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Joss Whedon says Gal Gadot allegations were 'misunderstanding' since 'English is not her first language'

He also responds to 'Justice League' star Ray Fisher's claims.
by Christine Estima
January 18, 2022 11:32 a.m. EST
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In 2021, a series of social media posts by actors who had worked with showrunner and director Joss Whedon on different projects, including Justice League, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, and others, alleged that Whedon had created a toxic work environment, detailing the ways he yelled, cajoled, verbally abused, harassed and even threatened to ruin the careers of the actors he worked with.

Almost a year later, Whedon has responded in a New York Magazine interview that some are saying has done more harm to his reputation than good. Case in point: when addressing an allegation that he threatened to ruin Wonder Woman actress Gal Gadot’s career on the Justice League set (something that Gadot herself corroborated last year), Whedon’s reply was: “I don’t threaten people. Who does that? English is not her first language, and I tend to be annoyingly flowery in my speech.”

Gadot replied to that attempt at gaslighting by telling the outlet: “I understood perfectly.”

His responses to quite a few of the allegations against him are not going down well with readers and Hollywood insiders. While admitting that he could be difficult to work with, he smeared the allegations by saying the actors had used “every weaponisable word of the modern era to make it seem like I was an abusive monster. I think I’m one of the nicer showrunners that’s ever been.”

It seems that being “one of the nicer showrunners” includes sleeping with female colleagues and subordinates, despite being married at the time, something that he admits disrupts the “power dynamic” on set.

Saying he felt “f***ing terrible about them,” he tempered that regret by adding that he felt he “had” to have sexual relationships with women, especially beautiful and young women who he normally would have ignored him when before he was famous, because he would “always regret it” if he hadn’t.

Last year, actor Ray Fisher, who played Cyborg in the Justice League franchise, publicly hit out at Whedon on social media and at events, claiming that Whedon not only lightened his skin colour in a racist manner during post-production of the film, but also cut his role down out of spite. 

In response, Whedon countered Fisher’s words by saying that his role was cut down because he’s not a very good actor.

“We’re talking about a malevolent force,” Whedon said of Fisher. “We’re talking about a bad actor in both senses.”

Having read the Vulture exposé, Ray Fisher tweeted on Monday that Whedon has finally received the “endgame” he wanted, insinuating that Whedon has ruined his own career.

One person who supported Ray Fisher publicly on social media was Buffy actress Charisma Carpenter, who last year posted about her own experience with Whedon.

“Joss has a history of being casually cruel. He has created hostile and toxic work environments since his early career,” Carpenter wrote. “Like his ongoing, passive-aggressive threats to fire me…. And callously calling me ‘fat’ to colleagues when I was four months pregnant, weighing 126 lbs. He was mean and biting, disparaging about others openly, and often played favorites, putting people against one another to compete and vie for his attention and approval.”

She also said that in a closed-door meeting, Whedon berated her, asking her if she was “going to keep it," referring to her pregnancy.

Both Sarah Michelle Geller and Michelle Trachtenberg supported Carpenter publicly sharing her story.

A Buffy insider told the magazine that “an informal rule did exist” after that closed-door meeting, ensuring that Carpenter would never be alone in a room with Whedon again.

Whedon denied in the interview he had ever called Carpenter fat, but admitted he “was not mannerly” to her, saying: “Most of my experiences with Charisma were delightful and charming. She struggled sometimes with her lines, but nobody could hit a punch line harder than her.” 

Speaking generally about his behaviour on the Buffy set, he said: “I yelled, and sometimes you had to yell. This was a very young cast, and it was easy for everything to turn into a cocktail party.”

Hollywood and people in the industry have taken to social media to comment on the Whedon interview, many pointing out that this is the fault of an industry that historically hasn’t held abusers' feet to the fire.

 

 

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