Alec Baldwin Admits His Acting Career Hasn’t Been the Same After Fatal ‘Rust’ Shooting

With an acting career spanning four decades and counting, Alec Baldwin's resume speaks for itself. As the leading member of the iconic Baldwin family and his roles in various cult classics, including Beetlejuice, The Royal Tenenbaums, and TV shows like 30 Rock, Alec has challenged himself to take on any acting challenge that Hollywood wants to throw at him.

Alec's acting career has undoubtedly been met with some personal turmoil, such as substance abuse, a highly publicized custody battle, and a mistake that threatened the end of his lengthy career. So, is he still acting now? Here's what to know.

As of this writing, Alec continues acting on the big and small screen. His IMDb states that he appeared in several films recently, including an indie movie called Kid Santa. Alec also returned to Saturday Night Live several times in 2024. The first came in October 2024, when he played Fox News host Bret Baier in a parody of his interview with then-Democratic US presidential nominee Kamala Harris. Alec starred in the sketch alongside Maya Rudolph as Harris.

Alec also joined the SNL cast in November 2024 to play Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. in a sketch, followed by another appearance to welcome Martin Short into the sketch comedy show's "Five-Timers Club." The actor's IMDb also shows a few projects in the works, including an "untitled Alec Baldwin/Kelsey Grammer Project."

While Alec never let go of acting altogether, he spent multiple years out of the spotlight after his controversial legal woes. While filming his movie Rust, the actor and co-producer accidentally shot cinematographer Halyna Hutchins to death in October 2021. In a 2024 interview with ABC News, Alec maintained he didn't pull the trigger at Hutchins and said the gun fired after he pulled back the hammer. He was later charged with involuntary manslaughter.

In June 2024, three years after Hutchins's death, a judge dismissed Alec's charges, ruling prosecutors withheld key evidence from his defense team and stating that it was highly prejudicial.

Since the judgment, the actor has tried to move forward but admitted that his past made that hard to do. He shared on his and his wife, Hilaria Baldwin's TLC reality show, The Baldwins, that, though he has continued finding work here and there, his career remains affected by the controversy.

"Opportunities for jobs have been so few and far in between because of the situation," Alec revealed on the show. "A lot of people cut my throat in this business."

"I've accepted the fact that I can't be as picky and finicky as I've always been," he admitted.

Hilaria also shared on the show that Alec's involuntary manslaughter trial caused him to have suicidal ideation. And although Hutchins's family has spoken out against them discussing the case on their reality show, Alec's wife said he takes full responsibility for the decision that cost her her life.

"He has survivor's guilt," Hilaria said in a confessional. "He goes back to that day; he wishes it were him. He would change places in a second."

"Halyna lost her life in the most unforeseeable tragedy," she continued. "This is never something to forget. This is never something to not think of. This is about honoring a really incredible person for the rest of our lives and to pass on her memory to our children and our children's children."