Alec Baldwin 'Really, Really' Disliked Documentary About Him, Filmmakers Say

Alec Baldwin was not a fan of the documentary made about one of the darkest chapters of his life. "He really, really, really didn't like it," director Rory Kennedy admitted during a Q&A following a screening of The Trial of Alec Baldwin at the SCAD Savannah Film Festival on Oct. 27.

The film examines the aftermath of the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, who was shot and killed on the set of Rust on Oct. 21, 2021, when a prop gun held by Baldwin discharged live bullets, striking Hutchins and director Joel Souza. Early in the documentary, Baldwin states, "The worst thing for me is to be misunderstood," a confession that Kennedy said reverberates throughout the project.

Kennedy told the festival audience that the film wrestles with how Baldwin's desire to reshape public perception of himself, which the documentary argues is what ultimately put him on trial, colors what he reveals on camera. "I think part of our experience was that Alec wasn't always the most reliable narrator of himself," she said, adding that the filmmakers wanted to draw viewers into their own questions about when he was acting and what was real.

"Our feeling at the end of the day is you can feel what you might about Alec, and people have, often, strong feelings one way or the other, and you may still have those feelings at the end of the film that you had going into it, but I think most people, in watching the film, will feel like there was an injustice," Kennedy said.

Kennedy and her husband and producing partner, Mark Bailey, began following Baldwin in March 2023, just as Rust was set to go back into production after Hutchins' death and only weeks before the initial involuntary manslaughter charge against him was dropped. In January 2024, a grand jury re-indicted Baldwin on the same charge while the cameras kept rolling.

The documentary is both biographical and culturally expository, tracing Baldwin's decades-long screen career and the democratic Irish Catholic upbringing the film links to the aggression seen in his public clashes with the press. Throughout, Baldwin voices a love-hate relationship with his profession, tearing up in one scene over his youthful acting ambitions and saying in another that he is embarrassed by the pursuit.

Bailey said he found Baldwin sincere even in contradictory moments. "I find him incredibly sincere in that he believes what he's saying when he's saying it; he's not trying to consciously con you," Bailey said, describing a kitchen table scene in which Baldwin insists movies meant nothing to him and that he only worked for the money, while his wife Hilaria pushes back. Bailey added that Baldwin was under enormous stress and strain, calling it courageous of him to let the filmmakers in during a genuine crisis.

The film ends with Baldwin being acquitted during trial proceedings, yet aware that his standing in the court of public opinion will require further work he says he is willing to do. The documentary premiered at Doc NYC last November and was released worldwide on Oct. 1, 2026, by Abramorama.

Kennedy said watching the finished film was traumatic for Baldwin, who lost five Hollywood jobs as producing friends called to fire him, all while raising seven children and reading harsh commentary about himself in the press and on social media. "Despite all of his limitations, he's a deeply caring, emotional, sensitive human, and he carries this with him," she said.

As for specific feedback, Kennedy said Baldwin objected to the film's focus on episodes where he "misbehaved historically or wasn't at his best," including the 2007 voicemail in which he called his daughter, Ireland, a pig. But she said that as the film has played the festival circuit and earned the approval of people Baldwin respects, he and those around him have come to feel that it helps audiences understand what he went through.