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Joss Whedon Addresses ‘Justice League’ Controversies; Blames Gal Gadot Claims on Language Barrier

This year marks the five year anniversary of the release of “Justice League,” the Joss Whedon directed superhero movie that, after boiling the blood of DC fans upon release, saw the “Snyder cut” dropped onto HBO Max last year. The stars associated with the film have continued to talk about the struggles working with Whedon and making the feature, and now the disgraced director is coming forward.

In a career-spanning interview with New York Magazine, Whedon attempts to tell his own story and combat allegations of abuse and toxicity that have followed him since a 2017 open letter was released by his ex-wife, Kai Cole. In the interview, Whedon discusses his time working as showrunner of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” and simultaneously refutes allegations presented by former actors, including “Angel” star Charisma Carpenter, and admits to numerous affairs both during his marriage and after.

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At one point in the interview Whedon discusses “Wonder Woman” star Gal Gadot’s claims that he threatened to destroy her career while making “Justice League.” Whedon claims that he believes a language barrier between the Israeli-born Gadot and himself was the issue. “English is not her first language and I tend to be annoyingly flowery in my speech,” Whedon said. New York magazine reached out to Gadot who said she “understood perfectly” everything Whedon said to her.

Gal Gadot confirmed in May that reports claiming Joss Whedon threatened her career during the filming of “Justice League” reshoots were true. All the actress said at the time was the following: “He kind of threatened my career and said if I did something, he would make my career miserable and I just took care of it instead.” Now Gadot has opened up a bit more on the situation in a new interview with Elle magazine.

While Gadot never revealed the specifics of Whedon’s alleged threat, The Hollywood Reporter published a story in April that revealed Whedon allegedly told the Wonder Woman actress that “he’s the writer and she’s going to shut up and say the lines.” Sources told THR that “the biggest clash” between Whedon and Gadot came when the director “pushed Gadot to record lines she didn’t like, threatened to harm Gadot’s career and disparaged ‘Wonder Woman’ director Patty Jenkins.”

The Whedon interview also attempted to clarify issues actor Ray Fisher has brought up regarding what he called a diminished role in Whedon’s original take on the material, as well as other claims of a toxic work environment. Whedon chalked Fisher’s experiences up to “a malevolent force” with Fisher being a “bad actor in both senses.”

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