Last year, Justice League actor Ray Fisher took to Twitter to call out Joss Whedon for “gross, abusive, unprofessional, and completely unacceptable” behavior on the movie’s set. He also claimed that Whedon was enabled by producers Geoff Johns and Jon Berg. The actor did not share further details, but Berg told Variety that Fisher’s accusations were “categorically untrue.”
Now, Charisma Carpenter has spoken out on social media about the alleged abusive treatment she experienced at the hands of Whedon while filming Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel.
“For nearly two decades, I have held my tongue and even made excuses for certain events that traumatized me to this day,” she wrote. “Joss Whedon abused his power on numerous occasions while working together on the sets of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. While he found his misconduct amusing, it only served to intensify my performance anxiety, disempower me, and alienate me from my peers. The disturbing incidents triggered a chronic physical condition from which I still suffer. It is with a beating, heavy heart that I say I coped in isolation and, at times, destructively.”
Carpenter, whose character Cordelia was killed off from Angel in a controversial childbirth scene, also opened up about Whedon’s alleged targeted abuse when the actor became pregnant:
“Joss intentionally refused multiple calls from my agents making it impossible to connect with him to tell him the news that I was pregnant. Finally, once Joss was apprised of the situation, he requested meeting with me. In that closed-door meeting, he asked me if I was ‘going to keep it’ and manipulatively weaponized my womanhood and faith against me. He proceeded to attack my character, mock my religious beliefs, accuse me of sabotaging the show, and then unceremoniously fired me the following season once I gave birth.”
Amber Benson, who played Tara on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, showed her support towards Carpenter on Twitter, saying Buffy “was a toxic environment and it starts at the top.”
Whedon has yet to comment on the allegations.
Read Carpenter’s full statement below.
UPDATE, 2:50 PM CST: Sarah Michelle Gellar released a statement on Instagram. It reads: “While I am proud to have my name associated with Buffy Summers, I don’t want to be forever associated with the name Joss Whedon. I am more focused on raising my family and surviving a pandemic currently, so I will not be making any further statements at this time. But I stand with all survivors of abuse and am proud of them for speaking out.”
Michelle Trachtenberg reposted Gellar’s statement, adding a statement of her own. “I am brave enough now as a 35 year old woman....To repost this. Because. This must. Be known. As a teenager. With his not appropriate behavior......,” she wrote. She then added, “You. Are my rock!! What he did was very bad. But we win. By surviving!”
UPDATE, FRIDAY 9:15AM CST: Michelle Trachtenberg has added more information to her statement, saying “The last. Comment I will make on this. Was. There was a rule. Saying. He’s not allowed in a room alone with Michelle again.”