Sarah Michelle Gellar is weighing in on the scandal involving Joss Whedon.
“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,” she 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.”
Carpenter went public on Wednesday and said that Whedon’s “casually cruel” behavior included threatening to fire her, calling her “fat” when she was four months pregnant, asking her if she was going to “keep” her baby, and firing her after she gave birth.
The actress appeared in the role of Cordelia on Buffy before moving over to the spinoff, Angel, where she co-starred with David Boreanaz.
“Joss Whedon abused his power on numerous occasions while working on the sets of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel,” Carpenter wrote in her 830-word statement, which touched on the recent toxic workplace allegations Justice League star Ray Fisher leveled against Whedon.
“While he found his misconduct amusing, it only served to intensify my performance anxiety, disempower me, and alienate me from my peers,” she added.
“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.”
“Last summer, when Ray Fisher publicly accused Joss of abusive and unprofessional behavior toward the cast and crew during reshoots on the Justice League set in 2017, it gutted me,” Carpenter said of the accusations against Whedon that became public knowledge last year.
“Joss has a history of being casually cruel. He has created hostile and toxic work environments since his early career. I know because I experienced it first-hand,” she alleged.
“Repeatedly. Like his ongoing, passive-aggressive threats to fire me, which wreaks havoc on a young actor’s self-esteem. And callously calling me ‘fat’ to colleagues when I was four months pregnant, weighing 126 lbs. He was mean and biting, disparaging about others openly, and often played favorites, putting people against one another to compete and vie for his attention and approval.”
“He called me in for a sit-down meeting to interrogate and berate me regarding a rosary tattoo I got to help me feel more spiritually grounded in an increasingly volatile work climate that affected me physically,” the actress added.
“Joss intentionally refused multiple calls form my agents making it impossible to connect with him to tell him the news that I was pregnant.”
Amber Benson, who played Tara on Buffy, addressed Charisma on Twitter and showed her support.
She said:
“Buffy was a toxic environment and it starts at the top. @AllCharisma is speaking truth and I support her 100%. There was a lot of damage done during that time and many of us are still processing it twenty plus years later.”
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Paul Dailly is the Associate Editor for TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter.