Of Firefly on Buffy to Marvel to DC, fans of Joss Whedon’s generation of film and TV work over the past few months have found it difficult to evade media reports about the productive creator / director’s alleged indiscriminate input. Start with the Whedon-created Buffy the Vampire Slayer and his TV spinoff Angel in the 1990s, and penetrated to Warner Bros. ‘ Justice League in 2017, actors as well as women released a series of public criticisms highlighting their anecdotal version of Whedon’s alleged improprieties.
While neither Whedon nor his management have commented so far on the allegations against him, a new report from Variety intends to investigate the Whedon controversy from the point of view of several actors and crew members who have worked with him on projects, both recently and further. The resulting report, which Whedon again does not cite as a direct source, indicates a ‘pattern of inappropriate, insignificant and derogatory behavior towards those who worked for him’, including a reported rift with Buffy star Sarah Michelle Gellar who has her origins in the iconic series’ earliest small screen days.
Gellar was among 40 Whedon celebrities and crew members who declined to comment. Variety‘s report. But some sources who are ‘familiar with the [Buffy] according to the production, Gellar had a broken relationship with Whedon quite early in the course of the program, to the extent that she did not want his name to speak around her. ”
Buffy premiered in 1997 on the World Cup network, which has already disappeared, in 1997 – more than 20 years before Cyborg actor Ray Fisher would emerge in the summer of 2020 with sharp condemnation of what Fisher considered Whedon’s “crude, abusive, unprofessional, and completely unacceptable” treatment of actors on the set of Justice League. These remarks would ultimately provide Fisher’s support for fellow Justice League actors, with Jason Momoa the biggest voice. But they also preceded accusations against Whedon by actors he worked with during the year Buffy and Angel days – including recent allegations of improperness by Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia Chase in both series), as well as by Michelle Trachtenberg (Buffy‘s Dawn Summers).
Trachtenberg recently posted a statement on Instagram that ‘There was a rule’ about the Buffy states that Whedon “may not be allowed in a room with Michelle [Trachtenberg] again. And Carpenter was earlier this month with a pair from Twitter posts claims that Whedon “abused his power on several occasions while collaborating on the sets of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. Carpenter accused Whedon of forcing actors to compete for his attention and at the time made derogatory remarks about her own pregnancy – including how it could adversely affect her future in the series.
The person who worked closely with Carpenter while she continued to play Buffy and Angel recalls the actor whom Whedon often described as’ amiable ‘and’ verbally abusive ‘towards her,’ reports Variety“To make it clear to her that he has favorites – and that she was not one of them. “It was his game,” the source told the outlet.
Specific information regarding any alleged Whedon-Gellar interactions that may have led to their report Buffy fraction is not mentioned in VarietyThe report, though Gellar’s recent comments on social media indicate that she is sympathetic to other actors and their Whedon-focused complaints. “While I’m proud of my name to Buffy Summers, I do not want to be associated with the name Joss Whedon forever,” Gellar said in an Instagram post recently, responding to Carpenter’s accusations.
Sources for VarietyThe report suggests that Buffy’s early budget film environment, far removed from the daily supervision of the studio and populated by many relatively inexperienced young actors, may have provided the atmosphere of an unprofessionally clicky, ‘high school’ social dynamic. promoted. under his talented cast and creative lead role.
According to reports, ‘much like an indie movie’, the Buffy set functions allegedly “like high school, with Whedon making everyone aware of who is in and who is outside,” according to Variety. The same sources, who all spoke anonymously, described the culture of both Buffy and Angel as a cult of personality ‘centered around Whedon:’ Those within Whedon’s circle sat in his attention, praise and friendship; those on the outside got the opposite: scorn, ridicule and numbness, ”the report reads.
Whedon’s creative resume is the play of the film and TV legend, featuring everlasting reverent sci-fi small screen treasures, such as Firefly, Buffy, en Angel. On the big screen, Whedon helped build the Marvel MCU into a box office juggernaut as the director of The Avengers (2012) and Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), before taking on a late directorial role on Warner Bros. Justice League after director Zack Snyder left the project due to a family tragedy.
Whedon recently boarded and then departed The Nevers, a supernatural science drama in which Whedon and HBO collaborated. Announced in 2018, The Nevers originally featured Whedon’s creative talents as a writer, director, executive producer and forerunner. In November last year, however, HBO revealed that Whedon had left the project. The Nevers is still on track to debut at HBO on April 11, with Philippa Goslett replacing Whedon as the frontrunner.
Amid the controversy surrounding Whedon over other actors, Casey Bloys, head of HBO, told The Wrap earlier this month that the network had received ‘no complaints or reports of inappropriate behavior’ from Whedon during his truncated creative period with The Nevers.