Alec Baldwin has filed an appeal to have a lawsuit brought against him over the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins thrown out.

Crew member Hutchins, 42, was fatally shot and director Joel Souza, 48, injured, by a gun handled by the 63-year-od actor while rehearsing a scene for movie Rust on location in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in November.

Script supervisor Mamie Mitchell, who witnessed the tragedy, accused Baldwin, along with other producers of the movie, of assault, intentional infliction of emotional distress and deliberate infliction of harm

Mitchell’s lawsuit, which was filed in November, also claims that Baldwin fired the weapon when it was not called for in the script of the Western.

On Monday, lawyers acting on behalf of the Beetlejuice star and other producers, filed documents to the Los Angeles Superior Court asking for Mitchell’s complaint to be dismissed.

“Nothing about the plaintiff’s allegations suggest that any of the defendants, including Mr Baldwin, intended the prop gun to be loaded with live ammunition,” lawyers said, in documents reported by US media outlets.

“Moreover, nothing about the plaintiff’s allegations suggests any of the defendants knew the prop gun contained live ammunition.

“The absence of such allegations of course makes sense because the incident is apparently unprecedented in the filmmaking industry.”

The star is also facing another lawsuit brought by the head of lighting on the film, Serge Svetnoy, who claimed that he was suffering with “severe emotional distress” following the tragedy.

In addition to Baldwin, both lawsuits name nearly two dozen defendants associated with the film including David Halls, the assistant director who handed the actor the gun, and Hannah Gutierrez Reed, who was in charge of weapons on the set.

During an interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC in December, Baldwin claimed that although he was holding the gun at the time it went off, he “didn’t pull the trigger”.

Asked how a live bullet had made its way on to the set, he replied: “I have no idea. Someone put a live bullet into a gun. A bullet that wasn’t even supposed to be on the property.

“Someone is ​responsible for what happened, and I can’t say who that is, but I know it’s not me,” he insisted.