Alec Baldwin returned to Saturday Night Live this week months after beating his manslaughter case – and the backlash against it was swift.
Baldwin, 66, had broke down in tears when the case surrounding the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was dismissed in Santa Fe two months ago.
He appeared to be in high spirits, however, as he assumed the character of a Fox News host that recently interviewed Kamala Harris, played by Maya Rudolph.
The 17-time host even got to utter the show’s proverbial punchline – ‘Live from New York, it’s Saturday night!’.
Many seemed to take issue with the appearance, which looked to cast the returning star in a favorable light. Others rushed to his defense – despite the fact the case against him was dismissed solely due to prosecutors’ mishandling of evidence.
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Alec Baldwin made his return to Saturday Night Live last night – and the backlash was swift due to him recently having his manslaughter charges dropped
Baldwin, 66, had broke down in tears in his when the case surrounding the fatal shooting of Halyna Hutchins was dismissed in Santa Fe in July
‘Why is Alec Baldwin being allowed on SNL? He shot and killed someone on a movie set,’ one X user wrote, citing ‘safety compromises’ that led to the fatal shooting of Hutchins on the set of Baldwin’s film Rust in October 2021.
‘Omg, an actual murderer jokingly talking about murder on #snl,’ sniped someone else.
‘Thanks for convincing the world how moronic and out of touch you are.’
‘We know that Alec Baldwin shot and killed someone, right?’ added another, years after the 30 Rock actor came under scrutiny for being the one who fired the gun.
Others similarly slammed the appearance as insensitive, after a sketch that saw Baldwin and Rudolph relentlessly mock Harris’s 27-minute interview.
Baldwin, in the past, has drawn backlash for his over-the-top rendition of Donald Trump, which he elected to neglect during this outing.
Instead, the Republican was played by cast member James Austin Johnson, who sought to poke fun at a recent town hall from the former president that collapsed into a impromptu music festival Monday after two attendees fell ill.
He appeared to be in high spirits, however, as he assumed the character of a Fox News host that recently interviewed Kamala Harris, played by Maya Rudolph
The pair got to utter the show’s proverbial punchline – ‘Live from New York, it’s Saturday night!’
Baldwin, meanwhile, was the first visage to appear on fans’ screens as the show got underway – with the live audience letting out a scream to express their shock.
Baldwin, as Baier, proceeded to embark on a seemingly rude grilling of Rudolph’s version of the vice president, echoing criticisms of the interview that aired on Fox News a few days earlier.
The skit also mocked a moment Baier would later concede was a mistake – a segue into the wrong clip of a Trump response.
This allowed ‘SNL’ to bring in several mini-skits like Dana Carvey as President Joe Biden, before getting back to Baldwin and Rudolph.
The pair proceeded to introduce the episode with the tagline – the forty-fifth time that Baldwin has uttered the famous phrase, the Saturday Night Network said.
Not receiving hosting honors, Baldwin did not appear again – almost a year before he made his first return to the show following the fatal shooting.
At the time, he appeared alongside then-host Timothée Chalamet in a surprise appearance, for the customary end-of-show sendoff.
As was the case this time around, he did not address the litigation surrounding Hutchins’ death.
Halyna Hutchins, 42, was a mother-of-one and up-and-coming cinematographer when she was fatally shot on the set of ‘Rust’
The film set’s armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed poses for mugshot after being convicted of involuntary manslaughter
Baldwin holds hands with his wife Hilaria as he exits the courthouse in July, moments after his manslaughter case was dismissed by a judge
Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, 26, the armorer on the set of Rust, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter earlier this year and jailed for 18 months, a sentence Baldwin had faced if found guilty.
Baldwin’s case, meanwhile, was dismissed with prejudice, meaning prosecutors cannot bring the same charges against him in the case and the trial is permanently dismissed.
However, Hutchins’ widow and the father of her son Matthew Hutchins has stated he hopes that Baldwin will still be held accountable for his actions, as many, including decorated director Quentin Tarantino, claim he holds responsibility.
‘It’s a situation, I think I’m being fair enough to say, that the armorer — the guy who handles the gun — is 90% responsible for everything that happens when it comes to that gun… but but but but but…. the actor is 10% responsible,’ Tarantino stated Bill Maher’s podcast Club Random last month.
‘You are a partner in responsibility to some degree.’
Tarantino went on to say that he believes actors should personally inspect their weapons to ensure there are no bullets in the barrel or other issues before using them in scenes.
Pictured, the actual Fox News interview that aired earlier this week Baldwin and Rudolph were parodying
Baldwin, meanwhile, is by far SNL’s most prolific host, having fulfilled the role 17 times.
He first appeared on the show in 1990, going on to steal scenes in iconic sketches like those surrounding Schweddy Balls and Bill Brasky.
He holds the record for most episodes hosted, with his last job coming in 2017, several years before the Rust shooting.
Prosecutors in New Mexico had sought to proved the actor’s behavior on the tragic set contributed to ‘safety compromises’ that led to the incident, but failed to do so following errors in the handling of evidence that a judge said ‘impacted the fundamental fairness of the case’.