‘Part of the job’: Nicolas Cage says Hollywood stars need to know how to use a gun

Actor made comments in response to the fatal incident on the set of ‘Rust’ last year

Nicolas Cage has said “movie stars” need to be able to use a gun because it’s “part of the job”, in comments responding to the fatal shooting on the set of Rust.

Cinematographer Halyna Hutchins died, and director Joel Souza was injured, on the set of the western film in October 2021, after a live round was discharged from a gun held by actor Alec Baldwin during a rehearsal.

Police investigations into the incident are currently underway.

During a roundtable discussion for The Hollywood Reporter with fellow stars Peter Dinklage, Jonathan Majors and Andrew Garfield, Cage was asked whether guns should be banned from film sets in the wake of the incident.

Cage said that “movie stars” needed to have certain skills that workaday actors might not require. “You need to know how to fight,” he said.

“You’re going to do fight scenes. You need to know how to ride a motorcycle. You need to know how to use a stick shift and drive sports cars, and you do need to know how to use a gun. You do. You need to take the time to know what the procedure is. Those are part of the job profiles.”

Cage added that the roles of actors and stunt performers overlap. “The stunt man and the movie star are two jobs that coexist,” he said. “Every stunt man needs to be a movie star, and every movie star needs to be a stunt man.”

The actor has used guns in many of his film roles, including 1997’s Face/Off, 2009’s Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans, and his latest movie The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent.

Responding to the same question, Dinklage said: “That should never happen again. Anything we can do to move away from that, then we should. That’s our responsibility.”

Garfield added: “Yeah, it’s kind of a no-brainer. If it can be avoided, avoid it.”