The actor-filmmaker is calling stunt performer Devyn LaBella’s allegations against him “a blatant lie”

Kevin Costner in February 2025.Credit : Tibrina Hobson/Getty

Kevin Costner is speaking out amid a stunt performer’s accusations of sexual assault on the set of his movie.

In a new motion to strike, filed in California Superior Court, the filmmaker, 70, insisted that Devyn LaBella’s claim of an unscripted rape scene on one of his Horizon movies is “a blatant lie.”

The stunt performer initially filed a complaint against Costner and the production companies behind the film series in May. In June, she filed an amended complaint, in which LaBella’s lawyers detailed her “shock, embarrassment and humiliation” after she allegedly “was never given the opportunity to prepare for or consent to participate” in an unplanned sex scene.

“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,” wrote Costner in his new declaration.

Kevin Costner in ‘Horizon: An American Saga, Chapter 1’.Richard Foreman/Warner Bros.

“My belief is that Devyn’s claims were designed, through the use of false statements and sensationalistic language, to damage my reputation,” he continued. “These allegations are so patently false I can only assume that the purpose was to use this sensationalistic language to embarrass and damage me and the Horizon movies.”

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Addressing allegations “involving the words ‘rape’ and ‘assault,’ ” added the Yellowstone star, “has been an absolute nightmare. The truth matters. That’s why, even at the high cost of this lawsuit (financial and personal), I will always speak up to defend myself and my crew against false allegations.”

Other collaborators of Costner, who worked on the Western movie’s scene in question, also filed declarations asking the court to dismiss LaBella’s case.

Kevin Costner on the set of ‘Horizon’.Warner Bros./ New Line Cinema/Alamy

In a declaration attached to the motion to strike, Costner included dozens of photos of LaBella taken on the set of Horizon. The scene in question, he wrote, “was a buildup and foretelling of two violent rape scenes that occur offscreen” and included “twelve witnesses.”

LaBella, claimed the director, “was laughing and smiling during the blocking of the shot in question, had dinner with her stunt coordinator that night, worked additional days on set, and then took her stunt coordinator out to dinner to thank him.” Alleged text messages from LaBella described the experience as “these wonderful weeks!”

Following a Venice Film Festival premiere and the release of Chapter 1 in June 2024, Horizon: An American Saga – Chapter 2 does not yet have a release date. Costner has indicated that third and fourth installments are in the works.