Taylor Hickson says she was 19 years old, working on an indie horror film called “Ghostland,” when her director ordered her to keep pounding on a glass door. She asked, according to a lawsuit filed this week, if it was safe.
The director, Pascal Laugier, insisted that it was, and so did a producer, the lawsuit said. But the glass shattered, “causing [her] head and upper body to fall through the door and shards of glass,” according to the suit. The left side of Hickson’s jaw was slashed by the broken glass, leaving “permanent scarring” that took “approximately 70 stitches” to close, the suit said.
Warning: graphic images below.
Now her face — arguably the most important possession of any actor — bears a prominent scar on its left side, and Hickson, now 20, says her once-bright career prospects are vastly diminished. Prior to “Ghostland,” Hickson starred in the romance film “Everything, Everything” and played a client of Wade Wilson’s in “Deadpool.”
The injury “was painful, required surgery and has resulted in mental distress to the
Plaintiff which she continues to struggle with to date,” says the lawsuit, filed in Winnipeg, Manitoba, where “Ghostland” filmed. “Due to the Injury, post-Incident, the Plaintiff has struggled to find work as an actor and states that same is due to her Injury.”
The lawsuit accuses Incident Productions, which produced “Ghostland,” of not taking “any and all reasonable steps to ensure that industry standards and practices were adhered to, including but not limited to the use of safety glass and/or stunt doubles as appropriate.”
Laugier, who is not named as a defendant, did not immediately respond to TheWrap’s request for comment. Not did Incident Productions.