A recently released profile shed light on Joss Whedon's alleged abusive behaviors, with one such allegation claiming he publicly humiliated a colleague on his series, Firefly.
In the profile, published by Vulture, a Firefly writer alleged that Whedon ridiculed a colleague for writing a script that did not meet his standards. They recalled Whedon convening a meeting with the entire writing staff, rather than sharing his notes privately with the colleague. "It was basically 90 minutes of vicious mockery," said the writer, whose name was not published. "Joss pretended to have a slide projector, and he read her dialogue out loud and pretended he was giving a lecture on terrible writing as he went through the 'slides' and made funny voices -- funny for him. The guys were looking down at their pages, and this woman was fighting tears the entire time. I've had my share of shitty showrunners, but the intent to hurt -- that's the thing that stands out for me now."
Responding to the accusation, Whedon admitted that he was not as "civilized" at that time. He explained, "I was young. 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." However, the Firefly creator denied that he would ever purposely humiliate someone, adding, "If I am upsetting someone, it will be a problem for me."
These accusations are in line with a claim made by Firefly writer, Jose Molina, in February 2021, who referred to Whedon's "casually cruel" behavior on set, particularly towards the women in the cast and crew. "'Casually cruel' is a perfect way of describing Joss," Molina said. "He thought being mean was funny. Making female writers cry during a notes session was especially hysterical. He actually liked to boast about the time he made one writer cry twice in one meeting."
Among Whedon's critics mentioned in the profile was Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot, who has previously stated that the Justice League director threatened her career. Countering Gadot's claims, Whedon said that the actress misunderstood him due to a language barrier, though Gadot has since maintained that she understood him perfectly.
Following Zack Snyder's departure from 2017's Justice League, Whedon was brought on for edits and reshoots, but the Avengers director clashed with the cast and crew, notably Gadot's co-star, Victor Stone/Cyborg actor Ray Fisher. In 2020, Fisher accused Whedon of multiple forms of misconduct, including making racially motivated edits to the film, and called the director's treatment of the cast and crew "gross, abusive, unprofessional and completely unacceptable."
Whedon is the creator of acclaimed shows such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer, its spinoff Angel, Firefly and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., among others. Early last year, Whedon departed his latest project The Nevers, an HBO science-fiction drama, following allegations of misconduct from former Buffy star Charisma Carpenter, though Whedon has denied those claims. Other Buffy cast members later lent their support to Carpenter, including Amber Benson, Michelle Trachtenberg and Sarah Michelle Gellar.
Source: Vulture