In ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ it was all smiles, the comic relief of the plot, but on the inside, it endured hell. Charisma Carpenter, the actress who gave life to Cordelia in the legendary series, has exploded against her creator, Joss Whedon, after years of suffering in silence. “He abused his power numerous times while we were working together on the sets of ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ and ‘Angel’. While he found his inappropriate behavior amusing, it only served to increase my performance anxiety, disempower me, and alienate me from my peers. These disturbing incidents led to a chronic physical condition that I still suffer from. It hurts me to say that I dealt with it alone and sometimes in a destructive way », the interpreter shared in a statement.
Carpenter thus shares the accusations of Ray Fisher, who also suffered Whedon’s abuses of power in ‘Justice League’, and charges against the director for promoting “hostile and toxic workplaces from the beginning of his career. The ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ actress experienced it in her own skin when she had to face continuous “passive-aggressive threats” to fire her, and also during her pregnancy, in the middle of the series, being repeatedly humiliated in front of his peers for their status. “He called me insensibly fat to my colleagues when I was four months pregnant, weighing 57 kilos. It was cruel and hurtful, speaking ill of others openly, and having favorites often, pitting people against each other to compete for their attention and approval, “said Charisma Carpenter.
In fact, the actress acknowledges that Joss Whedon rejected several calls from his agents to inform him that she was pregnant, and after asking if she was going to have an abortion, he ended up doing without her in the third season of ‘Buffy’ and ‘killing’ her in ‘Angel ‘. Once he found out about the situation, he requested a meeting with me. At that closed-door meeting, he told me if I was going to keep it and manipulatively he weaponized my femininity and my faith against me.
He proceeded to attack my character, mocked my religious beliefs, accused me of sabotaging the show, and abruptly fired me the following season once I gave birth. Being six months pregnant, I was asked to go to work at 1 a.m. after my doctor recommended shortening my work hours. Due to long, demanding days and the emotional stress of having to advocate for my needs as a pregnant working woman, I began to feel Braxton Hicks contractions. It was clear to me that this call was in retaliation, ”Carpenter acknowledged.
The protagonist of ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’, Sarah Michelle Gellar, has publicly shown her support for Carpenter, refusing to “always associate her with the name Joss Whedon.” “I am with all the survivors of abuse and I am proud of them for speaking out,” said the actress.
