Joss Whedon said he was ‘powerless’ to ‘Buffy’ affairs, denies misconduct

Allegation-plagued director Joss Whedon has addressed claims of his abusive behavior in a new interview. FilmMagic

Director Joss Whedon has addressed allegations of his abusive conduct for the primary time in a new interview, denying any wrongdoing.

“If I am scary someone, it will be a problem for me,” Whedon, 57, told New York Magazine of his reasoning as to why poor descriptions of his conduct on the sets of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and its spinoff “Angel” weren’t absolutely real and his intentions now not malicious.

“I don’t accept as true with that,” he introduced, shaking his head, in reaction to a dressing up designer’s accusation that he’d grabbed her arm. “I understand I might get indignant, but I turned into never physical with humans.”

He also denied an allegation from a “excessive-stage member of the ‘Buffy’ production team” that he reportedly once made out with an actress on the floor of an workplace.

“That seems fake. I don’t keep in mind that story even a touch bit,” he stated, earlier than eliminating his glasses, rubbing his face, telling the reporter he needed to go to the bathroom and then, upon his return, further explaining that it didn’t make feel due to the fact he “lived in terror” of his affairs being found out.

Those affairs, but, he did at the least admit to having happened and regretting. Whedon became married to Kai Cole from 1995 to 2016. Cole accused her ex-husband of getting had “multiple affairs” with his younger lady ingénues in a scathing letter she published in 2017.

Joss whedon accusations vulture interview

Whedon takes a selfie with fans at the world ultimate of “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” in 2016 in Hollywood, California.

“I sense f–king terrible about them,” he stated, including that such affairs with a director mess “up the energy dynamic.” He defended his choice to have them at the time, though, noting that he felt he “had” to sleep with lovely young women he changed into surrounded by and turned into “powerless” to resist.

The reporter laughed in reaction to the remark, to which Whedon retorted: “I’m now not actually joking.”

“He have been surrounded by way of beautiful younger women — the form of women who had disregarded him when he changed into more youthful — and he feared if he didn’t have sex with them, he would ‘always regret it,’” New York Magazine mentioned. “Looking again, he feels disgrace and ‘horror,’ he stated.”

Representatives for Whedon did now not return The Post’s request for similarly comment.

Trouble started out for Whedon ultimate February when “Buffy” actress Charisma Carpenter, who performed Cordelia Chase, after which Michelle Trachtenberg — who performed Sarah Michelle Gellar’s younger sister, Dawn Summers — got here out with bombshell claims of alleged abusive behavior.

“Joss Whedon abused his power on numerous events whilst working on the sets of ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ and ‘Angel,’” Carpenter, fifty one, claimed on the time. “While he discovered his misconduct fun, it simplest served to heighten my overall performance tension, disempower me, and alienate me from my friends. The traumatic incidents caused a chronic bodily circumstance from which I still suffer. It is with a beating, heavy heart that I say I coped in isolation and, at instances, destructively.”

“I changed into now not mannerly,” Whedon instructed New York Magazine of Carpenter’s allegations. “Most of my stories with Charisma were delightful and fascinating. She struggled every now and then together with her lines, but no one should hit a punch line tougher than her.”

Trachtenberg, in the meantime, got here out to say there “turned into a rule” that Whedon become “now not allowed in a room on my own with” the now-35-12 months-antique actress, who became 15 on the time she starred inside the display.

Both David Boreanaz and Sarah Michelle Gellar stood in cohesion with their co-stars.

“While I am proud to have my call associated with Buffy Summers, I don’t want to be for all time associated with the name Joss Whedon,” Gellar, forty four, wrote. “I stand with all survivors of abuse and am proud of them for speaking out.”

Joss Whedon denies Gal Gadot’s allegations: ‘English isn’t always her first language’

Elsewhere inside the prolonged New York Magazine article, Whedon also denied allegations made through “Justice League” stars Ray Fisher and Gal Gadot. The director stated Fisher, 34, is a “terrible actor” and chalked 36-12 months-antique Gadot’s troubles up to a verbal exchange trouble.

He claimed, “English isn’t her first language, and I have a tendency to be annoyingly flowery in my speech.”

Whedon informed the magazine that he feels as though he’s well reckoned with any mistakes he made and now is genuinely continuing to stand an onslaught of baseless abuse at the palms of the general public.

“I suppose I’m one of the nicer showrunners that’s ever been,” he said, clarifying that he was achieved demanding and had familiar people are simplifying the usage of “every weaponizable word of the contemporary era to make it appear to be I turned into an abusive monster.”