After years of allegations being hurled at writer-director Joss Whedon for such despicable acts as sexual abuse to on-set racism, the Cabin in the Woods helmer took it upon himself to sit down for a multi-day interview where he addresses almost all of the charges levied against him by his ex-wife and former cast members. The interview opens up difficult interrogations regarding his alleged abuse of Buffy the Vampire Slayer co-star Charisma Carpenter, his verbal abuse of female writers, and admitted affairs he had with fans and journalists. But it’s the passages regarding his controversial stint on Warner Bros. Justice League that are the focus of this article. We advise you go read the article in full.
By the time the interview with New York Magazine (via Apple News), shifts to Justice League, Joss Whedon describes his decision to try and “fix” Zack Snyder’s cut of the movie for Warner Bros. as being one of his biggest regrets. The article rehashes explanations for the discontent on set that have been shared by DC and Zack Snyder fans for years: That Snyder encouraged improvisation in his actors, while Whedon expected them to adhere to his script; That Gal Gadot pushed back against Whedon’s writing, and the director insulted her. A crew member recalling their time on the set claims that Whedon said he’d never worked with “a ruder group of people” than the Justice League cast. And in trying to clarify his disconnect with Gadot, Whedon told New York Magazine:
English is not her first language, and I tend to be annoyingly flowery in my speech.
Gal Gadot responded to this by telling NY Magazine she “understood perfectly” everything the director was trying to convey. Eventually, the interview turns to the accusations leveled against Whedon by Justice League co-star Ray Fisher, who said the director abused his power while on set of the reshoots and was enabled by Warner Bros. executives, calling out Geoff Johns and Jon Berg. Whedon doesn’t address those accusations directly, though he does offer his explanation as to why Fisher’s performance as Cyborg – which Zack Snyder famously referred to as the “heart” of the movie – was cut out of the 2017 theatrical release of Justice League. Whedon says in the article that the Cyborg storyline “logically made no sense,” and allegedly called Fisher’s acting bad. He claims to have had friendly conversations with Fisher about the changes he wanted to make, and says that none of Fisher’s claims to the media have been “either true or merited discussing.” In conclusion, Whedon told New York Magazine:
We’re talking about a malevolent force. We’re talking about a bad actor in both senses.
New York Magazine claims to have reached out to Ray Fisher multiple times with interview requests, but they say the actor did not respond.
Snyder fans already are taking to social media to defend Fisher, and declare Whedon “done” following the interview. Posts like this flooded Twitter as the latest rounds of details regarding this back-and-forth surfaced.
There may never be a clean resolution to the events that happened on the Justice League reshoots, though Snyder fans at least can claim a creative victory because their efforts to get the Snyder Cut of the film released culminated in an HBO Max debut in March 2021.
