Alec Baldwin has sparked controversy after threatening a comedian for heckling him over the 2021 "Rust" shooting.
The ordeal began as Jason Scoop, who was impersonating President Donald Trump, began taunting Baldwin in front of his New York City home as he unloaded luggage from the back of an SUV. Video of the confrontation was shared on Scoop's Instagram.
"Alec, it's your favorite president!" Scoop said as he confronted Baldwin.
Scoop, dressed in a navy blue suit and blond wig, continued to mimic Trump, saying, "Look, Alec, I will offer you a total pardon 'cause I wanna be friends, right? I wanna be friends. I will give you a total pardon for murdering that woman if you kiss the ring."
He then held up a large ring and repeatedly asked Baldwin to "kiss" it.
"Look at Alec Baldwin, right? He did that impersonation of me. It was not too hot, not too good," he said, referring to Baldwin's famous portrayal of Trump on "Saturday Night Live."
"But look, we're back in office," Scoop continued. "You [the Democrats] lost. Kamala [Harris] lost. She's somewhere getting intoxicated."
Baldwin continued to ignore Scoop, who continued to bombard the actor with his remarks.
"Well, Alec, if you don't want that pardon for murdering that woman in cold blood — you can call it first-degree, you can call it whatever you want, but it was not good. She's looking down on me right now, smiling, happy. 'Thank you for confronting the man who took me out, who killed me,'" he said.
In October 2021, cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was killed after a prop gun, which Baldwin was holding, discharged on the set of the Western film "Rust." Baldwin faced charges of involuntary manslaughter but maintained his innocence, asserting that he never pulled the trigger and was unaware that the gun contained live rounds. The case was dropped in July 2024, Page Six reported.
During his confrontation with the comedian, Baldwin remained composed and silent for much of Scoop's taunting but eventually approached him.
"Look at me. I want you to look at me," Baldwin said.
"You got a camera on me here? You realize my kids live in this building? But I want you to know something. I want you to be real careful. If this camera wasn't here, I'd snap your [expletive] neck in half and break your [expletive] neck right here. You know that, don't you?" he said, before going back to tending to his luggage.
"OK, Alec Baldwin. All right, Alec Baldwin. Alec Baldwin, ladies and gentlemen! Class act! Believe me," Scoop replied.
Last year, Baldwin opened up about the aftermath of the "Rust" shooting during an appearance on David Duchovny's "Fail Better" podcast, saying that people didn't just want him to be canceled, they wanted him to be dead.
Reflecting on the last three years, Baldwin said, until now, "people have just dined out."
"Because in this country, when people hate you on that level, they want three things. They want you to die," he said.
Secondly, he continued, people want their enemies to go to prison "because prison is like a living hell."
"The third thing is they want you canceled, which is like being in prison or being dead because you roam the earth, and you're invisible," he said. "I do believe that, by the communications I've had lately, things are coming back my way to work, and I'm happy for that because I've got seven kids. But I've also enjoyed the fact that there's so much of this case that is not known because we didn't have a full trial."
Zoe Papadakis ✉
Zoe Papadakis is a Newsmax writer based in South Africa with two decades of experience specializing in media and entertainment. She has been in the news industry as a reporter, writer and editor for newspapers, magazine and websites.
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