Joss Whedon Denies Misconduct Claims, Says Gal Gadot Misunderstood Him: ‘English is Not Her First Language’

Jean-Baptiste Lacroix, Michael Tullberg/Getty Images

Filmmaker Joss Whedon has broken his silence on the allegations of misconduct launched against him last year, directly responding to Justice League’s Gal Gadot and Ray Fisher.  

Whedon sat down with New York Magazine’s Lila Shapiro for an interview released Monday, in which he denied all misconduct accusations on the sets of Justice League and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. 

The interview marks the first time Whedon has addressed the allegations, the first of which was launched by Fisher – who claimed the director exhibited “gross, abusive, unprofessional, and completely unacceptable” behavior on set.

Actor Charisma Carpenter, who played Cordelia Chase on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, also claimed Whedon “abused his power on set,” while Gadot later spoke out against Whedon, confirming previous reports that he allegedly threatened her career.

“What I had with Joss, basically, is that he kind of threatened my career, and said if I did something, he would make my career miserable and I just took care of it instead,” Gadot told reporter Yuna Leibzon. “I handled it on the spot.”

Whedon directly responded to Gadot while speaking to Shapiro, claiming the Israeli actress had misunderstood him.

“I don’t threaten people. Who does that?” he said, adding, “English is not her first language, and I tend to be annoyingly flowery in my speech.”

According to Whedon, he had joked that if Gadot wanted a certain scene to get cut, she would have to “tie him to a railroad track and do it over his dead body.”

“Then I was told that I had said something about her dead body and tying her to the railroad track,” he said.

Responding to Whedon’s explanation, Gadot wrote an email to New York Magazine stating, “I understood perfectly.”

Whedon also responded to allegations that he lightened Fisher’s skin tone in Justice League, calling them “false and unjust” and claiming that he made the entire film lighter in contrast to Zack Snyder’s original version. 

“Whedon says he cut down Cyborg’s role for two reasons. The storyline ‘logically made no sense,’ and he felt the acting was bad,” Shapiro wrote. “According to a source familiar with the project, Whedon wasn’t alone in feeling that way; at test screenings, viewers deemed Cyborg ‘the worst of all the characters in the film.'”

Regarding the Snyder fans who attacked him online as a “bad feminist and a bad husband,” Whedon claimed, “They don’t give a fuck about feminism,” adding, “I was made a target by my ex-wife, and people exploited that cynically.”

While Whedon denied that he ever acted inappropriately on set, each actor who accused him of misconduct was met with support from their co-stars and colleagues.

A witness on the Justice League production told investigators “Joss was bragging that he’s had it out with Gal. He told her he’s the writer and she’s going to shut up and say the lines and he can make her look incredibly stupid in this movie.”

Aquaman star Jason Momoa additionally backed Fisher in an Instagram post, while several of Carpenter’s costars, including Sarah Michelle Gellar, David Boreanaz, and Michelle Trachtenberg, either echoed the allegations or voiced support for Carpenter.

Trachtenberg further claimed that there was an on-set rule barring Whedon from being alone with her.