes look at the fear, grief and legal turmoil that surrounded the case — including moments he admits show him at his absolute lowest.