Joss Whedon's reputation continues to crumble, accused of "gross, abusive" behavior on Justice League set.

[The Romulan Republic]

The producers are also being blamed.

https://usatoday.com/story/entertainmen ... 5361207002

LOS ANGELES — Actor Ray Fisher says director Joss Whedon’s behavior was “abusive” on the set of the 2017 film “Justice League.”

“Joss Wheadon’s on-set treatment of the cast and crew of Justice League was gross, abusive, unprofessional, and completely unacceptable,” Fisher, who played the young superhero Cyborg in the DC Comics film, tweeted Wednesday.

Fisher added that Whedon was “enabled, in many ways, by Geoff Johns and Jon Berg,” two producers on the film who were executives running DC Films for Warner Bros. Pictures at the time.

Whedon has not responded to Fisher on social media, and emails from The Associated Press to representatives seeking comment from him and from Warner Bros. were not immediately returned.

Berg told Variety that it was “categorically untrue that we enabled any unprofessional behavior.”

Whedon, known for his writing and directing on Marvel’s “Avengers” films and television’s “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” was brought in during post-production to replace director Zack Snyder on “Justice League.” He oversaw extensive reshoots, editing and visual effects on the film.

At the time of his departure, Warner Bros. said Snyder was stepping away to be with his family following the death of his 20-year-old daughter.

Actor Ray Fisher, left, and Joss Whedon. Fisher, who played Cyborg in the DC Comics film, “Justice League," tweeted Wednesday that director Whedon's treatment of the cast and crew was “unprofessional and completely unacceptable.” Whedon has not responded.

In May, Warner Bros. announced that Snyder’s long director’s cut of “Justice League” would appear next year on the streaming service HBO Max, something fans had lobbied for since the film’s original release with the hashtag #ReleaseTheSnyderCut.

Fisher showed a sign of his displeasure with Whedon earlier this week when he tweeted a video of himself praising the director as a “great guy” during a panel at San Diego Comic-Con in 2017, with the comment, “I’d like to take a moment to forcefully retract every bit of this statement.”

I would like some more specifics as to what exactly he is said to have done, but it doesn't terribly surprise me. Its become increasingly clear in recent years that, whatever his influence and ability as a writer and director, Whedon personally is, at best, a massive dick and faux feminist.

[Aether]

All I can recall is that:
1. Ran off of Twitter because his fanbase got pissed at the portrayal of Black Widow.
2. Serially cheated on his wife of 15 years.
3. Made fun of teen cancer survivors.

There is probably more, but he certainly does come across as a the left version of the Anti-gay preacher.

[The Romulan Republic]

Cheated on his wife while (at least according to her) deliberately portraying himself as a feminist to avoid criticism.

And there's the whole clusterfuck around Charisma Carpenter's firing after she got pregnant on "Angel".

The man's a clever writer and director, his work is highly influential, but like so many respected figures, on a personal level, its increasingly clear that he's a complete asshole.

I wouldn't be surprised if we get a MeToo complaint against him before long, though to my knowledge it hasn't happened yet.

[Solauren]

I wouldn't be surprised if we get a MeToo complaint against him before long, though to my knowledge it hasn't happened yet.

Actually, that is the one thing that WOULD surprise me at this point

Because....
#1 - If it was going to happen, it would have happened by now. It's been a while since I've heard of a new #Metoo against someone specific in Hollywood.
#2 - With all the women he has worked with over the years (including the last Season of Buffy), and given his apparent intelligence, he probably realized that was a line he couldn't go near, without torpedoing his reputation. Cheating on his wife? In Hollywood, no one will care. One of the actresses he's working with and he's trying to set up his brand as 'massive pro-girl power icon'? That would destroy his 'brand'.

[Elfdart]

Fisher should be thankful he wasn't forced to watch Justice League -now THAT would have really been abusive.

Seriously though, this could be genuine abuse, a bullshit story made up by a disgruntled former employee, or just typical assholery one would expect from middle management in most fields. Or it could be the kind of behavior that comes with being a movie director, where you have a huge burden to complete the film while dealing with cast and crew, which in many cases makes herding cats look easy (especially when he was brought in late to replace the other director, and most likely was stuck with cast and crew he didn't hire). Without specifics though, I'm not really interested in piling on Whedon. For all I know, his "abuse" could have been nothing more than bitching out cast and crew for not being prepared or not giving their best effort. And his marriage/divorce is of no interest to me or anyone else except maybe those who like to sniff others' sheets.

[Knife]

Yeah, not to pile on, but you can be a bad husband and/or shitty person and cheat on your spouse, and still be a Feminist and/or supporter of equal rights. Not saying it makes him a great man, kind of makes him a little sleazy, but the two are not mutually exclusive.

[Ralin]

Yeah, I'm sort of having trouble working up much in the way of concern over allegations from one actor involved that boil down to "Yeah he was totally bad in all sorts of ways, and the bad things he did were really bad and not okay." If he's not willing to give details beyond that, why is he even talking about it? That's the sort of thing you say when you're vaguely aware someone has done shitty things but can't remember details, not when you were personally involved or an eye witness to them.

[FaxModem1]

James Marsters talks about Joss Whedon scaring him at one point because his character of Spike was getting too popular:

Cheatsheet

'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' Creator Joss Whedon Once 'Terrified' James Marsters By Backing Him 'Up Against a Wall'
Fred Topel | MORE ARTICLES

July 14, 2020

Joss Whedon created a phenomenon in Buffy, the Vampire Slayer that continues long after it ended its seven seasons on the air. A reboot is in development and comic books continue to publish. Fans revisit the seven seasons on DVD and Hulu, and episodes featuring Spike (James Marsters) are fan favorites. Looking back, Marsters revealed a moment in which Whedon’s hostility towards him and his character blew up.

[Spoiler alert: This article contains spoilers for Buffy, the Vampire Slayer.]

Joss Whedon with James Marsters and Amber Benson
L-R: James Marsters, Joss Whedon and Amber Benson | Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic, Inc
RELATED: ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’: James Marsters and Amber Benson Weigh in on the Upcoming Reboot


Marsters was a guest on Michael Rosenbaum’s Inside of You podcast on July 14. When Rosenbaum started talking about Buffy, Marsters revealed a moment with Whedon that he says terrified him.

Joss Whedon fought for the theme of ‘Buffy, the Vampire Slayer’
Marsters said his initial season 2 contract was for five to 10 episodes. Spike was a villain whom Buffy (Sarah Michelle Gellar) could slay. When Spike became popular, Whedon got nervous.

“The thing is that I was imperiling the theme of Buffy,” Marsters told Rosenbaum. “Buffy’s actually the same theme as Hamlet which is how do you get through adolescence? How do you see the world as screwed up and not give up, how do you take arms against the sea of troubles, how do you make a positive difference in the world? Vampires in Buffy are just metaphors for all of the challenges that you face in that period.”

Whedon had already compromised with Angel (David Boreanaz). He wasn’t about to turn Buffy into a teen love triangle.

James Marsters as Spike
James Marsters | Albert L. Ortega/WireImage

RELATED: Villanelle Shares 1 Trait With a Dangerous ‘Buffy The Vampire Slayer’ Big Bad on ‘Killing Eve’

“So Joss felt vampires should be ugly,” Marsters said. “They should be very quickly overcome. They were not supposed to be sexy. He said, ‘I don’t like that Anne Rice crap.’ He got talked into one romantic interest vampire. That was Angel. It wasn’t his idea. That was the only one. That was the exception adn then I came along and I wasn’t designed to be a romantic character but then the audience reacted that way to it.”


Joss Whedon terrified James Marsters with tough love
Most show runners would be happy to have a guest star break out. Whedon was fuming when Spike became popular. Obviously, he got over it when he brought Marsters back for season 4.


“I was terrified of Joss,” Marsters said. “Absolutely terrified. He’s such a nice guy. I remember he backed me up against a wall one day. He was just like, ‘I don’t care how popular you are, kid. You’re dead. You hear me? You’re dead, DEAD.’ I was just like uh, it’s your football, man.”

Marsters didn’t blame Whedon.


Joss Whedon | Albert L. Ortega/WireImage

RELATED: ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’: Cordelia Was Supposed to Be Played by a Black Actress

“He was angry at the situation I think,” Marsters said. “Why should he? If it had been me in his shoes, I’d have killed me off immediately. He resented a situation where he had to deal with another romantic vampire when his theme was that vampires are the problems you have to get over in high school, in season 2 when he’s trying to hold onto a really good theme and it’s getting corrupted by a surprise character.”


James Marsters believed in ‘Buffy, the Vampire Slayer’ too
Marsters agreed with Whedon’s take on vampires. Even though Spike eventually fell in love with Buffy, he agreed they should portray evil appropriately.


James Marsters | J. P. Aussenard/WireImage

RELATED: ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’: Sarah Michelle Gellar and Charisma Carpenter Auditioned For Each Others’ Roles

Evil is not cool. I think that a lot of what we do in Los Angeles and Hollywood, when we portray evil as cool, I think that we’re really lying. I think that evil is stupid and laughable and it should not be portrayed as cool and I really respect Joss that he’s not interested in portraying evil as cool. If I had been producing that show and I had been in control and Spike was getting romantic, I just would have slit his throat right away. I would just protect the theme. I don’t think I’m as brave as Joss. Joss decided to deal with it and try to find a way to explore that.

James Marsters, Inside of You podcast, 7/14/2020

TL:DR : Joss Whedon was getting pissed at James Marsters popularity in Buffy season 2, reacted negatively towards the actor about it, but James was cool about it.

[Solauren]

So, why get pissed off at a villian character HE created getting popular? That just means he did and awesome job of it!

[Darth Yan]

Someone else made an accusation towards Geoff Johns as well. Honestly.....I don't know what to make of it.

Basically

Twitter user cinnamon bun @notsofiacoppola said this

1.) "Geoff Johns used to flirt with me via dms when I was 17 and I just figured he’d get exposed as a creep someday but I never thought he could be a horrible person (lol) sorry u dealt with that Ray!!"

2.) "I guess I should clarify this since people are messaging me about it and I didn’t really think anyone would see this reply but basically I was into comic books (sigh) when I was in high school so I would reply to Geoff’s tweets and he would dm flirty messages all the time"

3.) "One time he tweeted about an auction and one of the prizes was lunch with him and I replied saying I wanted to win (still underage) and he immediately dmed me saying “we can have lunch” I haven’t thought much about it until today when someone put a tweet about him on the timeline"

4.) "I didn’t think any of it was weird because I liked his work but now that I’m 24 and looking back it was v creepy!!! Don’t prey on your underage fans ya weirdos!!! The end back to strawberry cow tweeting!!!"

I've only seen one other person actually give a similar story and she's involved with the Snyder Cut movement (which has seen a LOT of vile lies and conspiracy theories tossed the way off Johns and everyone else involved after Snyder left).

https://mobile.twitter.com/search?q=%40 ... yped_query

Other than that though there hasn't really been anything. I took the time to go through twitter mentions of Geoff Johns between now and July 1st. No other accusations were made since then. Two people claim that they've heard whispers from others but are being vague on the topic other than saying "it's not my story to tell".

https://mobile.twitter.com/cowboybeeflo ... 0016029699

There's been people complaining that he covered for Eddie Berganza (a serial predator who was allowed free reign despite multiple women calling him out until Buzzfeed of all places published an article about Berganza's fuckery) so I can definitely buy THAT. But I think more proof is needed