From Firefly for Buffy for Marvel for DC, fans of Joss Whedon’s body of work in films and TV have found it difficult, in recent months, to avoid media reports of alleged indiscretions on the prolific creator / director set. Starting with the one created by Whedon Buffy the Vampire Slayer and your TV spinoff Angel in the 1990s, and even reaching Warner Bros. ‘ Justice League in 2017, male and female actors issued a series of public criticisms highlighting their anecdotal accounts of Whedon’s alleged improprieties.
Although neither Whedon nor his management have so far commented on the allegations made against him, a new report in Variety aims to examine the Whedon controversy from the point of view of several actors and team members who have worked with him on recent and previous projects. The resulting report, which again does not cite Whedon as a direct source, suggests a “pattern of inappropriate, imperious and disparaging behavior towards those who worked for him”, including a report of a feud with Buffy the star Sarah Michelle Gellar that originates from the early days of the series on the small screen.
Gellar was among Whedon’s 40 known actors and crew members who declined to comment directly to Varietyreport of. But a couple of sources “familiar with the [Buffy] production says that at the very beginning of the show, Gellar had a broken relationship with Whedon, to the point that she didn’t want her name to be spoken near her. “
Buffy debuted on the now defunct WB network in 1997 – more than 20 years before cyborg actor Ray Fisher presented himself, in the summer of 2020, with scathing condemnations of what Fisher considered Whedon’s “rude, abusive, unprofessional” and completely unacceptable ”Treatment of actors on the set of Justice League. These observations would eventually win support for Fisher from others Justice League actors, with Jason Momoa giving the greatest vocal support. But additional charges against Whedon were also preceded by actors he worked with in the Buffy and Angel days – including recent allegations of impropriety by Charisma Carpenter (Cordelia Chase in both series), as well as by Michelle Trachtenberg (BuffyDawn Summers).
Trachtenberg recently posted on Instagram a statement that “There was a rule” in Buffy define that Whedon “was not allowed in a room alone with Michelle [Trachtenberg] again. “And Carpenter went public earlier this month with a pair Twitter Posts claiming that Whedon “abused his power on several occasions while working on sets of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. Carpenter accused Whedon of forcing the actors to compete for his attention and of making disparaging comments about his own pregnancy at the time – including how it could adversely affect his future on the series.
”The person who worked closely with Carpenter while she starred Buffy and Angel reminds the actor often describing Whedon as being ‘stingy’ and ‘verbally abusive’ towards her, ”he says. Variety, “Making it clear to him that he had favorites – and she was not one of them. ‘That was his game,’ ”the source told the newspaper.
Details of any alleged Whedon-Gellar interactions that may have led to your Buffy fracture are not mentioned in VarietyGellar’s report, although Gellar’s recent comments on social media suggests that she sympathizes with other actors and her complaints focused on Whedon. “While I’m proud to have my name associated with Buffy Summers, I don’t want to be associated with the name Joss Whedon forever,” Gellar said recently in an Instagram post, reacting to Carpenter’s accusations.
Sources for VarietyBuffy’s report suggested that Buffy’s initial low-budget shooting environment, away from the studio’s daily supervision and inhabited by many relatively inexperienced young actors, may have provided the kind of atmosphere that helped promote an unprofessional cliché social dynamic among its talented cast and creative leadership.
Supposedly operating “as an independent film”, the Buffy The set reportedly worked “like high school, with Whedon warning everyone about who was in and who was out,” according to Variety. The same sources, all speaking anonymously, described the local culture of both Buffy and Angel as “a cult of personality” that revolved around Whedon: “Those within Whedon’s circle delighted in his attention, praise and friendship; outsiders received the opposite: contempt, scorn and insensitivity ”, states the report.
Whedon’s creative curriculum is legendary material from film and TV, encompassing science fiction treasures that have long been revered as Firefly, Buffy, and Angel. On the big screen, Whedon helped turn Marvel’s MCU into a box office juggernaut as the director of The Avengers (2012) and Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), before assuming a late management role at Warner Bros. ‘ Justice League after director Zack Snyder left the project due to a family tragedy.
More recently, Whedon embarked and later left The Nevers, a supernatural science fiction drama in which Whedon and HBO were collaborating. Announced in 2018, The Nevers originally put Whedon’s creative talents at the front and center as a writer, director, executive producer and showrunner. In November last year, however, HBO revealed that Whedon had abandoned the project. The Nevers is still on track to debut on April 11 on HBO, with Philippa Goslett replacing Whedon as a showrunner.
In the midst of the ongoing controversy surrounding other actors’ allegations against Whedon, HBO’s head of content, Casey Bloys, told The Wrap earlier this month that the network had received “no complaints or reports of inappropriate behavior” from Whedon during his truncated creative task with The Nevers.