Actress Taylor Hickson Sues 'Ghostland' Producers for Disfiguring Stunt Injury
This poor girl.
Actress Taylor Hickson turned 19 just a few days before shooting the scene for the indie horror movie "Ghostland" that would lead to a serious injury and facial disfigurement. She recently filed a lawsuit against the film's production company, and Deadline posted the document details.
The "emotionally charged scene" was shot in December 2016 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. According to her lawsuit, the director, Pascal Laugier, told her to pound harder and harder on a door, with her face right next to the glass pane.
"At one point during the filming of the scene, and after being asked to increase the strength with which [she] pounded on the glass, [she] asked one of the producers and the director if it was safe to do so. That producer and the director both replied in the affirmative," the suit states. During one take, "The glass shattered, causing [her] head and upper body to fall through the door and shards of glass. As a result of the incident, [she] badly cut the left side of her face."
Hickson added to Deadline, "The crafts services lady held my face together with napkins in her hands. She went through so many napkins, there was so much blood."
She was rushed to the hospital and received 70 stitches. The suit added that Hickson has since had laser treatment and silicone treatment, "but over one year post-incident, has been left with permanent scarring on the left side of her face. It is unknown at this time if any further treatment, including plastic surgery, would reduce the visual appearance of the injury."
Deadline has a photo of Hickson's face from shortly after the injury. You can still see the scar under makeup in this photo from the May 2017 premiere of "Everything, Everything," in which Hickson played Kayra:
The suit states Incident Productions "knew or ought to have known of the dangerous situation" and that "the injury was reasonably foreseeable and was caused solely by the negligence and/or breach of contract by the defendant in that it failed in exercising the duty of care it owed to the plaintiff."
Hickson lost work income while she recovered from her injury, and she said the damage has been more than physical.
"It's been mass amounts of insecurity, conflicted, confused, hurt, angry, and sad that this was my last day on set and no precautions were taken."
In a twisted bit of irony, Deadline showed that the poster for the movie features the fractured face of a young woman.
"Ghostland" is holding its premiere party March 14 in France. It's scheduled to open in select theaters in April.
Before "Ghostland," Hickson played Meghan Orlovsky in "Deadpool." The sequel to that movie suffered an even more tragic on-set injury when a stuntwoman was killed last year doing a motorcycle stunt.
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