Joss Whedon reacts to misconduct allegations; denies threatening to end Gal Gadot’s career, calls Ray Fisher ‘a bad actor’ – Times of India

In an interview with New York magazine, the director shared his side of the story and even addressed allegations about threatening Gal’s career and lightening Ray’s skin tone in the film. while working on “Justice League,” which Whedon took over after original director Zack Snyder withdrew from the film following a family tragedy.

“I don’t threaten people. Who does that?” Whedon said in the interview, denying Gadot’s claims.

“English is not her first language, and I tend to be annoyingly flowery in my speech,” he said while adding that he told the ‘Wonder Woman’ actress that she would have to tie his body to a railroad track before he would cut a scene she wanted to be removed. Whedon brushed off Gadot’s claims saying she “misunderstood” as him threatening to tie her to a track instead.

In response to his story, Gadot said, “I understood perfectly.”

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Gadot, who plays the demi-goddess in the DC cinematic universe, pushed back on lines Whedon wrote for her character, which led to him threatening to harm her career.

“Joss was bragging that he’s had it out with Gal,” a witness on the set told the publication. “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.”

Reacting to the allegations made against him by actor Ray Fisher, who plays Cyborg in the film, Whedon said that he had brightened the entire movie, and all the actors’ faces, not just Fisher’s. He even claimed that he spoke with Fisher for hours about making these changes.

Revealing why he significantly cut down Fisher’s screen time, he said that Cyborg’s storyline “logically made no sense” and even went as far as saying the actor’s performance in the film was lacking.

“We’re talking about a malevolent force,” Whedon said. “We’re talking about a bad actor in both senses.”

Fisher directly acknowledged and refuted Whedon’s new statements through his official Twitter late Monday morning.

Looks like Joss Whedon got to direct an endgame after all…Rather than address all of the lies and buffoonery toda… https://t.co/L3qWr9Ey2n

— Ray Fisher (@ray8fisher) 1642446331000

“Looks like Joss Whedon got to direct an endgame after all…” Fisher wrote. “Rather than address all of the lies and buffoonery today — I will be celebrating the legacy of Reverend Dr Martin Luther King Jr. Tomorrow the work continues.”

Fisher alleged in a Forbes interview that he was told Whedon had lightened his complexion in ‘Justice League’ because he didn’t like the skin tone — a statement Forbes later retracted.

In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter published April 2021, after the release of Snyder’s four-hour cut of ‘Justice League’, Fisher alleged that when he tried to express his concerns about the reduction of his character, Cyborg, in Whedon’s two-hour version of the movie, Whedon told him, “It feels like I’m taking notes right now, and I don’t like taking notes from anybody — not even Robert Downey Jr.”

The problems with Whedon’s alleged behaviour went beyond just the cast members. A report on Us Weekly quoted an anonymous crew member claiming that Joss once paused the shoot to announce that he’d never worked with “a ruder group of people.”

Another unnamed source on set noted that Snyder encouraged improvisation while Joss wanted the actors to be word-perfect, leading up to even more tension on the sets.