Alec Baldwin has said he did not pull the trigger of the gun he was holding that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the movie set of Rust.
In his first major interview since the tragedy in October, the US actor says he has "no idea" how a live round got on to the set of the low-budget Western in New Mexico.
"The trigger wasn't pulled – I didn't pull the trigger," he says in an excerpt of the interview with ABC News released on Wednesday.
"No, no, no. I would never point a gun at anyone and pull the trigger at them. Never."
In the interview, set to be broadcast in full on ABC on Thursday, Baldwin does not elaborate on how the weapon went off.
Baldwin, also a producer on Rust, was rehearsing a scene in which his character brandishes a Colt 45 when Hutchins was shot and killed.
The weapon was meant to contain a dummy round, and Baldwin was asked in the interview how a real bullet ended up in the firearm.
"I have no idea. Someone put a live bullet in a gun – a bullet that wasn't even supposed to be on the property," says Baldwin.
Prosecutors have refused to rule out criminal charges against anyone involved with Rust, including Baldwin and armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed.
Gutierrez-Reed has also said she has "no idea" why live rounds were present.
On Tuesday, investigators said Seth Kenney, an Arizona weapons rental supplier, may have supplied "reloaded ammunition" that matched the cartridge suspected to have contained the live round that killed Hutchins.
"Reloaded ammunition" refers to rounds that are assembled from component parts, not manufactured as complete live rounds.
"The Sheriff's office has taken a huge step forward today to unearth the full truth of who put the live rounds on the Rust set," Gutierrez-Reed's lawyers said in a statement on Tuesday.
The full one-hour ABC interview with Baldwin will be broadcast on Thursday at 8pm Eastern Time.
"Even now, I find it hard to believe," says a tearful Baldwin in the preview clip. "It just doesn't seem real to me.
"I think back, and I think of, 'What could I have done?'"