Joss Whedon finally responded to the claims of abuse and racism levied against him in the years since the release of Justice League, and most of his claims make the situation way worse for him. It's been nearly five years since Whedon replaced Zack Snyder as the director of Justice League and over a year and a half since Ray Fisher first started his campaign against Whedon and Warner Bros. over the alleged abuse during Justice League reshoots, and Whedon's comments mark the first time he's commented publicly on the accusations.
Fisher isn't the first person to accuse Whedon of bad behavior. A number of claims have been made over the years, most notably Whedon's ex-wife, Kai Cole, who wrote an open letter calling him a "hypocrite preaching feminist ideals" in August 2017, while Justice League's extensive reshoots were still underway. It wasn't until July 2020 that Fisher began revealing behavior he described as "gross, abusive, unprofessional, and completely unacceptable," against Whedon and former DC Films co-presidents Geoff Johns and John Berg, later revealing additional claims of racism. Fisher was eventually joined by more figures from Whedon's past, including members of the cast and crew of his shows, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel, such as Charisma Carpenter, Michelle Trachtenberg, Sarah Michelle Gellar, and James Marsters, adding additional claims of abuse and workplace toxicity.
WarnerMedia eventually launched an investigation into Fisher's claims, interviewing over 80 people, eventually issuing a statement that the "[investigation] has concluded and remedial action has been taken." No details of WarnerMedia's investigation findings were revealed, but Whedon had conspicuously stepped away from his HBO Max series, The Nevers, which Fisher said was "undoubtedly a result" of the investigation. Fisher is still seeking action on Geoff Johns for claims of racism as well as an apology from DC Films president Walter Hamada, but Whedon's part of the story has been quiet until now, providing numerous statements to Vulture, seemingly in an attempt to clear his name, but most of his explanations seem to have landed him in even more hot water.
Joss Whedon's Excuses Make Accusations Against Him Look Even Worse
One of the biggest overarching issues with Whedon's responses is an odd tendency to overshare incriminating explanations. Some of his answers not only confirm the original complaint but also go on to reveal more harmful behaviors or motivations with no accompanying apology. One of the most glaring examples is his affairs on the set of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, where he not only confirms that they happened, but says he was "powerless to resist" the urge to sleep with the young women working for him and he feared he'd "always regret it" if he didn't have sex with them.
This is a problem on multiple levels. The affairs themselves were dishonest and unfaithful to his wife (at the time), but his claims he was "powerless to resist" while he also acknowledges the problem of a "power dynamic" raises serious questions of consent. By his own admission, these were all younger women who he had authority over in an environment where multiple people have claimed they didn't feel safe. Michelle Trachtenberg even claimed she wasn't allowed to be alone with Whedon, and she was 16 at the time. It's one thing for Whedon to be unfaithful to his wife and sleep around, it's another thing for him to do it with his own cast and crew, especially ones that were far younger than him.
Whedon's own description of these events is enough to escalate the situation from simple claims of infidelity to concerns of more dangerous predatory behavior. It's just not clear exactly what Whedon is trying to accomplish, considering his description of events doesn't include any kind of apology for the women involved. He provides similarly concerning accounts of his other behaviors, such as his yelling at people on set or musing that maybe he was actually too nice as a showrunner (in the face of multiple abuse allegations, which he denies), repeatedly suggesting he may have crossed some kind of ethical line without revealing the extent to which crossed it. Considering the nature of many of the accusations made against him, his odd answers make concerns over his past behavior even more troublesome than before.
Joss Whedon's Answers Confirm Some Accusations, But He Doesn't Apologize
Since Whedon admits to having multiple affairs on set, it's not a question of whether or not he slept with members of his crew, but of how consensual those relationships were and what the effect was on the young women involved. Despite this, Whedon simply says that he felt "terrible" about it, but he only expands on that explanation by saying he "lived in terror" of his on-set affairs being discovered. There's no sign of remorse or concern for his behavior and the underlying ethics concerns or potential impact on the women other than bemoaning how difficult it was for his own life without giving any kind of apology for the behavior.
On the Justice League set, he dismisses the accusations against him, alleging the actors were simply "rude" to him. Many of the claims leveled at him by Gal Gadot and Ray Fisher have been corroborated by additional sources according to previous reports, so the logical thing here (if we're to assume he's truly innocent) would be for him to acknowledge a misunderstanding or miscommunication and apologize for his part in it, claim he understands and appreciates why they feel the way that they do and that he regrets his part in it, even if it wasn't his intention. But that's not what he does. Instead, he accuses Ray Fisher of lying and says Gal Gadot's grasp of English was too weak.
Throughout the piece, he frequently admits to causing harm to people, either through his own failures or through misunderstandings on their part, but he doesn't apologize or say he regrets his actions. He expresses regret for things like the potential regret he'd have from not sleeping with the young women working for him or that he regrets taking the job to direct Justice League in the first place, but he doesn't say he regrets his actions or the way he handled his personal interactions with the people making claims against him.
Joss Whedon's Responses To Abuse Allegations Double Down On His Bad Behavior
Some of Whedon's responses actually double down on the kind of behavior he's being accused of. Gal Gadot previously corroborated reports that he threatened her career over a disagreement with the script. Whedon denies this outright, claiming Gadot didn't understand him because "English is not her first language" and he tends to be "annoyingly flowery" when he talks. This isn't only extremely condescending about her linguistic skill (her interviews suggest she has a perfectly capable grasp of the English language), but also suggests she's not smart enough to pick up on what he perceives as more sophisticated vocabulary. If this were truly the case, it's also rather cruel of him to speak to her in a way he believed she couldn't fully grasp, especially during a dramatic confrontation such as the script disagreements described. Additionally, the claims that he threatened her are far from anecdotal, as they've been supported by multiple members of the cast and crew. His response doesn't only fail to resolve or apologize for the alleged offense, but actually doubles down by insulting Gadot and blaming her for the conflict.
With Ray Fisher, there's a lot more going on since Fisher is the driving force behind putting Whedon in this situation in the first place. Fisher has claimed Whedon was abusive and racist on set on multiple occasions and he also prompted the WarnerMedia investigation that seemingly resulted in Whedon's departure from The Nevers. Whedon doesn't claim any sort of miscommunication, but outright claims Fisher is lying about his experiences, also taking a jab at Fisher's acting ability. Whedon suggests Fisher is motivated by a "malevolent force," seemingly referring to a theory the article mentions that Zack Snyder is manipulating Fisher into thinking Whedon is racist, or potentially that Fisher is outright lying to "manufacture a controversy."
This defense is ironically just as racist as the things Fisher is accusing him of in the first place. Instead of taking Fisher's claims of racism seriously and apologizing or chalking it up to a misunderstanding, this claim infers Fisher is incapable of thinking or acting independently and is instead subservient to a grudge held by Snyder, therefore implying Snyder is taking advantage of Fisher's race to smear Whedon. This claim isn't only wild, but also serves as hard text evidence of Whedon behaving even more offensively than many of the claims leveled against him in the first place.
Whedon's Version of His Justice League Reshoot Behavior Was Already Debunked
Finally, the wildest aspect of the interview was a number of Whedon's claims that objectively lack any kind of evidentiary standing. Whether it's the product of out-of-date quotes because the interview was conducted in Spring 2021 before many more recent developments, or due to poorly conceived falsifications by Whedon, some of his claims are blatantly untrue, casting an odd light on everything else he says in the interview.
The suggestion Fisher is really just Zack Snyder's puppet to get revenge on Whedon is a pretty crazy conspiracy. First, Fisher has a known history of taking action on workplace issues, including organizing a union at one of his former jobs, so to propose the notion that he's not capable of taking this action on its own is already odd. Second, WarnerMedia confirmed there was an investigation and 80 witnesses were interviewed thanks to Fisher's organization, they say there was "remedial action," and Whedon departed The Nevers. Third, Fisher was publicly backed up by Jason Momoa and others, so to suggest Fisher's claims are fabricated or Snyder is secretly manipulating Fisher doesn't even hold up to the lightest scrutiny. Whedon could have acknowledged Fisher's perception of their interactions and claimed Fisher misunderstood him like he did with Gadot (who actually says she "understood him perfectly"), which may or may not have been true, but it would have at least presented better optics than supporting a wild conspiracy theory.
The other claim was that Ray Fisher's role in Justice League was changed because the original Cyborg plot made "no logical sense" and that Fisher' performance was bad. Backing up a little bit, Cyborg's role in Zack Snyder's Justice League is one of the more special changes, as Snyder described the character as the "heart" of his story. Both Snyder and movie's writer, Oscar winner Chris Terrio, wanted to make sure Cyborg was a character with accurate racial representation, so Fisher worked with Terrio to shape Victor Stone and the whole Stone family, so a lot of care was put into the writing of Cyborg's plot. On its own, it doesn't inherently prove that it's logical, but it does say it was central to the plot and race representation was a major focus of his story, which can understandably raise an eyebrow over Whedon not finding it logical. The kicker is, the movie has been released, and both Cyborg's arc and Fisher's performance are highly praised as not just one of the biggest improvements over Whedon's version of the movie, but also one of the brightest spots overall. It's not clear why Whedon would even dream of claiming the opposite when people have seen it with their own eyes and critics praised Cyborg's story and Fisher's acting, unless, Whedon gave those quotes before the movie was even released.
Whether Whedon was lying or telling the truth, the fact that he was so wrong about Fisher and Cyborg reveals something more. Since the majority of the review consensus disagrees with him, he was either knowingly lying about Fisher, meaning he actually did behave the way Fisher said on the Justice League set, meaning he's also being racist by trying to slander Fisher again now, or it's possible Whedon is legitimately ignorant of how race is so important to Cyborg's story in Chris Terrio's script, which also puts him trying to erase the story in a really bad light, especially when contrasted against Snyder and Terrio working so closely with Fisher to educate themselves and craft a Cyborg's story, including its representation of a Black family in America the way Fisher felt was best.
Considering the public criticism and mockery that met Whedon's interview, it's doubtful it had the impact he wanted, but it's still unclear where this story goes next. Whedon will likely leave the picture for some time once again, while Fisher and Warner Bros. seemingly remain in a stalemate. Since being removed from The Flash for saying he refuses to work with DC Films president Walter Hamada until he apologizes to the people who participated in the Justice League investigation, Fisher doesn't have any Cyborg appearances on the horizon, although he still regularly takes to Twitter to remind everyone his complaints have not yet been resolved.