Rachel Mason
Appearances
The Megyn Kelly Show
Raising Mentally Strong Kids, with Dr. Daniel Amen, and Inside the Tragic "Rust" Set Shooting, with Rachel Mason | Ep. 1039
Thank you. Thank you. because they were just trying to do what they could to honor Helena. And once I understood that, I was like, wow, you people are being vilified and yet you're doing something heroic. So it really made me question my own industry. The people on the set of Rust were really treated very badly. People were thinking of them as sort of like, wow, this is so shameless.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Raising Mentally Strong Kids, with Dr. Daniel Amen, and Inside the Tragic "Rust" Set Shooting, with Rachel Mason | Ep. 1039
You're just finishing this film. And it was so wrong. They actually had every reason to be worried for finishing the film because they could be blacklisted for association with rust. And so they were willing to do it because they cared about Helena.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Raising Mentally Strong Kids, with Dr. Daniel Amen, and Inside the Tragic "Rust" Set Shooting, with Rachel Mason | Ep. 1039
What I'm aware of is that that was actually reconstructed altogether. The whole entire scene where, where, You know, Helena was killed. It was actually there was a rehearsal and they really made an effort to change the film and not go into that piece of it. And, you know, I have seen the film and honestly, it's an extraordinary film.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Raising Mentally Strong Kids, with Dr. Daniel Amen, and Inside the Tragic "Rust" Set Shooting, with Rachel Mason | Ep. 1039
I will say I'm biased towards the cinematography, which is so unfathomably beautiful and a testament to Helena's great talent. But I felt, you know, it was a really sad, painful film to watch, but it was really actually magnificent as well because the crafting of the film was absolutely amazing. And the director, Joel Sousa, is really talented.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Raising Mentally Strong Kids, with Dr. Daniel Amen, and Inside the Tragic "Rust" Set Shooting, with Rachel Mason | Ep. 1039
And it was so, I can't even imagine how hard that felt. It's hard to direct any film. It's really, really hard to direct a film. And especially with all that emotion and everything going on.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Raising Mentally Strong Kids, with Dr. Daniel Amen, and Inside the Tragic "Rust" Set Shooting, with Rachel Mason | Ep. 1039
Yeah. Well, I will say, firstly, just going back, no, no. bullets should ever be on any movie set that is so unthinkable.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Raising Mentally Strong Kids, with Dr. Daniel Amen, and Inside the Tragic "Rust" Set Shooting, with Rachel Mason | Ep. 1039
So the very first thing that anyone in the industry, especially in the armoring profession, mostly, which is handled by people with extensive training, often military backgrounds or law enforcement, that was the very first shockwave was just to like, just be so sickened, really. I mean, truly, we interview
The Megyn Kelly Show
Raising Mentally Strong Kids, with Dr. Daniel Amen, and Inside the Tragic "Rust" Set Shooting, with Rachel Mason | Ep. 1039
Andy Wirt who came in to finish the film and he is a really seasoned armorer with military background. And, and those were the words he used. Like the armoring profession is actually really quite amazing. The track record, very safe.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Raising Mentally Strong Kids, with Dr. Daniel Amen, and Inside the Tragic "Rust" Set Shooting, with Rachel Mason | Ep. 1039
I know that sounds like a strange thing to say because this is guns, but most armorers are, I mean, I would almost say all armorers that I've ever heard of have a really high level of skill.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Raising Mentally Strong Kids, with Dr. Daniel Amen, and Inside the Tragic "Rust" Set Shooting, with Rachel Mason | Ep. 1039
Um, so, you know, again, it's points to things that are problem in our industry, in the film industry that need to be addressed and looked at how we hire people, this kind of idea that you might just be qualified because this is your father. And, and in fact, that is actually quite a typical. scenario in the movie industry, including on the set of Rust.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Raising Mentally Strong Kids, with Dr. Daniel Amen, and Inside the Tragic "Rust" Set Shooting, with Rachel Mason | Ep. 1039
There was a very lovely father and son team. And, you know, I kind of like that dynamic because you could see is a special effects upper. He's teaching his son the tricks. So that's not unusual that often people in this industry have, you know, a family connection. But
The Megyn Kelly Show
Raising Mentally Strong Kids, with Dr. Daniel Amen, and Inside the Tragic "Rust" Set Shooting, with Rachel Mason | Ep. 1039
in this case you know relying on that entirely you know that's that was one of those things that you have to question there's so many aspects of the the narrative around all of the different issues that could have happened um it's all coming back to me i i almost forgot his name
The Megyn Kelly Show
Raising Mentally Strong Kids, with Dr. Daniel Amen, and Inside the Tragic "Rust" Set Shooting, with Rachel Mason | Ep. 1039
she did wind up well she she pled guilty right did she was she found guilty or did she plead guilty why can't i remember um she well a jury found her guilty and sentenced her to 18 months and she is serving time in a correctional facility in new mexico now wow you have a great memory yes seth kenny the weapons i mean You know, when you sit in a courtroom, the cast of characters starts to unfold.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Raising Mentally Strong Kids, with Dr. Daniel Amen, and Inside the Tragic "Rust" Set Shooting, with Rachel Mason | Ep. 1039
And I found it all very fascinating. And I didn't ever think about where bullets come from or the fact that sometimes actors do you know, target practice, and they might need to do it so they understand the feel of a real gun, but that doesn't happen on a set at all. It shouldn't. And it can't even, you can't even conceive of it happening anywhere near a set. But could those bullets be mixed in?
The Megyn Kelly Show
Raising Mentally Strong Kids, with Dr. Daniel Amen, and Inside the Tragic "Rust" Set Shooting, with Rachel Mason | Ep. 1039
I mean, wow, these are things that you, it's only when something horrible happens do you even contemplate those elements. And again, when we were watching our film, we have body camera footage, and you also see that when the cops came to the set, it was a crime scene, immediately, but it was a set as well. So you have the cop looking at Alec and saying, is that real blood?
The Megyn Kelly Show
Raising Mentally Strong Kids, with Dr. Daniel Amen, and Inside the Tragic "Rust" Set Shooting, with Rachel Mason | Ep. 1039
And Alec is like, well, no, of course not. It's fake blood. But it's that world of fiction meeting reality that is also like, well, it could be real blood, sir. And this is Alec being like, there's no way it could be real blood. And in both people's minds, you are living in two alternate realities. In the film world, you're making fiction. There's no bullets. There's no blood. It's all fake.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Raising Mentally Strong Kids, with Dr. Daniel Amen, and Inside the Tragic "Rust" Set Shooting, with Rachel Mason | Ep. 1039
Yeah. Wow, Megan, this is cool because I got to say my little director brain went in and it's like, oh, I fought so hard to make sure we get that in this movie. And, you know, you have thousands and thousands of hours of, you know, ideas and footage. And I remember specifically saying, you know, the edit team, you guys, this matters so much because when I heard Tom Gandy, that's his name.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Raising Mentally Strong Kids, with Dr. Daniel Amen, and Inside the Tragic "Rust" Set Shooting, with Rachel Mason | Ep. 1039
describe a squid pack, which is the thing that explodes. You would strap it on a person and it explodes and depends on, you know, every movie you've ever seen a person blood popping off of, you know, it is a really kind of well-designed thing. It goes under a person's shirt and then it pops and he has to pull that trigger.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Raising Mentally Strong Kids, with Dr. Daniel Amen, and Inside the Tragic "Rust" Set Shooting, with Rachel Mason | Ep. 1039
And when he was explaining it, I mean, also I will say as Helena's friend, you're just like, no, please God, actually, this is so insane. There cannot be a world in which he's watching her actual body explode for real. And he knows what it's supposed to look like when it's fake. And he knows he didn't put that on her. So he knows it's real.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Raising Mentally Strong Kids, with Dr. Daniel Amen, and Inside the Tragic "Rust" Set Shooting, with Rachel Mason | Ep. 1039
And so I was sitting there and I remember being like, oh my God, whoa, it was a real moment again to that point. Like, thank you for finding that clip because it was like fiction meeting reality. And these moments when, you know, in the world of entertainment, which we all love movies,
The Megyn Kelly Show
Raising Mentally Strong Kids, with Dr. Daniel Amen, and Inside the Tragic "Rust" Set Shooting, with Rachel Mason | Ep. 1039
It's this question of like, well, are we putting people into a scenario where there's ever the possibility of something this real happening? And if so, it's just terrifying to imagine.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Raising Mentally Strong Kids, with Dr. Daniel Amen, and Inside the Tragic "Rust" Set Shooting, with Rachel Mason | Ep. 1039
That's a great point. I mean, that is absolutely fascinating to think about that because it's, I, when I met Dave, the first time I was actually in the courtroom and, um, I had been wearing Helena's hat, which actually is this hat right here. I wore this hat on every interview and this was the hat she wore on the set of rust.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Raising Mentally Strong Kids, with Dr. Daniel Amen, and Inside the Tragic "Rust" Set Shooting, with Rachel Mason | Ep. 1039
And, um, so he recognized it right away and he came up to me and, and just started crying and just like, the, the, the pain that I experienced immediately, you know, seeing a grown man cry, like just that level of, of pain. Um, it's truly astonishing. And I remember feeling like, you know, initially I was like pissed at all these people. I'm like, what the hell are you guys like?
The Megyn Kelly Show
Raising Mentally Strong Kids, with Dr. Daniel Amen, and Inside the Tragic "Rust" Set Shooting, with Rachel Mason | Ep. 1039
But then I, I was like, oh wait, this was an unfathomable nightmarish accident. And this guy has to actually live with the image in his head of what we're seeing in the film is, you know?
The Megyn Kelly Show
Raising Mentally Strong Kids, with Dr. Daniel Amen, and Inside the Tragic "Rust" Set Shooting, with Rachel Mason | Ep. 1039
Well, you know, one of the things that I pointed out is that everybody basically feels some level of survivor's guilt. And in discussing a second ago, the idea of the different stopgaps that exist so that, you know, you don't have a gun without being checked one or two times, you also never should be standing in front of the gun. And so his trauma comes from the fact that
The Megyn Kelly Show
Raising Mentally Strong Kids, with Dr. Daniel Amen, and Inside the Tragic "Rust" Set Shooting, with Rachel Mason | Ep. 1039
one of the protocols that exists is actually that you have a monitor and Helena should have never been where she was, but because they had walked off, he didn't have a chance to set that monitor up. And so he goes back in his mind and just lives with this awful feeling, which of course he shouldn't be feeling like actual real guilt.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Raising Mentally Strong Kids, with Dr. Daniel Amen, and Inside the Tragic "Rust" Set Shooting, with Rachel Mason | Ep. 1039
It's would have, you know, someone else might've gotten shot in a horrible other way if there was real bullets, but you know, looking at these different reasons for everyone, um, you know, feeling these feelings, you can see there's sort of a cascade of things that led to this happening.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Raising Mentally Strong Kids, with Dr. Daniel Amen, and Inside the Tragic "Rust" Set Shooting, with Rachel Mason | Ep. 1039
And I will say, you know, interviewing the guys that walked off, they had quite a few different things they were making noise about on the set. And it's great. Like you see the reality of just, I mean, I'm saying crew, yes, I'm glad that you know what it feels like to work with crew in it. And in a way it's like the behind the scenes, the backbone of every single thing. We're doing even now.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Raising Mentally Strong Kids, with Dr. Daniel Amen, and Inside the Tragic "Rust" Set Shooting, with Rachel Mason | Ep. 1039
There's producers. There's people we rely on deeply, and yet no one ever sees them. So I was happy to be able to reveal that world because people only ever see the actors and see the main people on screen. You mostly don't even know who your favorite DP is and what they look like. But that's a really talented...
The Megyn Kelly Show
Raising Mentally Strong Kids, with Dr. Daniel Amen, and Inside the Tragic "Rust" Set Shooting, with Rachel Mason | Ep. 1039
Well, um, gosh, you know, I just, that's the first I, I, I've, I haven't been paying attention truthfully to, um, his reality show, but I was aware of it. And so hearing that, um, you know, I will say there's just this agony of PTSD that exists and it's very real and there's, every single person does have that. And I did actually speak to Alec myself.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Raising Mentally Strong Kids, with Dr. Daniel Amen, and Inside the Tragic "Rust" Set Shooting, with Rachel Mason | Ep. 1039
I happened to know Alec from my first documentary, which is called Circus of Books. And I got to know him at a film festival, the Hamptons Festival. And so after this happened, I spoke to him and I heard that trauma in his voice, that first call. And it actually was
The Megyn Kelly Show
Raising Mentally Strong Kids, with Dr. Daniel Amen, and Inside the Tragic "Rust" Set Shooting, with Rachel Mason | Ep. 1039
horrifying, you know, just to hear the trauma that just like Dave halls, you, you, you start to understand like, wow, people have seen something that they will never get this image out of their head. It's burned in. It is, it's a, it's a terror. It's a, that probably gives them all nightmares. Um, you know, I had to deal with the loss of just my friend, which is not anything small. It's huge.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Raising Mentally Strong Kids, with Dr. Daniel Amen, and Inside the Tragic "Rust" Set Shooting, with Rachel Mason | Ep. 1039
It's vast. I'll never get over it, but they had to deal with like seeing something that only exists in horror movies. Like,
The Megyn Kelly Show
Raising Mentally Strong Kids, with Dr. Daniel Amen, and Inside the Tragic "Rust" Set Shooting, with Rachel Mason | Ep. 1039
God, you know, blame is a really complicated word and I'm not sure I've fully grasped it because there's so many people at different moments that I felt really mad at. And then I would open a door and be like, oh, okay, wait, I'm mad at you, but you're living in a personal hell that I'll never, you know,
The Megyn Kelly Show
Raising Mentally Strong Kids, with Dr. Daniel Amen, and Inside the Tragic "Rust" Set Shooting, with Rachel Mason | Ep. 1039
like Dave halls when I met him and I was like wow there's actually no prison sentence that could be worse than your own head going through this for the rest of your life same with Hannah like my god um she has to live with this horrific set of like feelings and the guilt of that so um when I think about what I'm the most upset at I think on some level that's where this idea of
The Megyn Kelly Show
Raising Mentally Strong Kids, with Dr. Daniel Amen, and Inside the Tragic "Rust" Set Shooting, with Rachel Mason | Ep. 1039
examining almost like the workplace environment that allowed what i started to understand and feel could be almost any workplace like it you know you you think about an accident now anytime there's an accident on a set i'm immediately keyed in like there was a guy who fell to his death on a radford studios which is a really like very high level place here in la marvel And this guy died on this.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Raising Mentally Strong Kids, with Dr. Daniel Amen, and Inside the Tragic "Rust" Set Shooting, with Rachel Mason | Ep. 1039
I'm like, oh, my God. Like, how would a person die on that set? It's the opposite of Russ like that. That's a Marvel film. But then I want to go through that chain reaction. There's this, there's that. And that person might have been on a smoke break or taking on this person wasn't here for that happened. Why was were people aware that there might have been a faulty rig set up? Oh, yeah.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Raising Mentally Strong Kids, with Dr. Daniel Amen, and Inside the Tragic "Rust" Set Shooting, with Rachel Mason | Ep. 1039
People knew about this thing. You read about it. You understand, like, OK, so.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Raising Mentally Strong Kids, with Dr. Daniel Amen, and Inside the Tragic "Rust" Set Shooting, with Rachel Mason | Ep. 1039
just like on an airplane where it won't lift off the ground until you have all the cross checks i really feel like the same thing has to happen for a movie set like you cannot say go until these cross checks exist there can't be a way in which there could be a gun at all that could be just in a position where it hasn't been checked where an actor happens to have it in his rehearsal and people aren't you know that that was part of the other problem there were so many different levels to this scenario this was an unplanned
The Megyn Kelly Show
Raising Mentally Strong Kids, with Dr. Daniel Amen, and Inside the Tragic "Rust" Set Shooting, with Rachel Mason | Ep. 1039
scene it was a rehearsal and that happens all the time in films you know i'm sure you might have an idea and i'll say like hey let's just get this cool shot the guy's running that way you know especially if you're in journalism like and you might want to do something Well, there's this sort of spur of the moment act that can happen.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Raising Mentally Strong Kids, with Dr. Daniel Amen, and Inside the Tragic "Rust" Set Shooting, with Rachel Mason | Ep. 1039
And when you're dealing with, you know, it's not just guns, but like explosives, stunts. I spoke to the guy who actually worked on the Harry Potter film. He was Daniel Radcliffe's stunt double, and he's permanently paralyzed. There's actually a good documentary about him called the boy who lived.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Raising Mentally Strong Kids, with Dr. Daniel Amen, and Inside the Tragic "Rust" Set Shooting, with Rachel Mason | Ep. 1039
And I wanted to understand what, oh my God, like you got hurled against a wall going like 80 miles an hour. Like you could have died this, you're permanently paralyzed, this horrific nightmare accident. So we're in this pressure cooker environment. People are going fast and they don't know each other very well.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Raising Mentally Strong Kids, with Dr. Daniel Amen, and Inside the Tragic "Rust" Set Shooting, with Rachel Mason | Ep. 1039
And I think those are some of the things that when I think of what I got the most angry with, it's like, Where are the additional checks? How can we make this better? In fact, that's a line.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Raising Mentally Strong Kids, with Dr. Daniel Amen, and Inside the Tragic "Rust" Set Shooting, with Rachel Mason | Ep. 1039
You know, that's one of those things what I have to question as well. Was it just a money problem? Because, again, I'm looking at other film sets where. You know, they had plenty of money and someone died or got killed or had a, sorry, had an accident.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Raising Mentally Strong Kids, with Dr. Daniel Amen, and Inside the Tragic "Rust" Set Shooting, with Rachel Mason | Ep. 1039
And it's more about the decision-making and the communication gaps, as far as I can tell, because sure you can save money here, but so she, yeah, the decision to again, get a low ball armor as Tom Gandy says in our film, that's one of those decisions, but it's, it's one of many decisions. So when you look at this scenario, it wasn't just that. And I think that's part of the issue.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Raising Mentally Strong Kids, with Dr. Daniel Amen, and Inside the Tragic "Rust" Set Shooting, with Rachel Mason | Ep. 1039
That's the, the big question, Megan, you know, and I, I've went through that every single minute of every day for the last three and a half years, because not that I would want anyone to die, but like, I, I think about this as like, my God, of all people, Helena had everything going for her and Rust would have been the film that was gonna launch her whole career. She was up for enormous jobs.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Raising Mentally Strong Kids, with Dr. Daniel Amen, and Inside the Tragic "Rust" Set Shooting, with Rachel Mason | Ep. 1039
And also, you know, I'm speaking to another woman in an industry that is heavily dominated by men, especially just like the powerhouse ones. You're like, I want you to, you're going to succeed. Like I knew it. There was no doubt Helena was going to get an Oscar. She was going to be up there with the top. She was. And so to me, her particular death was like so cruel, so unfair that
The Megyn Kelly Show
Raising Mentally Strong Kids, with Dr. Daniel Amen, and Inside the Tragic "Rust" Set Shooting, with Rachel Mason | Ep. 1039
to all the people that knew and know her and think about her as just a rising star. Yeah, I wonder that. And I think, and that's part of why I think the things that continue to allow her to be spoken of, like this great opportunity right here, thank you, to speak about her, to speak about what happened. Those are all things that, yes, and I think of like, okay, can we make meaning from this?
The Megyn Kelly Show
Raising Mentally Strong Kids, with Dr. Daniel Amen, and Inside the Tragic "Rust" Set Shooting, with Rachel Mason | Ep. 1039
Is that possible to do? It's, you know, that, that is something I know. I would wish I could trade this all for her in two days, like two seconds. Nope. I would much rather have her.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Raising Mentally Strong Kids, with Dr. Daniel Amen, and Inside the Tragic "Rust" Set Shooting, with Rachel Mason | Ep. 1039
Well, thank you. And I will say, Megan, you're somebody that I, as a documentary filmmaker, I'm, I've been fascinated with you and your story, and you've done a lot as well for women and media. And I, at some point want to keep following what you're up to, because I appreciate the opportunity to be here. And, um, I think there's a lot of interesting stuff that you cover.
The Megyn Kelly Show
Raising Mentally Strong Kids, with Dr. Daniel Amen, and Inside the Tragic "Rust" Set Shooting, with Rachel Mason | Ep. 1039
So thank you for this opportunity.