Horizon Sexual-Harassment Lawsuit Moves Forward

Kevin Costner denied claims of sexual harassment on the set of Horizon: An American Saga — Chapter 2 found in a lawsuit filed in May 27 by stunt performer Devyn LaBella against Costner. Now, several months later, Los Angeles judge Jon Takasugi denied Costner’s bid to have the case thrown out under California’s anti-SLAPP law on October 16. Only one of LaBella’s ten claims was removed, one that was related to the Bane Act; in the original filing, LaBella claimed that Costner “demanded” she was in the scene. “Plaintiff does not identify anything Costner, or any other individual, said to her that would constitute ‘threats, intimidation, or coercion’ of the kind contemplated by the Bane Act,” the judge explained in the published filing.

Originally, in a declaration filed on August 19 in the Los Angeles Superior Court, Costner called the allegations “absolutely false” in response to LaBella’s claims that Costner directed an improvised rape scene without an intimacy coordinator or proper protocols. “Devyn’s description of this shot as a ‘violent simulated rape’ is absurd and sensationalistic. It is more than false. It is a bold-faced lie intended to create wide, publicly viewed shock value and damage the movies and me personally,” Costner says in the declaration. “Devyn’s claims against me are absolutely false, and it is deeply disappointing to me that a woman who worked on our production would claim that I or any other member of my production team would make one of our own feel uncomfortable, let alone suffer the ‘nightmare’ she has invented. My belief is that Devyn’s claims were designed, through the use of false statements and sensationalistic language, to damage my reputation.”

Horizon intimacy coordinator Celeste Chaney has supported LaBella’s claims that the scene “was unexpectedly sprung on the actors and stunt professionals” in an amended complaint on June 18. Per Chaney, Ella Hunt was called in to film a more graphic scene than planned but Hunt did not want to participate without an intimacy coordinator. “Due to a lack of communication and the lack of an intimacy coordinator on set (a contractual obligation),” Chaney wrote, “Ella Hunt was not prepared to give this performance. Visibly upset, she left set. It was at this time that Devyn Labella, Juliette’s stunt double, who was also not briefed or prepared for the scene, was asked to stand in to ‘line up the shot.’”