It has taken over a year and a half, but film and television writer/director/showrunner Joss Whedon has finally broken his silence on the multiple allegations of his misconduct on set that have been levied against him by cast and crew from several of his high-profile projects.
In the summer of 2020, the Justice League’s Gal Gadot and Ray Fisher were the first to speak out about Whedon’s alleged misconduct on the DC comics movie set. In early 2021 Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Charisma Carpenter spoke out with more claims of Whedon’s inappropriate behavior on the insanely popular 90’s television show sets. Since then, several of her Buffy and Angel co-stars, along with writers on Firefly have stood by and spoken up with Carpenter, Gadot and Fisher.
Joss Whedon Finally Addresses The Misconduct Allegations Levied Against Him; “I Think I’m One of the Nicer Showrunners That’s Ever Been.”
In a loooong interview that came out in New York Magazine on Monday, Whedon denied several allegations, like threatening Gal Gadot’s career. He claims that Gal misunderstood his words because “English is not her first language, and I tend to be annoyingly flowery in my speech.”
Israel born Gadot’s response: “I understood perfectly.”
Whedon’s response to Fisher’s assessment of the Justice League’s second director (after Zack Snyder was either fired or left for personal reasons- depending on who you believe) was a little less ‘forgiving.’
Fisher claimed that Whedon’s behavior on set was “gross, abusive, unprofessional, and completely unacceptable.” Whedon bit back by saying Fisher was a “malevolent force,” and doubled down, saying of Fisher, “We’re talking about a bad actor in both senses.”
Whedon did admit to some of the claims that have been made about his past. He did corroborate having affairs with two (unnamed) young actresses on the Buffy set.
But he “had” to
“I feel f#$king terrible about [the affairs],” Whedon claimed, but not because he was married at the time. “It messes up the power dynamic,” he explained.
He also insisted that he “had” to sleep with the pretty young things and that he was “powerless” to resist because he’d been such a nerd growing up that beautiful girls like these had always ignored him and he feared if he didn’t have sex with them, he would “always regret it.”
Yeeeaaaahhhhh.
Other allegations, like he physically grabbed costume Buffy costume designer, Cynthia Bergstrom’s during an argument were hotly denied by Whedon while some previously unknown new allegations of workplace misconduct were brought up in the New Yorker piece.
In regards to one of the admitted affairs, a member of the Buffy production staff claimed that Whedon and an actress were knocking up against her chair as they carried on their dalliance in the office.
The staffer claimed she was so uncomfortable she quit her dream job. Whedon denies being so public about his affairs as he “lived in terror” that they would be discovered.
One serious but somewhat mysterious claim that was very public, thank to actress Michelle Trachtenberg’s social media post, was that was that there was a rule on the Buffy set that Whedon could not be alone with the teenaged actress.
Whedon insisted during his New Yorker interview that he had no idea what Trachtenberg’s claim was all about.
Though Trachtenberg, who was between the ages of 15 and 17 when she appeared on Buffy did not elaborate, a source with ‘direct knowledge’ corroborated the actress’ claim saying that while filming the seventh and final season, when Trachtenberg was 16, Whedon conducted a closed-door meeting with the teen.
The source has not been told what happened behind the closed door but recalled Trachtenberg was visibly shaken as a result. Apparently, an adult in Trachtenberg’s circle created the unofficial rule in response.
Whedon had a better memory of working with Carpenter and agreed he was “not mannerly” with the Buffy and Angel actress when she informed him she was pregnant. He denied calling her fat before passive-aggressively saying to the New Yorker writer, Lila Shapiro “[Carpenter] struggled sometimes with her lines, but nobody could hit a punch line harder than her.”
Speaking of lines
A writer from the Firefly set recalled Whedon belittling a colleague for writing a script that wasn’t up to his standard. Instead of the usual notes given in private or respectfully in a group setting, Whedon allegedly spent over an hour mocking the writer in front of all of her colleagues.
“Joss pretended to have a slide projector, and he read her dialogue out loud and pretended he was giving a lecture on terrible writing as he went through the ‘slides’ and made funny voices — funny for him,” the co-writer claimed.
“The guys were looking down at their pages, and this woman was fighting tears the entire time. I’ve had my share of $h!%ty showrunners, but the intent to hurt — that’s the thing that stands out for me now.”
Whedon has a vastly different account about his behavior on the Buffy, Angel and Firefly sets, acknowledging that while he was not as “civilized” back then as he is now (while filming Justice League for instance?) it was because of his inexperience.
“I was young,” he said. “I yelled, and sometimes you had to yell. [Buffy] was a very young cast, and it was easy for everything to turn into a cocktail party.” He insisted he would never intentionally humiliate anyone. “If I am upsetting somebody, it will be a problem for me.”
While ruminating over the mistakes he did admit to making in the past, Whedon considered if he could have been calmer, more direct or nicer to his casts and crew.
“Could I have been a better showrunner? Absolutely. Should I have been nicer? I think I’m one of the nicer showrunners that’s ever been.”
Yikes.
Whedon’s full interview is now available in the New Yorker.
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