One of the biggest celebrity cancellations of 2020 and 2021 was of Joss Whedon, the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly and the director of the first two Avengers movies. Whedon was also brought on to finish work on Justice League after original director Zack Snyder had to leave due to a family emergency. Ray Fisher, who played Cyborg, tweeted in July of 2020 that Whedon’s behavior on set had been “gross, abusive, unprofessional, and completely unacceptable,” which started off a string of callouts that ended in Whedon departing as showrunner on HBO’s The Nevers and essentially being exiled from show business.
Now, Whedon is breaking his silence in an interview with Vulture. There’s a lot to go over, so let’s break it down.
Ray Fisher
Whedon reserved his harshest words for Fisher, whom he accused of acting in bad faith. To start, Whedon addressed the accusation that he had lightened Fisher’s skin tone for the movie, calling it “false and unjust.” Whedon claimed that he lightened the entirety of the movie, including all the actors’ faces, in contrast with Snyder’s darker, more muted look.
He also addressed Fisher’s complaint that the theatrical cut of Justice League took out a lot of his screen time. Whedon said that he had spoken with Fisher for hours about the changes, which he made because he felt that Cyborg’s storyline “logically made no sense” and because Fisher’s performance was lacking. He denied Fisher’s allegations, saying none were “true or merited discussing.” Whedon claimed that the accusations were meant to sully his reputation and build up Snyder’s ahead of the release of the Snyder Cut. “We’re talking about a malevolent force,” Whedon said. “We’re talking about a bad actor in both senses.”
Fisher responded on Twitter, and it sounds like he’ll have more to say later:
Gal Gadot
After Fisher made his accusations, Gal Gadot — who played Wonder Woman in Justice League — said that Whedon “threatened her career.” Whedon denied this: “I don’t threaten people. Who does that?”
Whedon theorized that there may have been a miscommunication with the Israili actress. “English is not her first language, and I tend to be annoyingly flowery in my speech,” he said. As Whedon tells it, Gadot wanted a scene removed, and Whedon told her that she would have to tie his body to a railroad track before he would cut it. Gadot, according to Whedon, may have misunderstood him as threatening to tie her to a track instead.
Gadot responded for the story: “I understood perfectly.”
Whedon also came for Zack Snyder’s famously vocal fanbase, saying, “they don’t give a fuck about feminism.” He added, “I was made a target by my ex-wife, and people exploited that cynically.” He’s talking there about his ex-wife Kai Cole, who wrote that Whedon “used his relationship with me as a shield…so no one would question his relationships with other women or scrutinize his writing as anything other than feminist.” This is after it came to light that Whedon had affairs on the sets of his TV shows.
Charisma Carpenter
The way I remember Whedon’s cancellation, although Fisher and Gadot’s statements got a lot of attention, things didn’t really ramp up until Buffy and Angel star Charisma Carpenter detailed her experiences with Whedon on set, accusing him of being “casually cruel” to her, calling her fat after she became pregnant, and asking her if she was “going to keep it.” Several other actors on those shows — including Sarah Michelle Gellar, David Boreanaz and Eliza Dushku — expressed support for Carpenter.
Whedon told Vulture that he was “not mannerly” with Carpenter when she told him she was pregnant, but denied calling her fat. “Most of my experiences with Charisma were delightful and charming,” he said. “She struggled sometimes with her lines, but nobody could hit a punch line harder than her.”
According to Variety, multiple people who worked on Whedon’s shows said that he fostered a “cult of personality” and was dismissive and scornful towards people who displeased him. Michelle Trachtenberg, who played Buffy’s young sister Dawn on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, said that there was a “rule” that Whedon wasn’t allowed to be in a room alone with her. Whedon said he didn’t know what that was about.
New allegations of workplace misconduct
The Vulture story also includes several new allegations. To start, a crew member on Buffy claimed that Whedon and one of the show’s actors were once rolling around on the floor in her office making out, banging against her chair. Whedon admitted to having an affair with actor but said the story “seems false” because he “lived in terror” that his affairs would be found out.
Sticking with affairs, Erin Shade, who worked as an assistant on Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (which Whedon co-created), said that Whedon engaged her in a secret relationship; at the time, she was 23 and he 49. She claimed that he paid her $2,500 to watch him write at his home over the weekend so long as she kept the relationship a secret from her bosses. Whedon said he “should have handled the situation better.”
Finally, Buffy costume designer Cynthia Bergstrom said that during production of season 5, she saw Whedon and Sarah Michelle Gellar having a dispute about a costume. “I was like, ‘Joss, let’s just get her dressed,’” Bergstrom remembered. “He grabbed my arm and dug in his fingers until his fingernails imprinted the skin and I said, ‘You’re hurting me.’”
Whedon said he does not “believe” Bergstrom’s story: “I know I would get angry, but I was never physical with people.”
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h/t Vanity Fair
