‘She was a touchstone for all who knew her’ — Director Joel Souza’s powerful statement about Halyna Hutchins
Posted: June 2025
Statement from director Joel Souza on April 15, 2024, at the sentencing for Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the “Rust” movie-set shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounding of Joel Souza:
“I would like to thank the court as well as Miss (Kari) Morrissey and her team for allowing me to speak today. I’ve struggled with what to say here today, because what I want is simply not possible. I want that none of this ever happened, that everyone’s OK and that lives weren’t destroyed. And that, worst of all, Halyna’s life wasn’t lost. Um, I would not presume to speak for Halyna nor for her husband or her son, for her parents or her sister, but I would like to say something on their behalf if I might.
“Halyna’s parents lost their daughter, her sister lost a sibling and confidante. Matt lost his wife, the other half of himself. And Halyna’s son lost not only his mother, but everything she had to offer him for the rest of her life. Every kind word, every loving gesture, every support, every influence, every life’s lesson, the course of his life has been irrevocably altered, and the world lost not only a person that was a gifted artist, but a truly kind and compassionate person, which often seemed to be in short supply these days. As for myself, the last two and a half years are difficult to put into words. Um, what it’s done to me and the burdens it’s placed on me, both emotionally and physically, are my private burs- burdens, and I think I’ll choose to keep them that way today. What I will say is that one moment the world made sense, and the next moment it didn’t, and it still doesn’t, and I don’t know if it ever will again.
“Um, so again, what I really want, I can’t have. I want everyone damaged by Miss Reed’s failures that day to find peace. I want this whole thing not to have been consumed by the world as some sick form of mass entertainment. I want to still believe in the better angels of our nature. I want the pain to go away. I want to be who I was before this happened. And above all, I want Halyna to be back home with her husband and son in the house she never got to live in. Halyna not only had an incredible talent for her art, but she had a talent for life. She was a touchstone for all who knew her, and those of us who were lucky enough to have shared in her fleeting time on this planet are better for it. Thank you.”
A photo of Halyna Hutchins shown at Hannah Gutierrez-Reed’s sentencing