Y&R Star Eric Braeden Defends Alec Baldwin

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Always outspoken, The Young & The Restless star Eric Braeden (Victor) took to social media to share a video in which he defends Alec Baldwin. The actor, who launched his career playing Billy Aldrich on daytime soap The Doctors, is currently on trial for involuntary manslaughter in the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins when a gun he was holding went off on the set of the film Rust in 2021.

“I’ve been following this from the beginning,” Braeden said of the story. “I’m actually outraged that it has come to this. I’ve been an actor since 1962. I’ve been on more shows with guns, used more guns in the various guest starring roles that I’ve played — always the bad guy — to know damn well that an actor is not responsible for whether the damn gun is loaded or not.

“The prop person — man or woman — comes to you,” the actor explained of the normal procedure. “This has been the case for over 60 years with me. They show you the gun, the magazine is empty, the barrel’s empty… and the assistant director is usually there to also get the okay. They ask the actor, “Are you okay? Okay.’ Fine. Boom. You’re satisfied. That apparently was not done. So to hold him responsible is simply unrealistic, totally unfair in the sense that as an actor, that’s the last thing you think about.”

Braeden explained that with his extensive work in film and television on series like The Rat Patrol and Combat, he became well-versed in how firearms are meant to be handled on sets to avoid accidents and injuries. Or, in the case of the gun that went off while Baldwin was holding on the set of Rust, death.

“The real responsible people on the set are the assistant director and maybe the producer,” the actor declared. “And then in the case of the use of weapons, the armorer. No one else. Alec Baldwin, I know him peripherally, has always been a very nice man. And I’m certain is not used to playing with too many guns… And it is simply not his responsibility. So I hope that the jury will understand that and see that and exonerate him.”