The majority of Kevin Costner’s behind-the-scenes drama with Yellowstone appears to be fully in his rear-view mirror, now that the spinoff-sporting western drama has concluded. However, the actor is still currently embroiled in a workplace sexual harassment lawsuit filed by a Horizon: An American Saga stunt performer, though his legal team is taking strides to get the case dismissed by filing new paperwork that attempts to disprove the claims made in the suit.
The lawsuit, first filed in May 2025 by performer Devyn LaBella, went public in June, with LaBella claiming that during the filming of Horizon: An American Saga - Part II, she was forced to serve as a stand-in for star Ella Hunt for an alternate version of a rape scene that allegedly wasn’t part of the original script. The stunt actress voiced that Hunt filmed for the scene a day prior, with an intimacy coordinator standing by, but that the coordinator was absent during the restaged filming, which itself would be a SAG violation, as would be altering a scene like this in the moment.
LaBella’s lawsuit purports that she wasn’t given a heads up about what the scene would entail, and that she was paired with a scene partner (later identified as Roger Ivens) who was directed in a way that left the stunt performer feeling violated. LaBella says that her skirt was pulled up during the scene, and that she felt exposed, amending her lawsuit to include alleged text messages sent to the intimacy coordinator after the incident.
The Latest Update From Kevin Costner's Legal Team
According to TMZ, Kevin Costner’s lawyer team of Marty Singer and T. Wayne Harman filed new paperwork in an attempt to get the sexual harassment lawsuit dismissed, offering up an alleged text message from Devyn Labella, as well as what Costner says went down during the “rape scene” in question.
The latest filings describe LaBella as being happy on the set of the Horizon: An American Saga sequel, and shared the following text message that she allegedly sent to a supervisor after the production wrapped:
Thank you for these wonderful weeks! I so appreciate you! I learned so much and thank you again. I’m really happy it worked out the way it did too. Have a great rest of the shoot and yes talk soon!
In the new filings, attorneys Singer and Harman questioned why LaBella’s attitude and demeanor would become accusatory and litigious, saying that wasn’t how she came across at the time. According to the suit:
There was no anger or resentment, only enthusiasm and gratitude.
In Costner’s description of the scene Devyn Labella filed her lawsuit over, she was fully clothed while lying next to co-star Roger Ivens inside a covered wagon, with a full-length dress on over bicycle shorts. During the scene, Ivens is said to have swung his leg over the stunt performer’s body, and raised the hem of her dress, and that was supposedly as far as that moment went. There was allegedly no simulated sex filmed, zero nudity, and no further physical contact between Ivens and the stunt actress.
Costner allows that the dress may have bunched up and rode up, but that none of the wardrobe beneath was moved out of place. The actor noted that it was “deeply disappointing” that someone would want to hurt his reputation after working on one of his productions.
Despite having reportedly finished filming back in the summer of 2023, and despite a third movie getting filmed (with the fourth likely happening), Horizon: An American Saga - Part 2 still hasn’t received an official release, stemming in part from the first film underperforming financially and critically, despite some impressive streaming numbers. The movie premiered at the Santa Barbara Film Festival in February 2025, but issues with distributor New Line and a separate breach-of-contract lawsuit have been some of the hurdles in the way of a wider release.
