All of us have things we can’t get past in our lives. I know there’s a few things in my life I’ll never live down. Thankfully, that thing for most us is just an embarrassing story, getting fired from a job or just doing something dumb when we were kids.
Unfortunately for some, that thing they’ll never be able to forget is something a little more serious.
Let’s take Alec Baldwin for example. For years, the actor was known simply as that. Honestly, he is probably one of the better actors I can think of. He could do comedy, drama and action.
Then came 2007. If you don’t recall, the actor made quite the phone call to his daughter. If you’d like to remember, well YouTube is your best friend. Here is the call: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7r-xD0lvHGw
After listening to that, you’d think it was a message to a grown daughter. Then you hear Baldwin say that he is speaking to a pre-teen. It is pretty grotesque. He threatens his own daughter and calls her a “pig.”
This made headlines back then, but honestly, Baldwin was able to move past it. I had honestly forgotten about it until I did a little research before writing this.
So for the better part of 14 years, this was what haunted Alec Baldwin. Whenever he made some sort of comment, those who didn’t like him would always bring this back up to try and embarrass him. He got back in the good graces of people by playing Donald Trump on Saturday Night Live, and doing some decent movies and TV. Yet, this would still come up every now and then. I’m sure he would’ve done almost anything to put this behind him. Well, maybe not anything.
Fast forward to October 21st, 2021. I’m sure you know what happened. On the set of a movie called Rust, Alec Baldwin shot and killed staff member Halyna Hutchins while rehearsing a scene.
Of course, many questions came up as to why there were live bullets on a movie set in the first place. Also, people were asking why Baldwin was pointing a gun towards anyone in the first place. Aren’t there people that make sure this doesn’t happen on a movie set?
Turns out there is a person that is supposed to make sure a gun is safe on a movie set. Rust had an armorer that apparently “cleared” the gun before Baldwin picked it up. Why it had live rounds in it, nobody really knows, but an investigation will surely find out eventually.
Of course, this became politicized, like everything else seems to these days. The more conservative folks, who disagree with Baldwin’s leftwing politics, were claiming that Baldwin needs to be arrested. Obviously, this is just nonsense and just in response to Baldwin’s political opinions. The armorer is on a movie set to protect people from this kind of thing. The actor was told the gun was clear and he believed it. Yeah, he could have checked the gun, but if a more experienced gun specialist told him it was good, he has no reason to doubt her. Although, I bet he checks any gun now.
After it all went down, Baldwin went up to Vermont and did his best to hide from the media. Claiming that he was “told not” to talk about the incident. A good idea.
Even though he hid for a while, the memes and comments online were still rampant. Any article about a shooting had someone commenting about Baldwin being there. And if we’re all being honest, some of them were pretty funny. I’m sure Baldwin didn’t think so.
That point was proven by both he and his wife Hilaria (who I’m quite certain is pretending to have a Spanish accent) deleted their Twitter accounts. I probably would’ve done the same thing. I’m sure they were taking an absolute beating.
But knowing who Baldwin is, and how much these actors love the spotlight, the silence wouldn’t last long. An exclusive interview was coming eventually. Then it happened. Baldwin sat down with George Stepanopoulos for a 90 minute interview.
I figured it would just be Alec Baldwin apologizing and sending his condolences to the family. Maybe even announce the shutting down of the film and saying “I wish I could take it back,” or something. Instead, what we got was an overproduced, show of an interview where Baldwin basically calls himself a victim. It was not a good look, and only fueled the fire for those who hate him.
Long winded summary over, let’s get to the real point of this blog.
I’m actually going to give Alec Baldwin some advice. There is absolutely no way he is going to live this down. This is going to follow him for the rest of his life. It’ll probably even be written in his obituary the day he dies. Especially in today’s social media based society, no matter what he does, someone is going to make a comment about this. If Baldwin appears in any movies that have guns or violence involved, the jokes and memes will rain down.
There are so many examples of people who either did one thing, or were accused of doing one thing that have never gotten away from it. Boston fans I’m sure remember Bill Buckner. Not for his 2,715 hits, but for letting one ball go through his legs in 1986. Does the name OJ mean anything to you? Yeah that guy that was acquitted for double murder. Just check his Twitter feed and tell me if anyone forgets that. I’d check for you, but he blocked me…
Needless to say, things have a habit of not going away. What Baldwin needs to do is just accept it. He shouldn’t be fighting it, and doing softball interviews with ABC News. Quite honestly, what he should do is wait a year or so, then go back and finish the movie. Then donate all of the proceeds to the family of the victim, or some charity. It wouldn’t stop the internet comments, but it would disarm (pun intended) them. That movie would also gross a whole bunch of money. I know I’ll see it.
But, Baldwin won’t take my advice. To that I say fine. Go ahead and shoot yourself in the foot. Enjoy the fact that everyone is gunning for you, and not the other way around.
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