The director of 'Red Notice' defends having working guns on movie sets: 'There is value using blanks on set'

• Rawson Marshall Thurber explained to Insider why he uses guns with blanks in them on set.
• "I think actors perform differently when there's sound and light coming from the weapon," he said.

Since the fatal shooting on the set of Alec Baldwin's movie "Rust" last month, many in Hollywood have been calling for heightened gun safety on movie sets. Some are even pushing for an end to using real guns altogether, arguing that all the effects can be done in post-production.

Dwayne Johnson is among those who have vowed to stop using live guns in their movies. But his "Red Notice" director, Rawson Marshall Thurber, defended the use of real guns on movie sets.

"I do think there is value using blanks on set," he told Insider in a recent interview about the making of his action-comedy film. "Both from a performance and photographic standpoint. I think actors perform differently when there's sound and light coming from the weapon."

Rawson, who previously directed Johnson in movies like "Central Intelligence" and "Skyscraper," has used guns in many of his movies and "Red Notice" was no different.

"We used replicas and put in the muzzle flash and the sound later [in post production]. We used air-soft replicas that are not real firearms but they cycle and move like a real one, and sometimes we would use quarter-load or half-load blanks," Thurber said of the heist movie that also stars Ryan Reynolds and Gal Gadot.

"I just have never had anything close to that kind of experience," Thurber continued, referring to the shooting that happened on the set of "Rust" that left its cinematographer dead and its director wounded. "The armorers that I work with are so, so careful and the first [assistant directors] are so careful it just has never been an issue."

Rawson believes the best approach going forward is to "mix and match"- film some firearm sequences where the blast is done through CGI and others where blanks are used. The director also feels going forward there should be extra steps taken if you want to use blanks.

"No one should be at risk and I think we need to take a hard look at our procedures and our precautions. And maybe there's a way to make the baseline be replica weapons, and if you need or want live fire arms onset that there's a special waiver or special approvals that have to be handled," he said.

Baldwin fatally shot cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and injured director Joel Souza with a Colt revolver on the Bonanza Creek Ranch set of the movie "Rust" while rehearsing a scene for the Western on October 21.

The gun was supposed to be loaded with harmless "dummy" rounds, but a live bullet was somehow loaded into the firearm instead, authorities said.

Authorities are still investigating the shooting and have not ruled out potential criminal charges.