Jul 14, 2025 10:40 PM
CRITICAL DRINKER
https://youtu.be/k_SzyAZ4Rek
VIDEO EXCERPT: . . . Remember when I told you about all that childhood bullying, which forced Joss Whedon to become much more aggressive and confrontational with people? And the feminist activist mother who inspired a complex and often difficult relationship with women?
Well, all of that stuff was about to come back to bite Joss in the ass big time. It all began in July of 2020, when Cyborg actor Ray Fisher accused Whedon of gross, abusive, unprofessional, and completely unacceptable behavior on the set of Justice League.
Jason Momoa soon chimed in too, referencing the shitty way they were treated and that serious stuff went down. Even Gal Gadot eventually pitched in, claiming that Whedon was difficult, demanding and verbally abusive, threatening to derail her career if she didn't do what he wanted.
Now, this was all bad news, but Whedon probably could have survived the fallout if the accusations were limited to this one movie. After all, a tense and difficult re-shoot on a troubled film that nobody really wanted to be part of would surely put anyone in a bad mood. But if things were bad already, they were about to get a whole lot worse.
In February of 2021, Charisma Carpenter launched an absolute tirade against him on social media, claiming amongst other things that he was casually cruel while working on Buffy, calling her fat, mocked her religion, repeatedly threatened to fire her, and eventually did. From there, the floodgates were opened, and pretty much the entire cast of Buffy came out with similar stories, especially the women who seemed to have been particular targets for him.
Michelle Trachtenberg even claimed that she had a rule on set never to be left alone in a room with Whedon. One of Firefly's writers revealed how Whedon used to boast about making female staffers cry, and made a point of tearing their ideas apart with particular venom.
In the space of a few months, Whedon's public image as an affable geek, a principled male feminist, and a talented writer with a love of cinema was absolutely shattered. In its place was an angry, embittered bully who abused his power and made everyone around him miserable.
Pretty soon, the mainstream media who used to write and fawn in articles about his progressive characters and positive role models turned on him with absolute vengeance. He was removed as showrunner from the HBO series The Nevers, and all of his upcoming projects and public appearances were cancelled.
For all intents and purposes, his career basically ended overnight. An attempt at damage control in 2022 backfired in the worst way possible when he tried to shift the blame to the Justice League cast themselves, claiming that they were rude and difficult to work with, and that Gal Gadot just kind of misunderstood what he was saying because her English wasn't very good.
Hello. No.
Needless to say, it didn't do much to help his case. Whedon had gone from Hollywood's golden boy to a complete pariah. Unable to find anyone willing to hire him, unable to get a single project off the grounds. In the five years since this firestorm erupted, he hasn't produced a single movie or TV show, and that's not likely to change anytime soon.
These days, most people seem to know him for his biggest and most infamous contribution to cinema. The dreaded Whedonization of character writing, making every line of dialogue some ironic, self-deprecating punchline to a not particularly funny joke, turning every character into a snarky, sarcastic pop culture quotation machine, and draining all the drama and honesty out of every single scene. Which is funny, because what they're usually pushing back against isn't Whedon's writing at all, but some inferior hack's lame attempts to replicate it.
But it doesn't really matter anymore because the reputation is stuck and you'll find few people willing to stand up and defend the guy for anything these days. Unlike the Rachel Zeglers and the Brie Larsons of the world who never really deserved their success in the first place, Whedon leaves behind him a much more complicated legacy. A man of obvious talents who did great things with his career, but also great personal flaws whose success was ultimately undone by his own [ __ ] up personality.
His career crash and burn might not have been all that satisfying, but ultimately it was still very much self-inflicted...
Crash and burn - The Joss Whedon story ... https://youtu.be/k_SzyAZ4Rek
https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/k_SzyAZ4Rek
https://youtu.be/k_SzyAZ4Rek
VIDEO EXCERPT: . . . Remember when I told you about all that childhood bullying, which forced Joss Whedon to become much more aggressive and confrontational with people? And the feminist activist mother who inspired a complex and often difficult relationship with women?
Well, all of that stuff was about to come back to bite Joss in the ass big time. It all began in July of 2020, when Cyborg actor Ray Fisher accused Whedon of gross, abusive, unprofessional, and completely unacceptable behavior on the set of Justice League.
Jason Momoa soon chimed in too, referencing the shitty way they were treated and that serious stuff went down. Even Gal Gadot eventually pitched in, claiming that Whedon was difficult, demanding and verbally abusive, threatening to derail her career if she didn't do what he wanted.
Now, this was all bad news, but Whedon probably could have survived the fallout if the accusations were limited to this one movie. After all, a tense and difficult re-shoot on a troubled film that nobody really wanted to be part of would surely put anyone in a bad mood. But if things were bad already, they were about to get a whole lot worse.
In February of 2021, Charisma Carpenter launched an absolute tirade against him on social media, claiming amongst other things that he was casually cruel while working on Buffy, calling her fat, mocked her religion, repeatedly threatened to fire her, and eventually did. From there, the floodgates were opened, and pretty much the entire cast of Buffy came out with similar stories, especially the women who seemed to have been particular targets for him.
Michelle Trachtenberg even claimed that she had a rule on set never to be left alone in a room with Whedon. One of Firefly's writers revealed how Whedon used to boast about making female staffers cry, and made a point of tearing their ideas apart with particular venom.
In the space of a few months, Whedon's public image as an affable geek, a principled male feminist, and a talented writer with a love of cinema was absolutely shattered. In its place was an angry, embittered bully who abused his power and made everyone around him miserable.
Pretty soon, the mainstream media who used to write and fawn in articles about his progressive characters and positive role models turned on him with absolute vengeance. He was removed as showrunner from the HBO series The Nevers, and all of his upcoming projects and public appearances were cancelled.
For all intents and purposes, his career basically ended overnight. An attempt at damage control in 2022 backfired in the worst way possible when he tried to shift the blame to the Justice League cast themselves, claiming that they were rude and difficult to work with, and that Gal Gadot just kind of misunderstood what he was saying because her English wasn't very good.
Hello. No.
Needless to say, it didn't do much to help his case. Whedon had gone from Hollywood's golden boy to a complete pariah. Unable to find anyone willing to hire him, unable to get a single project off the grounds. In the five years since this firestorm erupted, he hasn't produced a single movie or TV show, and that's not likely to change anytime soon.
These days, most people seem to know him for his biggest and most infamous contribution to cinema. The dreaded Whedonization of character writing, making every line of dialogue some ironic, self-deprecating punchline to a not particularly funny joke, turning every character into a snarky, sarcastic pop culture quotation machine, and draining all the drama and honesty out of every single scene. Which is funny, because what they're usually pushing back against isn't Whedon's writing at all, but some inferior hack's lame attempts to replicate it.
But it doesn't really matter anymore because the reputation is stuck and you'll find few people willing to stand up and defend the guy for anything these days. Unlike the Rachel Zeglers and the Brie Larsons of the world who never really deserved their success in the first place, Whedon leaves behind him a much more complicated legacy. A man of obvious talents who did great things with his career, but also great personal flaws whose success was ultimately undone by his own [ __ ] up personality.
His career crash and burn might not have been all that satisfying, but ultimately it was still very much self-inflicted...
Crash and burn - The Joss Whedon story ... https://youtu.be/k_SzyAZ4Rek