On the same day that he won his first Tony award, Alec Baldwin admitted his attitude towards actor’s leading ladies was not always so nice, recalling one infamous incident when he pulled out a gun.
“If I felt that I was responsible, I might have killed myself,” Baldwin said on CBS This Morning.
The incident occurred in 1995 when Baldwin was starring in the film “Bedazzled,” in which he played a superhero named Rust, who swings the boundaries between being a parody of Batman and a modern vigilante.
“Back in the day we had a gun a lot,” Baldwin said, referring to his younger, effeminate alter ego. “And I had always been a sort of loner. And I was basically a loner… While we were shooting the movie, I was in the wheelchair, and I didn’t feel socially connected to anyone. That film ended and I went back to New York, and I had to get used to, being around women a little bit. It was a weird transition. I should not have felt that I needed a gun.”
Baldwin said that after shooting “Bedazzled,” he was put on a diet that started with fried potatoes because he thought they’d make him slim, and later started his rehearsals for the role of Rust, without realizing that a quick shot of alcohol was essentially liquidizing him and disappearing.
“I thought about someone who had cancer,” Baldwin said of how he felt when he returned to acting. “I didn’t want to look stupid in front of these ladies.”
Baldwin played Rust for four weeks, but added that since then he’s been sober.
However, he still feels physically in touch with Rust in his mind.
“I haven’t had to deal with that character in many years, but to this day, I think about the dead child.” Baldwin explained, relating Rust’s death scene to his own, which occurred in the 2010 reboot of the 80s hit “30 Rock.”
Baldwin won a Tony Award in June for his supporting role in the play “Escape to Margaritaville,” which also starred with Tom Cruise and Elaine Stritch.
Watch Alec Baldwin’s interview in full on CBS This Morning, here.
Laurie Kilmartin is a Fox News contributor. She is a personal finance specialist, on Fox News Channel, where she is Co-Host of “On the Money with Laurie Kilmartin.”