Alec Baldwin talks his love for 'Peanuts' and the 'immeasurable' effects of his trial

SAN DIEGO (AP) — Alec Baldwin says the year since his trial suddenly ended with a dismissal has been far better than the few years that preceded it, and the affect that time has had on him has been “immeasurable.”

“Something as powerful as that happens in your life, you don’t know how much it changes you,” he said. “I can’t even tell you how different I am from three-and-a-half years ago. And what I want and what I don’t want, and how I want to live my life and not live my life.”

The 67-year-old actor spoke to The Associated Press at San Diego's Comic-Con International, where he was part of a panel on 75 years of Charles Schulz's “Peanuts,” whose simplicity, existential philosophy and moral outlook have been very much on his mind.

Baldwin spoke while a suited Snoopy character stood nearby after posing for photos with him.

In a foreword Baldwin wrote for “The Complete Peanuts 1977-1978,” he said while reading Schulz's newspaper comic strip every day as a child, he realized Charlie Brown, more than anyone, wanted the things he wanted.

Chief among those wants are “the desire to have friends and the desire to hold your friends close to you.”

That hasn’t changed in the years since.

“Come on, what man my age doesn’t relate to Charlie Brown? If Charlie Brown was 67 years old, he’d be me, but he wouldn’t have been stupid enough to have seven (small) children,” he said with a laugh.

But he aspires to the qualities of a different character.

“Lucy. I want to be Lucy. Lucy is in charge. She’s got it all figured out,” he said. “She pauses for a moment of self-awareness, but not too long.”

Baldwin said he admired Schulz's simple line drawings combined with the real circumstances of the characters, embodied by real children's voices when the animated holiday specials emerged in his childhood.

“It’s so complicated and simple at the same time, which is what I think makes it beautiful,” he said.

And he admired Schulz's willingness to embrace melancholy, and deeper darknesses, in stories about inner struggle that needed no villains.

“A dog sitting on top of a dog house would have the same impact on you as, like, Nietzsche," he said, looking across the room at Snoopy. “They should have named the dog Nietzsche.”

Baldwin's career has had several distinct phases. Early on he played tough husbands and boyfriends in supporting roles including “Married to the Mob” and “Working Girl.” He moved on to heroic leading man in “The Hunt for Red October” and “The Shadow.”

Downshifting to memorable character parts, he showed his gift for manly speeches in “Glengarry Glen Ross” and “The Departed,” and his comedy prowess in seven seasons of “30 Rock” and as a constant host and guest on “Saturday Night Live.”

In July 2024 his trial in New Mexico on an involuntary manslaughter charge in the 2021 shooting death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of the Western “Rust” fell apart halfway through. A judge dismissed the case on allegations authorities withheld evidence.

“I can’t believe that happened on that day the way it happened,” he said. “And it couldn’t have been better for us in certain terms because of the malice and so forth and everything that’s embodied in that whole situation.”

The next phase is uncertain. He says he's “just trying to move forward with my wife and my family.”

He and wife Hilaria and their seven small kids recently appeared on the TLC reality series “The Baldwins.”

He says he has successfully sold his young ones on “Peanuts,” especially the Halloween and Christmas specials, as he did with his now nearly 30-year-old daughter Ireland when she was young.

He notices their personalities zig-zagging between the traits of Schulz's characters.

“They’re Charlie Brown, now they’re Snoopy, now they’re Schroeder, now they’re Linus, now they’re Pig-Pen,” he said. “They’re Pig-Pen most of the time, I must say.”

And their house is full of themed toys.

He keeps a small Snoopy figure among the things in his office, a reminder to try to maintain “love, kindness, patience.”

"Peanuts are still kind of like, in that zone," he said. “Let’s just try to be good people.”

A person dressed as the character Snoopy poses for a portrait to promote the 75th anniversary of "Peanuts" during Comic-Con International on Thursday, July 24, 2025, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Alec Baldwin poses for a portrait to promote the 75th anniversary of "Peanuts" during Comic-Con International on Thursday, July 24, 2025, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

A person dressed as the character Snoopy poses for a portrait to promote the 75th anniversary of "Peanuts" during Comic-Con International on Thursday, July 24, 2025, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Alec Baldwin, left, and a person dressed as the character Snoopy from "Peanuts" poses for a portrait to promote the 75th anniversary of "Peanuts" during Comic-Con International on Thursday, July 24, 2025, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

Alec Baldwin, left, and a person dressed as the character Snoopy from "Peanuts" poses for a portrait to promote the 75th anniversary of "Peanuts" during Comic-Con International on Thursday, July 24, 2025, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)

UTICA, N.Y. (AP) — A New York prison guard who failed to intervene as he watched an inmate being beaten to death should be convicted of manslaughter, a prosecutor told a jury Thursday in the final trial of correctional officers whose pummeling, recorded by body-cameras, provoked outrage.

“For seven minutes — seven gut-churning, nauseating, disgusting minutes — he stood in that room close enough to touch him and he did nothing,” special prosecutor William Fitzpatrick told jurors during closing arguments. The jury began deliberating Thursday afternoon.

Former corrections officer Michael Fisher, 55, is charged with second-degree manslaughter in the death of Robert Brooks, who was beaten by guards upon his arrival at Marcy Correctional Facility on the night of Dec. 9, 2024, his agony recorded silently on the guards' body cameras.

Fisher’s attorney, Scott Iseman, said his client entered the infirmary after the beating began and could not have known the extent of his injuries.

Fisher was among 10 guards indicted in February. Three more agreed to plead guilty to reduced charges in return for cooperating with prosecutors. Of the 10 officers indicted in February, six pleaded guilty to manslaughter or lesser charges. Four rejected plea deals. One was convicted of murder, and two were acquitted in the first trial last fall.

Fisher, standing alone, is the last of the guards to face a jury.

The trial closes a chapter in a high-profile case led to reforms in New York's prisons. But advocates say the prisons remain plagued by understaffing and other problems, especially since a wildcat strike by guards last year.

Officials took action amid outrage over the images of the guards beating the 43-year-old Black man in the prison's infirmary. Officers could be seen striking Brooks in the chest with a shoe, lifting him by the neck and dropping him.

Video shown to the jury during closing arguments Thursday indicates Fisher stood by the doorway and didn't intervene.

“Did Michael Fisher recklessly cause the death of Robert Brooks? Of course he did. Not by himself. He had plenty of other helpers,” said Fitzpatrick, the Onondaga County district attorney.

Iseman asked jurors looking at the footage to consider what Fisher could have known at the time “without the benefit of 2020 hindsight.”

“Michael Fisher did not have a rewind button. He did not have the ability to enhance. He did not have the ability to pause. He did not have the ability to get a different perspective of what was happening in the room,” Iseman said.

Even before Brooks' death, critics claimed the prison system was beset by problems that included brutality, overworked staff and inconsistent services. By the time criminal indictments were unsealed in February, the system was reeling from an illegal three-week wildcat strike by corrections officers who were upset over working conditions. Gov. Kathy Hochul deployed National Guard troops to maintain operations. More than 2,000 guards were fired.

Prison deaths during the strike included Messiah Nantwi on March 1 at Mid-State Correctional Facility, which is across the road from the Marcy prison. 10 other guards were indicted in Nantwi's death in April, including two charged with murder.

There are still about 3,000 National Guard members serving the state prison system, according to state officials.

“The absence of staff in critical positions is affecting literally every aspect of prison operations. And I think the experience for incarcerated people is neglect,” Jennifer Scaife, executive director of the Correctional Association of New York, an independent monitoring group, said on the eve of Fisher's trial.

Hochul last month announced a broad reform agreement with lawmakers that includes a requirement that cameras be installed in all facilities and that video recordings related to deaths behind bars be promptly released to state investigators.

The state also lowered the hiring age for correction officers from 21 to 18 years of age.

FILE - This image provided by the New York State Attorney General office shows body camera footage of correction officers beating a handcuffed man, Robert Brooks, at the Marcy Correctional Facility in Oneida County, N.Y., Dec. 9, 2024. (New York State Attorney General office via AP, File)