The last thing you’d expect at a movie premiere is for someone to pull a knife on you. Then you run into Stephen Baldwin. At a special screening of the new Rachel Weisz movie, The Whistleblower, at the Tribeca Grand on Wednesday night, the youngest of the Baldwin brothers made his way down the line of red carpet, finally coming to a halt for NYMag.com. We naturally asked his thoughts about sex trafficking, which is the subject of the film. As it turned out, he had quite a bit to say.
“I’ve kind of stuck my neck out before and stood up against the sex industry,” he noted. “If you think about a child under the age of 10 years old being taken advantage of on a daily basis, that’s just wrong. We have to do whatever it takes to stop that.”
Baldwin then talked about his work with an organization called Love146, which aims to prevent child sex slavery and exploitation. “They’re involved in the militia groups that go in and rescue people, things like that,” he explained. Does he undertake any such missions himself? “Not that I could talk about with you here,” he said, somewhat mysteriously.
And this is where he pulled a knife — out of his pants pocket — and held it up between us.
“Let’s just say that if anyone tries to do anything to you tonight,” he said in an assuring manner, “I’ve got your back. Okay?”
Okay! Contemplating the four- or five-inch blade before us, we wondered aloud if he took it everywhere with him. “Yeah,” he said. “And a few other things.”
Does the knife have a name? Yes, he said: “My assistant.”
Future interviewers might want to keep this encounter in mind.
