It’s Too Bad Joss Whedon Ever Called Himself a “Woke Bae”
By: Shannon Ashley
Tags: Television, Entertainment, Culture, Film, Women

There’s a lot that we don’t know about the nature of Joss Whedon’s behavior on the set of the Justice League. There’s a lot that we don’t know about his extramarital affairs. The reality is we might never know the truth about Joss in a literal way. For one thing, Whedon himself has never confirmed nor denied the accusations.

When his ex-wife wrote that he had used their marriage as a “cover” for his infidelities, she mentioned that they had been separated for five years and virtually nobody knew. She only came out once their divorce was official. But between his supposedly committed marriage and frequent associations with feminism, he would have long appeared to be a “safe” man in Hollywood for many young women. And it would have been very easy for him to use his clout and reputation as “a nice guy” to get whatever he wanted from a relationship with various actresses, fans, and other women who were behind-the-scenes of his work.

We don’t know if any of these affairs crossed legal lines like age, but it is almost certain they would have crossed ethical boundaries in terms of the power scale. Besides, if he was cheating on his wife since Buffy, he undeniably trespassed upon her consent in their relationship.

So, what happened with Charisma Carpenter, the actress who portrayed Cordelia in Buffy and Angel? That’s still under debate. Joss spent a lot of time and energy building her character up from a selfish valley girl into a selfless fighter. The fact that Cordelia Chase got to have a “real” love affair with Angel spoke to the growth of her character. This was not some simple stand-in for the Slayer — Cordy was her own person and fans loved that about her.

But as it happened, Carpenter became pregnant and Joss Whedon’s response was to turn her character evil and have her sleep with Angel’s son, reveal that she’d been possessed, and then put her into a coma for the rest of the series. No one knew if Cordelia was ever coming back, even though fans wanted the real Cordy back. And although the actress herself wanted to return.

She’s gone on record to say:

“I think Joss was, honestly, mad. I think he was mad at me and I say that in a loving way, which is — it’s a very complicated dynamic working for somebody so many years, and expectations, and also being on a show for eight years, you gotta live your life. And sometimes living your life gets in the way of maybe the creator’s vision for the future. And that becomes a conflict, and that was my experience.”

For years, fans have seen that as a very diplomatic way of saying Joss Whedon fired her for getting pregnant. While it’s true that the actress was invited “back” for one episode in season five, it simply happened to kill her character off — despite making the stipulation that she wasn’t interested in returning only to die.

Just a year ago, Carpenter responded (again) to the claim that she’d “hid” her pregnancy from Joss and the other producers. According to multiple sources, she “went to great lengths” to make sure the production team knew. The actress even admitted that part of the reason her relationship with Whedon deteriorated was that the production team didn’t respect her needs when filming during the pregnancy.

More than 15 years after the series ended, Carpenter still refers to the experience of not really being invited back as a deep wound when she was out of work after having a baby.

Of course, Joss Whedon’s response was a classic nice guy recollection of events:

“We felt like we had taken that story... about as far as it could go,” he said. “It just seemed like it was time because we were revamping the show, and then paring it down... it just seemed like a good time for certain people to move on.”

For most fans of the show, however, the notion that Cordelia’s story had nowhere to go left us scratching our heads. At that point, you have to question whether Cordelia Chase was even created by a feminist because who would think that way about the show’s leading female? Particularly when in the next season, they brought back Spike, a male vampire who literally died consumed by flames in the series finale of Buffy.

When Joss was flat-out asked “if he and Carpenter were on good terms,” Whedon replied, “Yeah, but that’s also stuff between us and not stuff that I would talk about in an interview.”

Eh, that’s not the most reassuring response for a dude who’s s been accused of firing an actress for getting pregnant.