Joss Whedon’s New York Magazine cover interview was disturbing at so many levels. Here was a guy who was a hero, icon and nerd-god to so many people, and he spent decades abusing his power, treating women like sh-t and being completely racist… and he really has zero explanation for any of it. I mean, he tried! In the NY Mag piece, he tried to explain away his abuse and toxicity… by being even more toxic, by saying outright that Charisma Carpenter lied about him, that Ray Fisher is a bad actor, that he (Whedon) was powerless to resist sleeping with young women working for him on his shows. Oh, and he also suggested that Gal Gadot’s isn’t even fluent enough in English to understand how he verbally threatened her career.
Well, Charisma Carpenter issued a statement, standing with Ray Fisher, defending Gal Gadot and saying that Whedon is a “tyrannical narcissistic boss who is still unable to be accountable and just apologize.”
— charisma carpenter (@AllCharisma) January 18, 2022
— charisma carpenter (@AllCharisma) January 18, 2022
Yep. Hard agree. As for Ray Fisher, he retweeted Charisma and said #IStandWithCharismaCarpenter and pointed out that NY Magazine “should be ashamed for regurgitating this nonsense.” There’s a lot of energy towards that in the wake of the Whedon piece’s publication: why was it written as sympathetic towards Whedon? Why didn’t NY Magazine give more space to Whedon’s victims? Why did Whedon get the last word in the article? I understand both sides of this – I do think it was fascinating to basically watch Whedon, in real time, deflect constantly to how hard everything has been on him, to see him somewhat fact-checked within the piece. The writer, Lila Shapiro, didn’t spoon-feed her analysis to readers. She wasn’t doing asides of “wow, this guy is a toxic douche.” She let other people say that. Do I think the piece was couched in too much sympathy for Whedon? Kind of. But I understood why she wrote it that way.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
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- LOS ANGELES, CA, USA – JANUARY 23: Screenwriter Joss Whedon arrives at the Los Angeles Art Show 2019 Opening Night Gala held at the Los Angeles Convention Center on January 23, 2019 in Los Angeles, California, United States.,Image: 535184142, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: WORLD RIGHTS – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Avalon.red – sales@avalon.red London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251 Madrid: +34 91 533 4289 – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For querie, Model Release: no, Credit line: Xavier Collin/Image Press Agency / Xavier Collin / Avalon
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- Actress Charisma Carpenter arrives at the 45th Annual Saturn Awards held at Avalon Hollywood on September 13, 2019 in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, United States. (Photo by David Acosta/Image Press Agency),Image: 537336424, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: WORLD RIGHTS – Fee Payable Upon Reproduction – For queries contact Avalon.red – sales@avalon.red London: +44 (0) 20 7421 6000 Los Angeles: +1 (310) 822 0419 Berlin: +49 (0) 30 76 212 251, Model Release: no, Credit line: David Acosta/Image Press Agency / Image Press Agency / Avalon
Ferocious and fantastic messages from Charisma Carpenter.
I love her Gal Gadot response. It was perfect.
This is what happens when your arrogance rules you. What a jerk!
I’ve been team Charisma since day 1! She’s the best. Curious about her alcoholism tweet. Is Whedon an alcoholic?
The article also says that he’s undergoing treatment for “sex and love addiction, along with other addictive tendencies…”
My article was perfect. It let him speak for himself and show the world what a disgusting human he is.
“THE article was perfect” not “my”…I need coffee.
I 100% agree. It felt like it was written for those who still support Joss Whedon, to show them that they are supporting an a-hole.
I agree. It gave him enough rope to hang himself, so to speak. Whedon showed his a** in that interview, and it spoke plenty on its own.
I love her and stand with her. And Ray.
I don’t care how nerd-God he seemed back in the day, I cannot imagine sleeping with this guy. This is a general comment, not against anyone specific who did. He’s just repugnant and I think there’s no way he completely hid it for decades.
I believe Charisma is a recovering alcoholic.
Charisma Carpenter was my favorite actor in Buffy and Angel. Her fans have long suspected, from the time she was fired, that Whedon was a very bad showrunner and human being. There were soooo many things in his writing that were truly gross towards women, I would say *especially* Buffy — his dream girl — herself. But the fans never had concrete evidence of Whedon’s treatment of his cast until Carpenter spoke out. Now I’m her fan x100000000.
She was always my favorite on both of those shows too. I never understood why she wasn’t the breakout star of either, but of course now we all know.
I really applaud her, and Ray, and Gal for standing up for themselves, and others, and not letting this go. I’m sorry for anyone who had to deal with Whedon over the years, but I’m so glad they’ve all spoken up and he’s pretty much done now. He’ll probably cry about cancel culture and be hired for small stuff, but I think his big franchise days are gone.
Cordelia was absolutely my favorite character too! I preferred Angel to Buffy once it was on the air almost entirely because of her. (Especially later because the ‘Buffy is so sad about being alive again that she just HAS to have an abusive relationship with Spike’ thing just . . . sat ill with me.) I quit watching even Angel during season 4. Once the Cordelia and Connor storyline hit, I completely checked out.
I think I also connected with Charisma as a person because despite not acknowledging it – even to myself – until years later, I was drawn to her story of being a rape survivor. Being as young as I was and unable to talk to anyone that I knew about it due to fear it was nice to hear someone say that you can carry on and have a normal life after that kind of trauma.
At the very least it’s so nice to see Ray, Charisma, and a lot of Whedon’s other victims supporting each other right now – I hope that has made it a little easier for all of them.
I think the article was perfect. The author gave Joss Whedon just enough rope to hang himself. I didn’t find it a particularly sympathetic piece. It wasn’t attempting to be an “all sides” story, w/interviews of all involved. It felt like it presented the allegations and gave Whedon an opportunity to have a voice, while also clearly showing that his statements were those of a narcissistic twit.
Charisma and Ray Fisher are so brave. I absolutely believe and support them. Give THEM major magazine profiles!