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Justice League's Director Joss Whedon's Controversial Toxic History"
The opening was straight out of every old horror movie: Teen couple sneaks into a darkened building. Ominous background music swells. He wants to go up to the roof and make out. She thinks she hears a noise; he says it’s nothing.
And then she turns into a monster and pounces on him.
“Welcome to the Hellmouth,” the 1997 pilot episode of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” wore its trope-flipping female empowerment on its sleeve, and audiences devoured it.
Showrunner Joss Whedon had arrived.
Twenty-four years later, Whedon is facing multiple allegations of being the monster himself. Many of the female stars from “Buffy” are done with him. “Justice League” star Ray Fisher has accused him of being racist and abusive in a Hollywood Reporter story that also details a witness’ account of Whedon’s boast that he would make actress Gal Gadot “shut up and say the lines.” The latest details hit as “The Nevers,” HBO’s Whedon-created show about Victorian women with superpowers, is set to debut Sunday, and Whedon is so radioactive the network isn’t even using his name.
It’s an ironic twist of cinematic proportions for the auteur who, for decades, was Hollywood’s go-to male feminist.
I realized today while fighting with a Whedon fan on the Whedon Studies board on FB, that I am angry at Joss Whedon. But it's an empty anger.
( regarding monsterous acts by writers that I once respected )
How do you reconcile the art of someone you once ...respected, with the truth of who they were? Or the truth of how they acted? Does that change how we view the art that we loved or once loved? Or not at all? Can we look past the abusive actions of the artist and see the art clearly for what it is, ever again? Does it taint our love for it? God knows.
It's something I'm still grappling with, apparently.
The opening was straight out of every old horror movie: Teen couple sneaks into a darkened building. Ominous background music swells. He wants to go up to the roof and make out. She thinks she hears a noise; he says it’s nothing.
And then she turns into a monster and pounces on him.
“Welcome to the Hellmouth,” the 1997 pilot episode of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” wore its trope-flipping female empowerment on its sleeve, and audiences devoured it.
Showrunner Joss Whedon had arrived.
Twenty-four years later, Whedon is facing multiple allegations of being the monster himself. Many of the female stars from “Buffy” are done with him. “Justice League” star Ray Fisher has accused him of being racist and abusive in a Hollywood Reporter story that also details a witness’ account of Whedon’s boast that he would make actress Gal Gadot “shut up and say the lines.” The latest details hit as “The Nevers,” HBO’s Whedon-created show about Victorian women with superpowers, is set to debut Sunday, and Whedon is so radioactive the network isn’t even using his name.
It’s an ironic twist of cinematic proportions for the auteur who, for decades, was Hollywood’s go-to male feminist.
I realized today while fighting with a Whedon fan on the Whedon Studies board on FB, that I am angry at Joss Whedon. But it's an empty anger.
( regarding monsterous acts by writers that I once respected )
How do you reconcile the art of someone you once ...respected, with the truth of who they were? Or the truth of how they acted? Does that change how we view the art that we loved or once loved? Or not at all? Can we look past the abusive actions of the artist and see the art clearly for what it is, ever again? Does it taint our love for it? God knows.
It's something I'm still grappling with, apparently.