Former Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel star Charisma Carpenter has responded to recent comments from the creator of those shows, Joss Whedon. And she doesn’t seem too happy.
Last year Carpenter took to social media to detail the verbal and mental abuse she endured from Whedon while working for him. The accusations, coupled with similar accusations from Justice League star Ray Fisher, led to several of her co-stars and colleagues bolstering the remarks and Whedon being removed from projects he was working on at the time. Then, this week, New York Magazine released an extensive interview with Whedon where the writer-director responded to Carpenter’s claims.
When asked about comments Carpenter said he made in regards to her weight and pregnancy, Whedon said he was “not mannerly” but “did not call her fat.” He added, “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.” The interview also featured Whedon responding to Fisher’s accusations of racism and Gal Gadot’s stories of Whedon being insulting and dismissive during Justice League reshoots; Whedon called Fisher a bad actor and said Gadot must have misunderstood his remarks due to a language barrier.
Carpenter responded to all of this with a tone that said almost more than the words themselves.
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Carpenter went on to also talk about addiction and said that it’s never too late to try and get better—which makes you think she’d almost be forgiving if her “former tyrannical narcissistic boss” would “be accountable and just apologize,” which Whedon has yet to do.
Subsequently, Fisher responded to Carpenter’s tweets in kind and took issue with the article suggesting he was not speaking on his own behalf and was only doing so to help Zack Snyder—the Justice League director Whedon replaced after Snyder left the film following a family tragedy.
This is a messy situation all around but there’s little doubt that Whedon’s lack of accountability and attempts to find fault in his accusers’ stories might be even worse than some of the accusations.
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