I tend to feel that what Carpenter has said is truthful, largely because I thought she had already come out and said most of this. I remember the rumours that went around when ATS Season 4 and 5 were aired about how she was fired for being pregnant.
Well the Carpenter thing is more complicated than a lot of people realize. She was apparently problematic on both Buffy and Angel. There's an indication from Kai Cole's letter, and other reports that she more than likely had been having an affair with David Greenwalt (sp?) who specifically asked for her to go to Angel. Greenwalt was the show-runner for Angel up to S3. During S3 - WB and Fox got fed up with Carpenter and Greenwalt who were apparently causing delays and running up costs. So they asked Whedon, Greenwalt's producing partner to step in. Greenwalt got off easy - and he shouldn't have, considering he was the show-runner not Charisma. And keep in mind during all of this? Boreanze was a prankster, who flashed people on the sets. But they basically gave Greenwalt a slap on the wrist, and he got another show - with no problems, and left shiny. Meanwhile, Whedon decided to come up with a story arc that would write Charisma out of the show - and cause the fans to hate her character enough - to get rid of her. Instead of just firing her at the end of S3 or telling her that the studio was having issues with her behavior - like he had done with Greenwalt, he decided to make her the Big Bad for S4 and have either Angel or Connor kill her off.
But Charisma got pregnant over the summer - which pissed him off royally. So he punished her for destroying his evil plan to write her out as the Big Bad (kind of hard to have a Big Bad Pregnant Lady). As a result when he fired her - everyone assumed it was because of her pregnancy, and the story annoyed everyone, because it made no sense.
In way it's worse than people realize. It's also ironic, because her pregnancy saved Cordelia from character assassination by the creator.
So, basically David Greenwalt didn't get punished for the problems on the set, Charisma did. Which is bizarre. Since Greenwalt was the boss.
That said...I agree:
I personally think that bosses that create a toxic work environment tend to be pretty terrible people. I do think that he was probably enabled quite a bit by the studio(s) and allowed to get away with bad behaviour. However, I don't think that Whedon being a crappy boss who said some pretty awful things to Carpenter automatically makes him a misogynist. And so on.
Agreed. He had issues with Charisma and the character of Cordelia, who he felt she was exactly like. And who most likely reminded him of the mean girls he knew in high school. Charisma had issues with other people as well. It was not a happy set. J August and Acker couldn't stand David Boreanze. Nor could Adam Baldwin.
I've had bosses who had issues with me because I happened to remind them of someone else, doesn't necessarily make them a misogynist or a terrible person. Just nasty to me.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2021-02-24 01:29 pm (UTC)Well the Carpenter thing is more complicated than a lot of people realize. She was apparently problematic on both Buffy and Angel. There's an indication from Kai Cole's letter, and other reports that she more than likely had been having an affair with David Greenwalt (sp?) who specifically asked for her to go to Angel. Greenwalt was the show-runner for Angel up to S3. During S3 - WB and Fox got fed up with Carpenter and Greenwalt who were apparently causing delays and running up costs. So they asked Whedon, Greenwalt's producing partner to step in. Greenwalt got off easy - and he shouldn't have, considering he was the show-runner not Charisma. And keep in mind during all of this? Boreanze was a prankster, who flashed people on the sets. But they basically gave Greenwalt a slap on the wrist, and he got another show - with no problems, and left shiny. Meanwhile, Whedon decided to come up with a story arc that would write Charisma out of the show - and cause the fans to hate her character enough - to get rid of her. Instead of just firing her at the end of S3 or telling her that the studio was having issues with her behavior - like he had done with Greenwalt, he decided to make her the Big Bad for S4 and have either Angel or Connor kill her off.
But Charisma got pregnant over the summer - which pissed him off royally. So he punished her for destroying his evil plan to write her out as the Big Bad (kind of hard to have a Big Bad Pregnant Lady). As a result when he fired her - everyone assumed it was because of her pregnancy, and the story annoyed everyone, because it made no sense.
In way it's worse than people realize. It's also ironic, because her pregnancy saved Cordelia from character assassination by the creator.
So, basically David Greenwalt didn't get punished for the problems on the set, Charisma did. Which is bizarre. Since Greenwalt was the boss.
That said...I agree:
I personally think that bosses that create a toxic work environment tend to be pretty terrible people. I do think that he was probably enabled quite a bit by the studio(s) and allowed to get away with bad behaviour. However, I don't think that Whedon being a crappy boss who said some pretty awful things to Carpenter automatically makes him a misogynist. And so on.
Agreed. He had issues with Charisma and the character of Cordelia, who he felt she was exactly like. And who most likely reminded him of the mean girls he knew in high school. Charisma had issues with other people as well. It was not a happy set. J August and Acker couldn't stand David Boreanze. Nor could Adam Baldwin.
I've had bosses who had issues with me because I happened to remind them of someone else, doesn't necessarily make them a misogynist or a terrible person. Just nasty to me.