Body Language Expert Analyses Alec Baldwin’s Interview To See If He Was Honest

Alec Baldwin’s recent interview about the fatal shooting on the set of Rust has been analysed by a body language expert.

Now, body language expert Patti Wood has analysed the 63-year-old actor’s behaviour in the interview to determine whether Baldwin’s recollection of events from October 21 were accurate.

When denying that he would ever pull the trigger of a gun on a person, Wood said Baldwin’s behaviour was ‘explosive’.

When he says the trigger wasn’t pulled, it’s explosive meaning that he’s striking down the phrase ‘the trigger wasn’t pulled’.

He’s striking down on each word to emphasize it with great strength. There’s no hesitation in that the trigger wasn’t pulled. Instead, it’s punching which would indicate that he strongly feels that and so it’s likely to be true.

Baldwin was also deemed to be telling the truth due to the movement of his head and shoulders while he was speaking, ‘go[ing] forward’ in motion.

‘Occasionally, when somebody is lying they would retreat, the shoulders would come forward and their head would come back. Instead, he goes forward,’ Wood explained.

The expert said the movement forwards means that someone ‘want[s] to be believed by the other person’ and indicated them wanting to be heard and believed.

Baldwin’s consistent eye contact ‘through most of what he’s saying’, and shedding of tears also indicated his honesty, according to Wood. She concluded that the ‘sequences of movements are appropriate and indicate that he really is crying and feeling those emotions’.

However, Wood was also left undecided after Baldwin’s declaration that he hadn’t known that there was a live round on set.

She said:

He doesn’t strike down and hit the word no. His voice goes more into a whisper.

It could be because he has no idea and it seems mysterious to him and it puzzles him. So he has all this hesitation, meaning he has no idea.

So the voice goes back in the throat. He didn’t know. Or it could be because he does know that he’s withholding something. It could mean either of those two interpretations.

The body language expert concluded that despite this, Baldwin’s behaviour in the interview, with his hands gripping his legs to ‘hold himself in place’ mirrored the intensity of emotions one would be expected to be feeling upon reflecting on such a traumatic incident.

She said: ‘It shows here’s an actor and he’s still having to do this grounding of holding himself in place, holding himself there. That’s not an indication of guilt, nor is it an indication of innocence; It’s an indication of the strong emotional state that he’s having.’