Dwayne Johnson Vows No More Real Guns On His Movies Following 'Rust' Shooting

A tragic situation on the set of the movie Rust led to the death Halyna Hutchins. The cinematographer was accidentally shot by a gun held by Alec Balwin in October, and the director Joel Souza was also injured. There is currently an investigation underway to determine what exactly led to the incident but even without knowing the circumstances, there are many calls to end the practice of using real guns on film sets. And one actor who has pledged his support is none other than Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson. 

As reported by Variety, the actor spoke at length about his attitude towards real guns on sets. He says that this sort of event led him to reevaluate what had to be done going forward on projects he works on and the conclusion was using rubber guns instead. Johnson says: “I can’t speak for anyone else, but I can tell you, without an absence of clarity here, that any movie that we have moving forward with Seven Bucks Productions - any movie, any television show, or anything we do or produce - we won’t use real guns at all.” 

One of The Rock's next appearances will be in Black Adam...

“We’re going to switch over to rubber guns, and we’re going to take care of it in post. We’re not going to worry about the dollars; we won’t worry about what it costs.

“I love the movie business,” Johnson said. “There are safety protocols and measures that we have always taken in the movie business and we take very seriously, and these sets are safe sets, and we’re proud of that. But accidents do happen. And when something like this happens of this magnitude, this heartbreaking, I think the most prudent thing and the smartest thing to do is just pause for a second and really re-examine how you’re going to move forward and how we’re going to work together. Any movie we do that Seven Bucks does with any studio, the rule is we’re not going to use real guns. That’s it.”

As an action star, Johnson has obviously handled prop weapons before, it comes with the territory. A big name like him putting his foot down on future productions will definitely shift the film industry to using more rubber weapons and hopefully, that practice becomes standard. As he says, it might cost more in post-production, but who really cares if it surely could save someone’s life?