Warner Bros.
A stunt performer on the Kevin Costner-directed Western film series Horizon has filed a lawsuit alleging that she was forced to perform an unscripted assault scene without the proper protocols in place. The stunt performer alleges the incident happened on the set of the sequel to Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 1, which was released in theater last summer.
According to reports, Devyn LaBella, a stunt performer on Horizon Chapter 2, has filed a lawsuit alleging that director Kevin Costner improvised an unscripted SA scene. LaBella was lead stunt double for actress Ella Hunt, who stars in the films as the character Juliette.
LaBella’s lawsuit states that after Hunt refused to film the scene, LaBella, as her lead stunt double, was brought in for the scene “without advance warning, preparation, or consent,” and that an intimacy coordinator was not present on the set at the time.
The scene, which saw LaBella violently assaulted by a male actor, left her “humiliated and traumatized.”
“Hunt refused to perform the scene, the lawsuit states. LaBella was brought in as a stand-in, without advance warning, preparation or consent, and without an intimacy coordinator present, the suit alleges. According to the complaint, the male actor was directed to mount her, pin her down, and violently rake up her skirt. The set was not closed, the suit states. According to the complaint, LaBella was humiliated and traumatized by the experience.”
“’On that day, I was left exposed, unprotected, and deeply betrayed by a system that promised safety and professionalism,’ LaBella said in a statement. ‘What happened to me shattered my trust and forever changed how I move through this industry.’” [via Variety]
The lawsuit against Costner — who invested around $40 million of his own money into the project to get it off the ground — is the latest blow for the Horzion franchise, which was originally supposed to release both Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 last summer, but saw the sequel pulled from Warner Bro’s release schedule following the disappoint response to and box office performance of the debut film.
While Chapter 2 has been filmed and premiered at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival in February, it does not have an official release date at this time. Furthermore, Costner recently told reporters that he doesn’t “know how I’m gonna make [Chapter 3] right now.”
Content shared from brobible.com.