Joss Whedon is a pig, a bully and a very toxic person. As it turns out, his ex-wife was right about everything. It was basically an open secret among many TV casts and crews that Whedon was and is f–king awful. When Charisma Carpenter spoke out last week, many of the women in Whedon’s world came forward to support her. Very few of the men in that world said anything. David Boreanaz was the one of the men who said nothing for days. Over the weekend, Boreanaz’s silence became a story, especially after he deleted all but one post from his Instagram account.
Boreanaz got his start in TV on Buffy, and then he got a Buffy spinoff, Angel. After his work with Whedon, he immediately went into Bones, where he stayed for 12 years. I saw a lot of shade for Boreanaz and a lot of rumor-mongering which surprised me, frankly, because I was not aware – before now – of anything untoward about his behavior on TV sets. While Boreanaz got caught up in the Tiger Woods-Rachel Uchitel scandal more than a decade ago – Boreanaz cheated on his wife with Uchitel before Uchitel met Tiger Woods – I thought his professional reputation was good. But then I saw the stuff online about how he would walk around the Buffy and Angel sets naked, and how he settled one sexual harassment case out of court. So… yeah. Ugh. David finally said something online about Whedon, and then Charisma Carpenter replied and thanked him for his private support too:
I am here for you to listen and support you. Proud of your strength♥️🙏
— David Boreanaz (@David_Boreanaz) February 14, 2021
I know you’re there for me, David. I appreciate all you’ve done to demonstrate that support privately as well. Especially since Wednesday. -Thank you so much. ♥️
— charisma carpenter (@AllCharisma) February 15, 2021
Separate from the other stuff… I think it’s nice that his first reaction to Charisma’s post was to reach out to her privately to offer support. I hope a lot of Charisma’s friends and former coworkers did the same. In addition to Boreanaz, several other actors in Whedon’s shows have recently spoken up to lend Charisma support, among them: Danny Strong, Adam Busch and Tom Lenk and Amy Acker.
Boreanaz’s Bones costar Emily Deschanel also tweeted support to Charisma:
🙏🏼
— charisma carpenter (@AllCharisma) February 10, 2021
Photos courtesy of Getty, Avalon Red.
I believed his accuser. She will never get the publicity Charisma is getting.
Maybe I should have said she will never get the support Charisma is getting.
“since Wednesday”
Loved that she put that in there.
Yikes, I never heard of this case against him before! That’s more than just harassment! He trapped her in his car, groped her, and then masturbated in front of her!? Isn’t that several actual sex crimes?
Yes definitely
Yeah I read the details yesterday, and it’s definitely more assault than harassment.
Based on what the linked article says he did, I’d say it’s both assault and harassment. If it was just the incident in the car, I’d limit it to assault, but that he tried again in his trailer, and sent sexts & dick pics, definitely makes it harassment too.
I’m glad that woman had the courage to sue and I *hope* it didn’t hurt her career.
A lot of the male cast have basically been saying they had no idea it was that bad. Which begs the question, where they oblivious? Not paying attention or caring about their cast members experiences? Or did they have a completely different experience and relationship with Joss and the women just kept silent and soldiered on.
The most interesting response I saw from Anthony Head. He seemed like he genuinely had no idea and said he was now going back over his memories and wondering how he missed it.
I think with Anthony Heard as soon as he had finished filming he went straight back to England so it could be his focus was elsewhere (not that am making excuses for him – he has a good rep here in the UK) and IIRC his part got smaller as the seasons went on.
In situations like this women tend to hide things out of fear and it does seem that this was the environment that Whedon had created, esp if he had favourites with female cast/staff members.
In addition to being a shield Anthony’s age could also mean he didn’t spend as much time with the younger cast where he’d hear about some of the things happening around the set when he wasn’t around. I could see him being separated from some of the abusive activity.
I read a quote recently and that has really stuck with me during this particular case – Abusers groom their witnesses as well as their victims. I bet how JW acts around and towards older white men and the super famous and powerful cast of the avengers is much different to how he behaves around young actresses at the beginning of their careers. Anthony Head only ever saw one side of Whedon because Whedon was careful to cultivate a certain type of image around him. If Head and Whedon were close, I’m sure actresses felt they couldn’t go to Head for support or express their opinions about JW to them because they might have felt that Head would side with Whedon instead of them.
I think the easiest and most optimistic answer to that question is that Whedon didn’t do it around them. Bullies pick on people they perceive to be weaker than themselves, not people they perceive to be equal or stronger. Antony Head was an established actor slumming it in a teen tv series when Buffy started, unlike most of the young female (and male) cast members. I doubt he’d have put up with witnessing the kind of mistreatment that various female cast members, or even James Marsters, have talked about, and Whedon wouldn’t have wanted to be embarrassed by someone squaring up to him in front of the entire cast and crew. It’s not an accident that the people he seems to have targeted on the Justice League set were the younger less established actors (particularly the people of colour) rather than Ben Affleck, and none of the A listers in the Avengers cast have shared similar experiences. On the sets of Buffy and Angel, Whedon was god. On the sets of the DCEU and the MCU, he may have had some power as director but that pales into comparison when compared to the clout wielded by Ben Affleck, Robert Downey Jr, Scarlet Johansen and so on, all Oscar winners, nominees etc. And his products are no longer profitable enough for him to get away with bad behaviour. Look how quickly Warner Brothers and HBO have cut ties with him in the wake of Justice League’s disappointing box office performance, and handed the project back to Zack Snyder.
A less optimistic answer is that they knew and didn’t care, or didn’t care enough to jeopardise their own jobs to support colleagues by attempting to intervene. But I’d prefer to think that’s not the case. It’s surprising how blind you can be to things going on with colleagues – if you’re not very good friends outside of the workplace, you may not know the first thing about their personal lives, and a lot of workplace stuff is compartmentalised for a variety of reasons. Plus you may witness one thing, but you don’t have the context to know what it means – maybe your boss criticises someone, but it’s the first time you’ve heard them do it so you don’t think anything of it, perhaps they’re having a bad day etc. Whereas if they criticise that person repeatedly, you start to get a sense that something isn’t right.
James Marsters came out last year about his own experiences with Whedon’s bullying. I don’t know if he’s said anything specific to this situation though.
It’s likely all three. I worked at a place where we had an abusive boss for a year. He went after the most vulnerable employees. Myself and 3 department managers had no clue. One department manager knew, but did nothing. She later said, ‘what could I do?’. I think she DGAF, she wanted the money but didn’t want to deal with people side of being a manager. Another department manager found out when her assistant manager came to her asking for advice. She caught that something was really not okay, got the assistant manager (who was friends with other coworkers) to start talking to other employees, and gathered info to figure out just how bad it was. Than the abusive boss went on vacation for 2 weeks. She called the district boss, he interviewed the employees, abusive boss came back to no job. This only worked because the right person found out – someone who cared, knew what to do, and had enough influence, sadly most of the time this doesn’t happen.
I think the same, it’s all three. The abuser will treat another man differently, but also be careful to inflict their abuse when the victim is alone or vulnerable. And I just think most men in general aren’t as aware, because they don’t have to walk through life worrying about protecting themselves. Not to say men can’t be victims of abuse, of course, but most of them have no idea what women go through on a daily basis.
the silence of Amy Acker who worked with CC on angel and went on to do a movie with JW is interesting. They did the Shakespeare adaption together. She was in the Dollhouse as well….She also worked on the 2 season canceled xmen spin off show that the accused pedophile Bryan Singer produced for FOX…
Acker did speak up and that’s referenced above. It’s disturbing that Allison Hannigan & Alexis Denisof do not appear to have lent their support to Carpenter – at least not publicly yet.
I lived in LA in the 2000s and was at a party where David Boreanaz was hanging around out on the patio/veranda and surrounded by women. He was gorgeous, but also a little creepy to me. I didn’t hear it, but my friend heard him say he was leaving and needed to gather up his “pussy posse”. Super gross. I’ve never liked him since but I guess it’s nice he said this? Meh.
Wow. This is so disturbing. Never knew this about DB.
I don’t think that it wasn’t people paying attention. It was a different time and there was this pervasive idea that “boys will be boys”. That toxicity led to women being convinced that somehow they brought this on themselves. Women are told to be “sexy” and when they comply, many are told that the bad things that can happen when boys are being boys are their fault because they were too sexy. It is a horrible and soul destroying cycle.
It was a huge story. David’s accuser had Gloria Allr*d as her lawyer, they had a big public press conference…..it was tabloid new for months….She certainly had the publicity……The case got filed for dismissal, and they settled it out of court. Make of that what you will.
David & Charisma are good friends. David & Joss are not and never have been. Joss had his favorites and it certainly wasn’t David or Charisma….looks at Alyson, Alexis and Fillion – who have said NOTHING. And won’t
The main thing here is Charisma. Who is there for her. She literally thanked David for his personal support. I won’t take away her agency on this. It’s Charisma who matters.
Nathan Fillion has his own issues – both the tv shows he worked on after Firefly have had behind the scenes issues that he seems to have managed to skate away from, consequence-free.
Yeah isn’t that interesting? I really liked him back in the Firefly days, but in later years I’m getting the impression he’s not a good guy.
@lucy2 I had such a crush on him for a while during the early Castle days but there was something off about his behaviour. The whole mancave, never-grow-up thing. But on the other hand there was a bunch of pretty cool ladies who seemed to like him loads, so I’m not sure what to make of him. And yeah, I kind of wonder what Whedon has on Hannigan and Denisof for them to stay quiet and I fear I have an idea what he has on Amy Acker. I also wonder where Alan Tudyk stands on all this, out of Whedon favourites he managed to get the biggest career without referencing Whedon every two minutes or staying in his circle for too long.
Are there rumors of issues on set of The Rookie? I don’t watch that show but I did watch Castle and I remember all the rumors saying Nathan Fillion and Stana Katic were not getting along behind the scenes. They announced Stana was leaving before the finale of the last season aired, the fans freaked out, and then ABC cancelled the show (thank God).
@sally Tudyk came out rather quickly on Twitter after this all started by saying that since he didn’t experience or see anything, it must not have happened. He got so much flak for that bs comment that he has since deleted the tweet.
Julie Benz, who played Darla on both shows, tweeted her support and said, “Sending love to my fellow Buffy and Angel survivors.”
“Survivors.” Quite a choice of words. It’s pretty clear there was a stark divide between those who suffered the abuse and those who chose not to see it.
I once read an interview with two guys who cast Benz in a show, post-Angel. It wasn’t Dexter, and I can’t remember which show. It was horrifying and I wish I had saved it. This is likely a decade ago and it was so bad I still remember it. These two morons described meeting Benz and being disappointed at first. I don’t know, she wasn’t made up or something. Anyway, they said she didn’t give them ” a chubby”. I swear to God. And then they saw her again and she was refreshed and she did give them one. I have searched all over for this interview but I can’t find it. I read it though, it was real.
I can only imagine the stories Julie has. She was objectified beyond the telling of it.
Sometimes I think this entire industry should be burned to the ground and rebuilt from scratch.
David liked both CC and SMG’s posts the day they were published so I do not have an issue with his few days of silence.
Alexis Denisof and Alyson Hannigan still haven’t done anything to acknowledge CC or other cast members and Amy Acker’s comment that she finally produced wasn’t great.
I think it’s weird that David got singled out for criticism while the As skates by
Well he was the lead.
Acker, I am really unsure about. I know Whedon was obsessed with her, so she may have her own stories she will never tell. And those may be very complicated stories. You know? Like, really complicated.
Hannigan was a Whedon fav and not because he was infatuated by her. She may be a bully herself. I am very skeptical of Ms. Hannigan. Denisof, I don’t know. Could just be supporting his wife, could be a bad guy. I really don’t know.
I have a vague recollection of once reading a story that there was tension with Hannigan and SMG over who got star billing – rumour was Hannigan wanted equal billing/pay/story lines to SMG (the titular character) as she felt her character was just as big as Buffy.
Hannigan being Whedon’s fave explains the Willow storylines in the later series. Willow had more screen time than Buffy at some point.
So I mentioned this further down, but the behavior of an abuser is really complicated. It’s not impossible that some of the other women who have been silent (Hannigan, Acker for example) were abused themselves by Whedon AND behaved horribly to other women in turn. Abusers turn people against each other.
All I’m saying is we shouldn’t jump to conclusions either way about the fact that some women are still silent. They may be working through some things on their own that they aren’t ready to discuss openly.
At the time Angel came out, I was completely unaware of any of this – obviously. But I hated the character of Fred so much, and I was so annoyed that she was being crammed down our throats. It was obvious JW had some kind of feelings for her, and by the end I just quit watching.
It’s funny I hated Fred and after season 5 I hated Willow. Willow’s character turned into such a snotty b*tch, I really felt like they assassinated her character in the name of “growth”.
I loved Angel in high school and it kind of sucks (but not surprising) that another entitled white dude was unaware and/or was being an abuser himself. I feel like all this social media support is just trying to get good PR for him and it seems fake but if Charisma is good with it then I guess that’s something.
Where there’s smoke…
He6s covering his butt. He’s always had that creepy vibe.
Well that’s good to know. He’s still a d-bag though.
He still kinda seems like an out of touch, gross white guy, but his statement is something, I guess.
I will say that I think we should be careful about jumping to conclusions about the other women who haven’t released statements yet. Even if they were perceived as a “favorite” of Whedon’s, being the “favorite” of an abuser is really messy and complicated, and it doesn’t necessarily mean they weren’t abused themselves.