Alec Baldwin Can’t Seem to Quit Guns, Joins New Movie About Infamous Kent State Shooting

Just after wrapping up production on the tragedy-stricken western Rust, Alec Baldwin has joined the cast of a new historical drama.

The actor is set to star in Kent State, a feature film about the 1970 Vietnam War protests at Kent State University that resulted in the fatal shooting of four students, per The Hollywood Reporter. Baldwin will be portraying the university’s president, Robert I. White.

“The Kent State shooting was a dark and pivotal moment in our nation’s history,” Briarcliff Entertainment’s founder, Tom Ortenberg, told Variety. “This is a story that needs to be told and surprisingly never has. We are looking forward to bringing it to the big screen to educate and inspire both the young and old alike.”

Dermot Mulroney, Clancy Brown and Aksel Hennie are also set to star in this movie. Karen Slade will be making her directorial debut with Kent State, which she also wrote.

This casting news comes just after Baldwin shared that they finished filming Rust over a year and a half after cinematographer Halyna Hutchins was fatally shot on set. Baldwin and the Rust armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed were initially facing involuntary manslaughter charges, though the charges against Baldwin were dropped in April.

Production resumed soon after the charges were dropped. Photos from the set showed Baldwin holding a gun backwards while they filmed in Montana.

Baldwin shared an image of himself and his co-star Patrick McDermott on Instagram, noting that it was their “last day on the set of RUST.”

The next day, Baldwin shared a photo of himself in bed, notably missing the salt-and-pepper beard he’s been sporting while filming the western drama.

“God, it felt good to shave off that beard,” he wrote in the caption.

Release dates for Rust and Kent State have not been announced yet.