‘MaXXXine’ Actor Suing Mia Goth for Battery Has Checkered Legal Past

James Hunter, who is suing Goth for allegedly kicking him during filming, was sentenced to stint in jail in 2015 after being accused of a rent scam. He has denied any wrongdoing

A background actor who alleges that actress Mia Goth deliberately kicked him in the head and called him a “big baby” during the filming of MaXXXine has been accused of being a “vexatious litigant” by an ex-girlfriend and her stepfather in separate ongoing civil lawsuits, according to court records obtained by Rolling Stone. 

James Hunter, whose IMDb credits include appearances in Curb Your Enthusiasm and Weird: The Al Yankovic Story, was also sentenced to a stint in Los Angeles County jail in 2015 after being accused of running a rent scam. 

The 47-year-old’s past has resurfaced on social media after filing a $500,000 lawsuit against Goth, MaXXXine director Ti West and entertainment company A24, claiming he sustained a severe concussion after filming a scene with Goth in April 2023. 

Hunter was hired to play a dead parishioner in the horror flick, splayed out on the ground as Goth sprinted past him. During one take, Goth allegedly got too close to Hunter’s head, and he claimed he alerted the crew to ensure Goth would keep a safe distance. In the following take, according to the lawsuit, Goth ran by Hunter and purposely kicked him in the head. 

Hunter alleges he told an assistant director about his injury and later claimed Goth was seemingly “forced” to apologize to him. But when Hunter left to use the bathroom, which was at basecamp and a few minutes away from the set, Goth allegedly followed him inside the portable restroom to belittle him, the lawsuit claims. (The assistant director declined to comment on the incident.) Goth allegedly said, “Nobody will believe you because you’re nothing. Get the fuck off my set, you big baby,” according to court documents. Despite being booked to work three days for the shoot, Hunter claimed he was informed the next day that he was no longer needed, insinuating he wasn’t called back to set because of the alleged Goth incident. 

However, three senior MaXXXine production sources tell Rolling Stone that no one on set witnessed the alleged kicking incident, saying they first learned of it when Hunter filed his lawsuit. Hunter claimed his injuries were so severe that he nearly lost consciousness on the drive home and had to visit the emergency room the next day, but the sources claim Hunter never informed anyone of his alleged injury. (SAG-AFTRA — the actors’ union which Hunter is a member of — did not return Rolling Stone’s request for comment on if Hunter ever made a complaint through the union.) 

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Jeff Olan, the casting agent who provided the film with Hunter and other background actors, tells Rolling Stone that Hunter didn’t mention the alleged incident when Olan’s company told him he wasn’t needed for the remaining two days. “I’m dumbfounded,” Olan says. “It just makes no sense to me at all … He never complained about something happening to him on the set.” 

In a statement, a spokesperson for A24 said: “The claims made in the complaint are simply not true. As this is in active litigation, we cannot say more at this time but continue to vigorously defend Mia and the entire filmmaking team against these extremely baseless allegations.” (West and Goth did not reply to Rolling Stone’s requests for comment.)

Hunter’s claims have brought widespread attention, largely due to the unusual allegations. Hunter has been vocal about his case online, giving interviews to entertainment outlets, posting about the movie, and firing back at anyone who casts doubts on his claims or brings up his legal history. “The only person who got scammed was your mom when she gave birth to you, slob,” Hunter wrote to an X user. “I’ll be passing this on to my attorney. I’ll have to pay a process server extra to locate you in the hood,” he tweeted to another. 

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Rolling Stone reached out to Hunter’s attorney for a request for comment. While the lawyer did not reply, Rolling Stone received a call from Hunter directly. In an hour-long call, Hunter repeated his claims that Goth intentionally kicked him and alleges that he continues to suffer from long-term effects of his alleged injury. Hunter also wanted to clarify points about his involvement in a criminal and several civil cases, denying any wrongdoing.

“You’re going to have to be very careful [of] what you print, because from that email that my attorney forwarded me, it sounds like you’re getting ready to do a hit piece on me,” Hunter said. “You’re within your First Amendment right to print whatever you want but be careful. Because if we come out on top and we win this thing, I mean …. just be careful.”

James Hunter

Courtesy of James Webb Hunter III

In 2015, Hunter was sentenced to 10 days in county jail and three years probation after being arrested on a charge of theft by false pretenses. Hunter was accused of running a rent scam that targeted Los Angeles-area college students. “Hunter has a habit of posting advertisements on Craigslist for apartments for rent,” a UCLA Police Department notice read. “He would scam the victim out of money while the lease was being transferred to another person.” After Hunter’s probation period ended, the case was dismissed in 2018, per a California state statute. Hunter denies that he ever scammed anyone, saying he only pleaded out because he had a bad attorney and he “couldn’t afford to fight” the charge. 

“If YOU can prove I stole anything, give it a go,” Hunter wrote on social media. “Click bait fake news stories from over a decade ago certainly won’t help you. Even if it were true, how is it relevant?” 

Hunter is also on the defense about a restraining order granted against him from a former girlfriend in 2022 — which he is currently appealing. The woman applied for a domestic violence restraining order against Hunter in April 2022, claiming that her year-long relationship with Hunter around 2019 was “not healthy.” When she attempted to end things, Hunter “began to stalk” her and “threatened to kill himself,” according to court documents. The situation escalated, the woman claimed, when Hunter “threatened to send explicit pictures to the dean of [her] school and put sexual photos and videos of [her] on the internet.”  

In screenshots included as part of the woman’s restraining order application, a phone number that purportedly belongs to Hunter sent the woman harassing and threatening messages. “Okay I see you want a war,” one message read. “Lesss Gooooooooo. This is gonna be epic.” The number then sent multiple sexually explicit photos and videos of the woman. “You mention the police to me again and this goes on Pornhub,” a message included in court papers read. “This is chess we are playing, not checkers. And I’m great at the game.” 

Hunter denies stalking the woman and claims he never sent threatening messages to her. “They never proved that the phone number came back to me,” he tells Rolling Stone.  

Still, an order of protection against Hunter was granted in August 2022, and Hunter filed an appeal that October. ”I want to clear my name,” Hunter says of his decision to appeal. “And because also I’m not done with her by any means.” Hunter filed a civil lawsuit against the woman, claiming she broke an oral contract from 2019 to film scenes for his unreleased movie Vagabond Lover 1999. According to court documents, the woman was paid $2,000 for two days’ worth of filming. Hunter filed a $2 million lawsuit against the woman’s stepfather in May 2023, claiming the man “pushed” him and threatened him when he tried to collect payment from the woman.  

In court documents, both the woman and her stepfather filed motions for the judge to consider Hunter a “vexatious litigant” — someone who files unmeritorious or frivolous lawsuits — as they fight to throw out his cases against them. A judge denied the motion on the basis that other litigation Hunter is involved in is ongoing and hasn’t been determined as meritless. 

Hunter has denied the accusations online as well, tweeting, “you must be one of those ‘believe all women’ cucks,” to a user who brought up the restraining order and the woman’s claims. He acknowledges his language on social media can be “colorful,” but says he’s an actor. “It’s all entertainment but also try to imagine how you would react if you saw people bringing up lies about you from the past and inaccuracies,” he says.

Hunter is demanding for A24 to release footage from that night, claiming the company “has been very obstructive.” “It just strikes me as odd that they wouldn’t want to just show the footage,” he says. “By the way, it might not even be on camera, but we still want it, and we still want the audio.” However, A24 has claimed in court documents that while they did agree to send over certain footage, Hunter allegedly refused to sign a protective order that would mark any material handed over during discovery as confidential. Hunter calls A24’s proposal a “unilateral gag order,” that would prevent his attorney from telling him about any documents in the case. 

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On Hunter’s part, A24 claimed he hasn’t produced “a single document” pertaining to his claims and alleged sustained injuries. Hunter also says he’d be able to provide some material to support some of his claims to Rolling Stone, but later said his attorney prevented him from doing so, citing ongoing discovery in the case.

While Hunter is adamant that he will prove his claims against Goth in court, A24 noted in court papers that Hunter bailed on his past two scheduled depositions. (“I missed those depositions because I was in the hospital with a severe migraine attack due to their client kicking me in the head,” Hunter tells Rolling Stone.) The next hearing is scheduled for September.