Buffy actress Charisma Carpenter accuses Avengers director Joss Whedon of firing her over pregnancy

Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel alum Charisma Carpenter is the latest actress to publicly accuse director Joss Whedon of abusing his power, among other allegations, and she is standing with fired Justice League actor Ray Fisher.

Carpenter, 50, who played high-school mean girl turned ally Cordelia Chase in Whedon’s two Warner Bros. television series, detailed her alleged experiences in a Twitter thread on Wednesday. She said that “Joss was the vampire” and accused him of retaliatory behaviour and firing her from the Buffy spin-off Angel after she became pregnant.

“Joss Whedon abused his power on numerous occasions while working together on the sets of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel,” she wrote.

“While he found his misconduct 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.”

The actress said she was coming forward now – after years of holding her tongue and making excuses for Whedon – to show her support for “Justice League” star Fisher, who last summer accused Whedon of “gross, abusive, unprofessional, and completely unacceptable” behaviour on the set of the 2017 film that he took over from director Zack Snyder.

Fisher played Cyborg in the Justice League franchise and, last month, was fired from the DC Universe spin-off film The Flash – a move that Carpenter said “was the last straw” for her and prompted her to make her allegations public.

Reps for Whedon and Warner Bros. did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Wednesday.

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Carpenter accused Whedon of being “casually cruel” and creating “hostile and toxic work environments” that she experienced first-hand repeatedly.

She said she swallowed the mistreatment and still sought validation from the creator, even when he allegedly made passive-aggressive threats to fire her and called her fat to colleagues when she was four months pregnant and weighing 126 pounds (57kg).

“He was mean and biting, disparaging about others openly, and often played favourites, pitting people against one another to compete and vie for his attention and approval,” she wrote.

The Veronica Mars and Expendables star alleged that Whedon stonewalled her after she became pregnant and when he finally agreed to a closed-door meeting, asked her if she was “going to keep” the baby.

He “manipulatively weaponised my womanhood and faith against me,” she wrote. “He proceeded to attack my character, mock my religious beliefs, accuse me of sabotaging the show, and then unceremoniously fired me the following season once I gave birth.”

Angel, which ran on the WB (now the CW) starting in the late 1990s, incorporated her pregnancy into Cordelia’s storyline before she gave birth in March 2003. However, the trajectory strangely vilified her and was considered by fans to be an off-brand developmental turn for the ambitious and evolving character on the show.

In Wednesday’s statement, Carpenter wrote: “With tears welling, I feel an overwhelming sense of responsibility to Ray and others for remaining private about my experience with Joss and the suffering it has caused me.

“It is abundantly evident that Joss has persisted in his harmful actions, continuing to create wreckage in his wake,” she added. “My hope now, by finally coming forward about these experiences, is to create space for the healing of others who I know have experienced similar serialised abuses of power.”

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Carpenter said she took part in WarnerMedia’s Justice League investigation of Whedon and producers Geoff Johns and Jon Berg because she believes Fisher to be a “person of integrity who is telling the truth”.

The investigation concluded in December and the studio said that “remedial action has been taken”. Though Warner Bros. did not elaborate, in a Twitter thread, Fisher said that “[t]here are still conversations that need to be had and resolutions that need to be found” and thanked fans for support and encouragement along the way. Then he was fired in January.

Aquaman star Jason Momoa, Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot and actress Kiersey Clemons, who portrayed Iris West in Snyder’s Justice League, have also publicly supported Fisher.

Gadot said in December that she had her own “experience” with Whedon that “wasn’t the best one”, but it was resolved to her satisfaction. Last summer, actor James Marsters, who played the vampire Spike on Buffy, also alleged that he had a violent confrontation with the showrunner.

Following Carpenter’s tweet on Wednesday, Sarah Michelle Gellar, the titular star of Buffy, attempted to distance herself from Whedon and show her support for abuse survivors.

“While I am proud to have my name associated with Buffy Summers, I don’t want to be forever associated with the name Joss Whedon,” Gellar wrote on Instagram.

“I am more focused on raising my family and surviving a pandemic currently, so I will not be making any further statements at this time. But I stand with all survivors of abuse and am proud of them for speaking out.”

Whedon, who directed The Avengers and its first sequel for Marvel in addition to creating television series including Buffy the Vampire Slayer, was tapped to take over for Snyder when he left Justice League due to a family tragedy. The film was critically panned but grossed US$658 million worldwide.