Kevin Costner has asked a Los Angeles judge to throw out a stunt performer’s lawsuit over an alleged unscripted rape scene on Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 2, calling the claims “a bold-faced lie” in a sworn declaration filed this week. The filing seeks dismissal and relief under California’s anti-SLAPP statute, arguing that the contested sequence was a scripted lead-in to off-screen violence and did not involve nudity or simulated sex.
The suit, filed in May by lead stunt double Devyn LaBella, alleges she was summoned on May 2, 2023 and directed into a “violent” scene without advance notice, consent protocols or an intimacy coordinator, one day after a different rape sequence was filmed with safety oversight. LaBella says she was not told the actor she was doubling had refused the second scene and claims a new male performer was instructed to pin her and pull up her skirt during repeated takes. The complaint seeks damages and court-ordered training for the defendants.
In June, an intimacy coordinator who worked on the production filed a declaration supporting LaBella’s account, describing the moment as “unscheduled” and “unplanned” and stating the performer lacked appropriate modesty garments. Costner’s motion disputes those assertions and includes crew statements and on-set images intended to show that LaBella agreed to rehearse the moment and was never filmed in the scene.
The dispute turns in part on workplace rules for intimate material. SAG-AFTRA guidance requires producers to give at least 48 hours’ notice before filming scenes involving nudity or simulated sex and to secure clear, conspicuous consent, with coordinators managing choreography, coverage and closed-set protocols. LaBella’s filing argues those standards were not followed; Costner’s response says they did not apply because the moment did not constitute simulated sex.
The case arrives as Costner works to continue the Horizon series, whose second installment premiered at Venice but remains without a general release following the first chapter’s weak theatrical run and subsequent postponement of Chapter 2. The lawsuit remains pending in Los Angeles County Superior Court.
