Posted in: CW, TV, YouTube | Tagged: angel, buffy, buffy the vampire slayer

Buffy/Angel: Carpenter on Why She Went Public with Joss Whedon Claims

Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel star Charisma Carpenter opened up about her decision to go public with her claims against Joss Whedon.

Though we've gotten used to her being the host of her own podcast, Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel star Charisma Carpenter took a break from The Bitch Is Back to join Katee Sackhoff for the latest episode of Sackhoff's podcast, The Sackhoff Show. Over the course of the more than 90-minute interview, the two pop culture legends covered a wide range of personal and professional topics – including her decision to speak out against Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel creator Joss Whedon.

Back in 2020, Justice League actor Ray Fisher, aka Cyborg, took to Twitter to accuse Whedon of being abusive on the 2017 set, not long after Whedon took over the project from Zack Snyder (who left the production due to a family tragedy), and that two other executives helped enable Whedon's alleged actions. Shortly after, Carpenter would take to social media and, under the hashtag #IStandWithRayFisher, accuse Whedon of years of unprofessional and abusive behavior on the set of the popular series and its spinoff.

Waiting "for nearly two decades" before speaking up, Carpenter claimed "Joss Whedon abused his power on numerous occasions while working on the sets of 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' and 'Angel.' While he found his conduct amusing, it only served to intensify my performance anxiety, disempower me, and alienate me from my peers. The disturbing incidents triggered a chronic physical condition from which I still suffer. It is with a beating, heavy heart that I say I coped in isolation and, at times, destructively." After Carpenter spoke up, a number of those who had worked with Whedon on both sides of the camera started speaking up, offering their own claims against Whedon. During her conversation with Sackhoff, Carpenter explained how Fisher's situation and other factors contributed to her making the decision to go public with her claims against Whedon.

"I really feel like we, like I was saying at the beginning of this podcast, like just in terms of Hollywood and what we participated in this, we didn't leave the industry better after us. And I think that was also a really big motivator for me to speak out because it was in response to Ray [Fisher]. It was like it was Ray that was the impetus," Carpenter shared, adding that she had touched on her issues with Whedon back in 2008 during a convention, "but it just fell on deaf ears" and wasn't followed up on. "I was at a con and I just said like, you know, I was very diplomatic about it. I wasn't… you know, and also just, you know, saying I would work with him again. Like, I said that… I really kind of framed it a certain kind of way, like, 'good now. It's all good now.'"

"But when I talked to Ray and I realized what was going on with Ray, and that things weren't better, and there wasn't an improvement, and that person [Whedon] is still doing things that are considered power inequity and power abuse. And you know [he] had no business being around especially young women at all. So it was as a result of Ray that I ended up saying something." Bringing the conversation back to the beginning, Carpenter explained why it was her responsibility to speak up, to do her part to make things better for the next generation of young women.

"I feel like… I felt like when I saw what was happening, and it was still happening, that I would be complicit by not backing him [Fisher] up, by not saying what he's saying is true and correct. And that was my experience. And I just didn't want to be complicit. And I think it's not… it's like, I don't want my son's future wife… that fight isn't her fight. It's my fight. It's up to me. It's my job to make sure that she's okay, you know? It's… that's what we do, right? We look to the women in front of us, and we pull the women behind us, and we walk with our peers beside us." Here's a look back at Carpenter's original statement:

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!