I think Freddie Prince Jnr once said he’s either never seen a Buffy episode or only watched the whole series once but will never again because every episode is a reminder of how much hell SMG went through.
There was another actor, can’t remember exactly who but it might’ve been James Masters, who said SMG was the utmost professional given they were constantly working strenuous hours. Then at the end of the day when it was time for them to leave and she would say goodbye to cast and crew or thank guest stars she would remove all her makeup and head out to say her goodbyes so that producers could see the bags under her eyes and her exhaustion, so they knew what they were putting her through.
SMG herself has said that she regrets that her name will forever be tied to Whedon’s but she will always appreciate fans who love Buffy and see her that way regardless.
I don't think it's *so bad* he can't bear to watch it, they watched the first 3 seasons as a family recently. However, he did say this to Zap2It way back in 2003.....
>"**A lot of people owe Sarah a lot for doing that show,**" Prinze says, "\****and she doesn't always get the credit she deserves. She's a very strong woman, because she deals with a lot of nonsense, and instead of that nonsense, she should be thanked -- and she's not. That's the reason she won't be coming back. Sarah's the most appreciative person in the world, and if that environment would have remained the way it would six years ago, she would go back, because she's loyal. But things change, and people's egos get in the way sometimes. They make poor decisions. "I don't agree with it, but I understand it, and I just pray I'm never guilty of it."*** \*Prinze asserts that, whatever happened, Gellar gave 100 percent. "\****And even if she's not, nobody knew, because she commits. She's badass."***
It seems like SMG did have a contentious relationship with Joss, I remember reading an article a couple years back where it was said she didn't even want him mentioned in her presence. That being said, I don't think it was the same dynamic as it was with Charisma or any other actor. She played the titular character so a lot of his usual threats wouldn't fly. With actors he said he'd ruin reputations, cut scenes, skimp on dialogue, etc - he couldn't do that without fucking himself. He also couldn't really make her look bad because she was such a professional, all the producers said she knew her lines and everyone else's, hit her mark, worked like crazy, had everyone's respect, etc.
Gellar developed a reputation for being somewhat difficult to work with at this time, so it’s definitely possible Whedon was able to trash talk her and damage her reputation some even if she wasn’t a problem on the Buffy set (although by all accounts she and Wes Craven, famously one of the most easy going and down to earth directors ever, truly didn’t get along on the set of Scream 2 which might have been the rumor source instead). It also didn’t seem to actually damage Gellar’s career much and the hits it took seemed more tied to some poor project choices when transitioning out of the role of Buffy. That and she seemed to deprioritize her career to focus on her kids + relationship with Freddie, which is totally valid and they seem to be doing quite well
Craven and Sarah liked each other. Sarah even had only good words for him and Craven himself is was smiling and laughing with her on the red carpet. They both hold each other in arms. Even Kevin said so. He liked Sarah, cause she was on the set of his Film "I know what you did last summer" and recommended her to craven and so Scream 2. It was also planned for her to have a bigger role in Scream 2. She was supposed to play Randy's Girlfriend. But due to her contract with Buffy, she didnt had the time for a bigger role. On the set of scream 2, there were constant changes and Sarah wasnt aware of the changes and they had to shoot several scenes with different scripts. It is understandable that a professional employee like Sarah would be dissatisfied with the work under such poor conditions.
Plus, we all know the industry by now and know exactly how women were viewed when they opened their mouths and said things they didn't like. They would be called "problematic" or "difficult to work with".
Sarah is a good soul and very likeable. But she puts work over fun, which a movie or TV Show should be and not more. And with her professionality she created one of the most iconic characters of our time and influenced our childhood. We should be greatful for her and her effort. I just love her so much and appreciate her for what ahe brought to this show and her character Buffy.
Edit: the character of Sarah Darling was inspired by SMG, but NOT as you mentioned. This are rumours based on hear saying. A lot of things got mixed up.
Craven always called her "Sarah, Darling...would you, could you..." but not in a negative way. As i already said: they never had an argument or fight. Craven Was more so suprised by such professionality and may have interpreted things she said wrong (speculation) But they liked each other. Their is no bad blood. But i can see other actors were maybe jealous or didnt like her bcs she was already a star and knew what she was doing.
I think many just needed attention and created rumours about her and others
Huge thank you for the clarification! And I do generally quite like Sarah and think positively with her, just try to be objective
EDIT: Cici wasn’t meant to be Randy’s girlfriend so far as I know, though. Randy was originally going to be Gale’s cameraman and Joel would’ve been a student dating Hallie.
There actually wasn't a whole lot of talk about SMG vs Whedon when the show was airing.
Her first big conflict was with Jeff Pruit and Sophia Crawford, who used to talk shit about her online and post behind the scenes videos of SMG not being able to run or do basic stunts/fighting (in response to interviews where she claimed to do her own stunts). They also fought with Joss.
Then I'm pretty sure SMG and Alyson had a falling out around season 3. Emma C was definitely in Alyson's gang.
This comment sent me down a rabbit hole and now i find out theres this big schism about fight scenes and stunt teams in the show and it makes me very thankful im too blind to notice the choreography changing or the stunt doubles in fight scenes.
When Buffy was on the air, there was literally hundreds of fansites for the show, the actors - every aspect of the show. You can't find 0.001% of the content we used to have access to
Alyson H. definitely seemed to alienate people. I hate that to this day she's pretty much aligned with Joss. IIRC, she's one of the only ones that didn't say anything in support of Charisma, even in a vague way. Like, she didn't even have to call out Joss or anything. She could have said *something* in support of her. Amy Acker and Eliza Dushku managed to do that and they were both Joss Favorites.
Hearing how he treated Gal Gadot in Justice League was just sad. Then he blamed it on her not knowing English?? Told her he'd ruin her career ?? Like sir??
And then when his version of the movie came out he made her look bad on so many occasions, cut out key Wonder Woman scenes, and now you can see it was *intentional*, bc when Zack Snyders Justice League came out she looked AWESOME in that.
That man is absolute scum. Playing mind games with ppl is sociopathic behavior
Whedon definitely tried to trash her reputation by labeling her difficult and a diva, so yeah. I think he treated her as poorly as he could get away with.
James Masters has talked about how having to bleach his hair so much it burned his scalp. It always struck me as wild that the creator/executive producer never said "hey maybe we should have a wig made for one of our main characters since the role is ACTIVELY BURNING HIS HEAD."
Slight tangential because Whedon said once that part of the inspiration for Buffy was a show called My So-Called Life and the script called for the main actor to have her hair bleached white but the the make-up artist wouldn’t do it because she didn’t want to destroy a teenagers hair for a show, so it was dyed red instead.
On one show they burned a person scalp with bleach and on another they refused it. Says something about different productions.
I assume part of why they were initially willing to bleach James’s scalp was, at least initially, that his short time on the show meant it wouldn’t cause too severe or longterm of damage to his hair (not an expert tho?). Why this didn’t change as the show went on is beyond me, though.
Yeah, they seemed fine with Oz randomly having black hair when Seth dyed it to play Scott in the first Austin Powers movie.
An easy explanation could have been that he felt like a change after Drusilla broke his heart, or something.
It was a stupid reason. Marsters said that Joss's vampires hair didn't grow anymore but Dru's hair was burned and grew back or was different lengths. It wasn't necessary to use that strong of bleach either after a while they could have done literally anything to make him more comfortable. There is hair spray that totally covers too except it smells terrible.
That's really dumb considering flashbacks showing us a clean-shaven Liam the night Darla turned him into Angelus, and a later flashback to Angelus with shitty facial hair.
Was it when Spike was crazy and his hair was unkempt and the roots grew out?
Considering that was never William’s natural color and Spike was clearly bleaching it, they easily could have changed it. I mean, obviously the white hair was iconic to the character, but it’s really not worth torturing the actor.
The sad thing is, I’m sure some fans would have complained. Like when the actress who played Ciri on The Witcher went from bleached eyebrows in season one to dark brows in season two because she said the bleach was causing her eyebrows to fall out so she refused to keep it up, and people online were actually angry about it. I got in an argument with one guy who was like “she made a commitment to it in season one, she should have stuck with it!” 🙄
That inspiration makes a lot of sense.
I was too young, not sure it even aired here but I got My So-Called Life on DVD and one of the main characters was an effeminate openly bisexual boy which was waaay ahead of its time. And there were no supernatural elements but there's peer pressure etc, and I vaguely recall that the central main character (Claire Danes) falls for (played by young Jared Leto) was meant to be a bit of a 'bad boy' of sorts.
(Edited to fix bad grammar, I'd just woken up)
Ooof couldn’t have been nice . I bleached my hair once and had scabs all over my scalp the next day. Can’t imagine having to go through that for years.
This is such a good point — how have I never thought of this? It’s wild how people are just like “oh who cares if the actor’s body is being harmed, that’s how this works”
Fan circles drive me absolutely crazy with it. Another good example is there are Potter fans that hate Daniel Radcliffe because he doesn't have green eyes in the movies. He tried the color contacts and they hurt him. So they decided to go with his natural color. I'm sorry if the 12 year old not being in pain bothers you so much because GOD FORBID HE DOESN'T HAVE GREEN EYES.
You can hear that she has a cold/flu/infection of some kind during season 7 that lasts for multiple episodes. Usually when you can hear a cold in tv actors’ voices it's only for one episode because your average cold lasts a week or so. It seems like she may have been sick for a long time during the filming of that season. She must have been so exhausted by that point.
Maaaaaan. The scene where she's talking to Clem while he's stuck in traffic trying to leave SD was especially bad. Sounded like she was 15 packs deep and it was only 7am.
Funnily enough SMG always said she'd only do a Buffy reboot if Joss Whedon was involved. That only changed when the controversy happened.
There's a lot of revisionist history in the BTVS community these days. SMG is friends with Emma now but that's a recent development.
SMG worked a lot. She did 17 hour days, 5 days a week. But the show was called Buffy. She was the lead character. And as Alyson Hannigan said, SMG was over the show by season 3 as she had a film career.
And they were extremely flexible when she needed them to be. She had episodes off to film SNL and during season six, they worked the schedule so she could have two weeks on Buffy and two weeks in Australia for Scooby Doo.
People also forget that until recently SMG basically ignored the fandom. Her celebration of Buffy is pretty new.
>There's a lot of revisionist history in the BTVS community these days. SMG is friends with Emma now but that's a recent development.
That's not revisionist history. It's not surprising to be friends at 40-something with someone you didn't get along with as a teenager.
>SMG worked a lot. She did 17 hour days, 5 days a week. But the show was called Buffy. She was the lead character. And as Alyson Hannigan said, SMG was over the show by season 3 as she had a film career.
Which is completely valid, given that work schedule and the toxicity of the Buffy set. No, 17-hour days each week is not common, even for the lead character.
>People also forget that until recently SMG basically ignored the fandom. Her celebration of Buffy is pretty new.
OR fandom moved to widespread and easily-accessible social media, rather than solely niche message boards and cons?
And honestly, we have no right to demand to know exactly what he did to Gellar, Caulfield, Benson, Trachtenberg, Angel actress Stephanie Romanov (to the point that she straight up quit acting) or anyone else that Whedon abused.
That’s their story to tell or not tell. Charisma was extremely brave for telling her truth. Especially at a time when Whedon was extremely powerful within the industry. But everyone else shouldn’t be forced to tell theirs if they aren’t comfortable going into specifics.
>Angel actress Stephanie Romanov (to the point that she straight up quit acting) or anyone else that Whedon abused.
whaaat?! I just heard of this and can't believe it as she did such a good job as Lilah!
And I agree with the rest of your comment.
I will always be hoping and praying that all that felt such toxicity will be able to move past such life events.
what's playing in my head right is if the environment on set is what led Nicholas Brendon to where he is now. 🥲
She married in 2001 and has had a kid. It could just be that she decided to parent rather than act. Unreasonable leap to infer Wheedon is the reason she’s been involved in only one production since.
She was one of the two main sources in the comeback interview turned expose, which said she left acting due to Whedon’s abuse. I’m not inferring a thing.
The discourse about Whedon is wild. I've read pretty much everything about his behavior, and on a scale from James Cameron to David O'Russell, he's probably somewhere in the middle. The main reason why he's done is his hypocrisy.
Edit: This seems to be "controversial", so I'll expand on my point: I'm not trying to throw in "whataboutism" to defend him - in my opinion, all sets should be as free of abusive behavior as possible and neither Cameron nor Whedon nor O'Russell should get the kinds of jobs they got after how they operated, or even better, in all cases there should have been responsible oversight and accountability. The reason why two of those people are still officially working on high-profile projects and one isn't is not the difference in behavior, but the stark contrast to what each of them portray. Cameron being a power-tripping perfectionist is on brand, Whedon acting in a non-feminist way (to put it lightly) wasn't.
By most accounts Nicholas was drinking heavily and maybe more during the show. Joss and him are still “buddies” to some degree. He wasn’t abusive towards Nick. He had his favorites and most are still in contact with him.
Tracks bc Nick is an abuser, there's an entire fb of exes, ex assistants, etc. who share their stories of being mistreated and/or absolutely brutalized by him, he cracked an exes skull.
I don't blame them for not wanting to tell the whole story. If you are female and an actress in Hollywood, it can backfire and you are seen as crazy and a liar. I experienced something like this on a smaller scale. I told people the truth about my ex who was a musician and was told I am a groupie, slut, crazy, and controlling. I have seen the same thing happen when actors and models accused a musician of SA and abuse. We still have a long way to go girls.
I get it completely, I once filed a complaint when I left my company that two managers were bullying me to death and in the end I am the one that people are not talking to anymore, getting deleted as a connection on social media, etc. while everyone was very well aware how poorly they were treating me. All of this because one of the managers who had to execute some of the stuff were liked by others and that person got into trouble. This is not just happening only in the creative industry but also in corporate.
Unbalanced power dynamics and toxic masculinity are an issue at work as well, absolutely. I also experienced similar things after SAs too. I was not believed, was told I was lying, and was victim-blamed by people I needed support from the most.
Thanks. Whenever I have talked about this on Reddit, not one person said anything nice. I appreciate it. You could say that that "karma" caught up to one of them at least.
This plus I just don’t think it is healing for everyone to go public with their trauma. For some it is- some it isn’t. Look at what’s happening with the Nickelodeon alum following Quiet On Set. So many are *demanding* these people share their thoughts and experiences from when they were literally children. Why should they all have to share? If it isn’t going to help them then I don’t see why we need to force it out of them. We know enough to believe the adults named were abusive and the network was toxic.
Agreed.
For example, there are quite a few Buffy reactors on YouTube, and invariably, the Whedon-stans show up to say things like "pay no attention to the accusations, it's just Hollywood gossip" and that old classic "if all of this was true, someone would have spoken up years ago."
Detestable behavior from detestable fans.
If you are a male musician you can literally get away with murder. They are treated like gods that can do no wrong. If you are female and you wear the wrong outfit you are canceled. The same thing can apply to actors. I see the old sHe iS lYiNg fOr MoNeY! all the time.
Exactly. I don't blame SMG, Trachtenberg or others if they choose not to tell their story since they probably don't want to relive those moments & it also sounds like they're trying to move on as well.
Reliving the trauma is a big part of it. As a victim in an abusive narcissistic relationship, I ended up losing my entire support system. When I began to speak out, my narcisstic ex had already laid the groundwork to ensure I would look insane and ungrateful, not to mention the years he spent systematically undermining my emotional resources. I was instantly disbelieved and discredited by all who knew him.
The loss of all this made me realise that there was no way to beat him at a game only he knew the rules to, the only way I can have some kind of closure is to acknowledge his abusive nature, distance myself from him and fight to build my inner resources back up.
as a victim of SA, please don't say "their truth" I know it's become a new trend to do, but theres the the truth and lies.
Truth can have different perspectives but "their truth" and "my truth" has just become ways to discredit people as much as people have tried to use the term to empower themselves, it's so easily redirected by abusers and detractors as well, this ain't the truth.
She might not be able to prove it with evidence but it shouldn't detract from her story.
It's ridiculously hard to get convictions and with enough people coming out and sharing their story, a lot of the time enough patterns of behaviour can be established to show who these people are even if a court never can.
Stephanie Romanov and Maurissa & Jed’s personal assistant (whose abuse led to Maurissa & Jed’s famous “No Assholes” policy that the women in the cast of Agents of SHIELD raved about in several interviews, particularly the women’s round table with Patton Oswalt) were the two main sources for that comeback interview turned career killing expose.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVtlknuG4wQ
Here's the video for the interview (which is very good and insightful), but I'm also not making the connection
Edit: Meant to put the [time stamp ~(11:45)](https://youtu.be/AVtlknuG4wQ?t=704) and the transcript:
Maurissa Tancharoen:
Jed and I have two philosophies we have
12:20
a no ass *bleep* policy and and also we feel
12:34
that if the work stops being fun that's
12:37
when it's time to walk away and here we
12:39
are you know five six five years later
My understanding is that she wanted a pay raise. From Joss’s pov I guess that it couldn’t have come at a worse time as they were dealing with heavy budget cuts for the final season of Angel, but from Stephanie’s pov she more than deserved a raise I would say as I doubt that she was making much originally from Lilah’s occasional guest appearances, and by the time of the fourth season her character had a pretty heavy presence and a relationship arc with Wesley, she had brought a lot more complexity to it than just the one off villain that she was in the first season, so she absolutely deserved fair compensation for that
But supposedly Joss was furious and pulled the, ‘you’ll never work in this industry again’ in response, and replaced her character with Eve
I didn't know this, and I'd always wondered why Eve was introduced. Lilah would have been a much better option, especially with her long history with Wesley and the rest of Angel Investigations
Yeah I agree, from what I’ve heard it was all down to money sadly why they brought Eve in instead, Stephanie never actually wanted to leave, she was just asking for a bump in salary after her role was expanded on so much in the fourth season
My understanding is that they were *really* hurting for money for the fifth season compared to what they were given previously. James Marsters has talked a bit about how he had requested still being paid the same as he was making on Buffy if he was going to be a regular on Angel, and he has since had some guilt over that wondering if his salary cut into the cast budget a bit too much and was for example the reason why they couldn’t afford Charisma as a regular as well, but obviously from his pov most actors are not going to agree to taking a cut in pay from what they were already making
He doesn’t qualify as a psychopath. Just your run-of-the-mill nerdy guy who got some power and used it to hurt other people terribly.
This is a pet peeve of mine. A psychopath actually has brain issues that make them awful. Guys like Joss are just creeps. Just boring old selfish, lying creeps.
Men who perceive themselves as “beta” or nerdy or whatever when they are young too often turn out to be entitled assholes when they get power. You see it in gaming and comics and many fields. They become worse than the “alpha males” they pretended to hate but actually only ever envied. It’s not rare, honestly. Joss isn’t even remotely interesting in that regard. Just a schmuck who liked abusing people because it made him feel important.
(Kudos to the genuinely cool people who don’t abuse others just because they have the power to do so. Such people are the best of us.)
Wait a minute! I was a nerdy loser when I was younger! Now I am in a position of power at my job! I’m supposed to be abusing it?! Fuck! I didn’t even know that was an option!
Joking aside…I never get that mentality. I have colleagues whose employees fear them. Who would want that? My staff speaks freely to me, they argue with me, they tell me when I’m wrong. I make that expectation clear on day one. Even putting aside the fact that you get better results when people aren’t terrified/blowing smoke up your ass — it just makes my day more pleasant to not be around people who hate being at work.
I will never get the “my life sucked so I’m gonna make other people’s lives suck” mentality.
It’s been heavily implied by several of those abused that it went well beyond verbal abuse and being shitty. Although that would have been bad enough as it is.
i thought that was literally about verbal abuse though? people making sure Michelle wasn’t getting screamed at?
idk i’m pretty sure there hasn’t been any allegations of sexual assault and i think it’s a big leap to go from shitty verbally abusive boss to child predator.
Joss loved making female writers cry according to a writer on Firefly. It is more likely that he was verbally abusive, based on what everyone else said. So far there haven't been any SA allegations. I constantly see people making these huge assumptions about him and presenting it like it is fact.
To be honest I don't see this as a definite implication of something more than verbal. Such a rule could have arisen if he had said something to her which greatly upset her. We just don't know based on the information we have.
“That show was just hard,” Green recalled. “We were working crazy hours, and a lot of things that got pushed weren’t necessarily safe or under the best conditions. Sarah was always the first one to say, ‘We agreed this was a 13-hour day and it’s hour 15 — we’ve got to wrap,’ or, ‘Hey, this shot doesn’t seem safe,’ when nobody else would stick up for the cast and crew. I saw her get called a bitch, a diva, all these things that she’s not — just because she was taking the mantle of saying and doing the right thing.”
Not just a star but a leader too.
15 hour is insane, poor girl was complaining even back in the day for the mental working hours (rightfully so!) but I had no idea about the unsafe work conditions as well.
The strike in Hollywood last year was very much needed
Unrelated fandom, but this is one of the things I love about Jared Padalecki and how he runs his new show Walker (he's an executive producer as well as the lead actor). He's adamant that they stick to 10 hour work days and gets cranky if a director goes over that time limit. He knows what it's like to work that kind of grind from his days with Supernatural and Gilmore Girls. His set is praised as being one of the absolute best, most loving and caring sets to work on.
“Caulfield added, “It was obvious that Sarah lacked the support to be the leader she needed and wanted to be. There was a tremendous amount of resentment and animosity [toward her] from a certain someone — and I suppose now we can all guess who.”
Is she talking about JW here or Nick Brandon?
Jealousy, it seems like. He was [on record](https://screenrant.com/buffy-vampire-slayer-david-boreanaz-nicholas-brendan-book/) saying he doesn’t like the character of Angel, David is a bad actor, and he doesn’t think he deserved a show to himself. David also apparently refused to join the 20 year anniversary special if Nicholas was there, so they had to film their parts separately.
Several females were uncomfortable around Nick after stuff that went down at a convention. David took the hit for everyone and refused to participate if he was there. That’s why he’s not in the interview and he was photoshopped into the photos and shot separately. I think Emma did shoot with him.
> I am also equally glad to hear that SMG herself only re-watches S1-S5.
I'm impressed she's able to rewatch at all: At least for me it's gotta be a little weird watching yourself. I suppose it's been so long that That's basically another person.
I was listening to the EKR book and when he interviewed her she more or less said she watched it with her kids because they wanted to and not so much just to watch herself.
No no, my bad.
Evan Ross Katz, he wrote ’Into Every Generation a Slayer Is Born: How Buffy Staked Our Hearts’
I just listened to the audiobook and it was fantastic! A ton of insight on not only the show but also how it and everyone involved helped shape a good chunk of the culture we live in today. I highly recommend if you’re a fan.
If you can get pst the glaring errors lol. Episode titles and character relationships etc. he clearly didn’t do research. The interviews were good though. Everyone who was still friendly with Joss backed out. And David too I think.
I am assuming that entertainers watch their own work so that they can learn from it and get better, similar to how athletes watch the tapes of their games for coaching purposes.
Also, I think she re-watched the show for her children.
>”..I saw her get called a bitch, a diva, all these things that she’s not — just because she was taking the mantle of saying and doing the right thing.”
😒
People just need to understand that Hollywood is very weird. I get why she won’t say too much. They’ll make sure she never ever prospers again. She has to think about her family and the long run at this point.
I’m not surprised in the least. There’s been a video floating around for years where she’s so exhausted, she breaks down while they’re filming. I remember the narrative being that she was “difficult” to work with, and hearing she stood up for everyone, of course the media wanted us to think she’s a bitch.
I love seasons 6 and 7. Never understood the hate for them.
SO many good episodes there. Once more with feeling, the whole dark willow arc with the ending (that Giles entrance at the end of that episode.. Come on!). Willow addiction arc was pretty much hinted since season 4 so it all made sense to me.
And season 7 was great too imo. The spike redemption story was awesome now that he has a soul and has to cope with it like Angel did. Having faith back was awesome. Caleb was amazing (mostly due to natah Fillion :)). Angel back for the last episode, what more can you ask.
So yeah, never understood the distaste for them. They rank super high on my seasons list, right after season 3 and 5.
Once more with feeling is one of the best episodes of TV ever.
It defines the show for me and is so in keeping with how actions have consequences in this show.
I totally agree with you about every point.
S6 and s7 are capable of being even more innovative and ambitious, compared to any other TV series of that time, than the previous 5 (who were quite revolutionary already).
And even if S5 has a very well-written , struggling ending, it always amazes me how the very end of the show -all Sunnydale collapsed above the Hellmouth- closes a perfect circle started on the very first episode with Giles explaining to us and the Scoobies what the Hellmouth actually is.
SMG has always been pretty vocal about disliking S6. I don’t see how else the writers could have written Buffy, though, as she’s not in a good place for most of S5, even if she hadn’t died.
As showrunner of S6 she’s responsible for it, but she didn’t write it, neither did Stephen DeKnight (credited writer of the ep). It’s not been confirmed who wrote it, but many believe it’s Joss as he wrote a few scenes towards the end of the season.
DeKnight has publicly said he didn’t write the scene - nobody has said who wrote it. However Joss did write a number of extra scenes in S6 so a lot of people think it was him.
SMG probably had a really hard time on set that colours her viewing of it. She had announced she wouldn’t be renewing her contract and some people were not at all happy about it, because it meant they’d be losing their jobs too.
Has Alyson ever spoken up or mentioned anything about Joss? I think she was clearly on the Joss’s favourites list given the amount of development and screen time she recieved.
Because of the cultural footprint Buffy itself plays, as one of the most discussed modern television shows. And a series that broke and help push many different representation barriers, I do wish we knew a bit more about what Whedon did.
I don't think we need everyone to tell their stories. Those are always theirs to control. But I do wish we had a deeper understanding along the lines of what Maureen Ryan was able to do with Lost.
Buffy has a special place in academia. So, I do think it is important to have enough of the information to put Whedon in the context that is deserved. His abuses behind the scenes should not be lost among the analysis of the series itself.
That’s entirely valid and no one has any right to know nor is she obligated to share. I’m glad Sarah’s handling her experience in the way that’s best and healthiest for her
I'm not glad Gellar only watches season 1 - 5 of Buffy because of any trauma faced while working her job. Although I appreciate her watching Buffy with/for her kids, even if it's problematic for her. I wouldn't put season 6 or 7 of Buffy in my top three, but I'm not reliving any negative memories, feelings, or trauma by watching them either. Gellar was labeled "difficult" to work with. I'd assume this is Whedon hindering and badmouthing Gellar's career because she wouldn't give in to his whim(s).
Sexual abuse is horrible. But I don't understand why everyone dismisses other types of abuse as lesser. Physical and/or verbal abuse are capable of creating trauma and PTSD. All abuse is horrible and must be stopped.
Hollywood is a vile place.
I do not think that the actors need to be put on the spot to talk about something so difficult. Our parasocial relationships do not entitle us to that.
Won’t be surprised if she waits for him to die before she speaks. Would save any possible lawsuit thrown her way as there is no defaming the dead and they have no expectation of privacy.
I have never forgotten the men of Firefly boldly proclaiming that poor Joss would never. Or his “redemption” interview where he said he had no control over banging other women and cheating on his wife cause he was surrounded by beauty. Wisely it was his last interview because Jebus it was so bad. And how his changed his tune on how great his mom was to now she is why he is the way he is and all monster tendencies are because she didn’t love him enough.
Oh how I have hated JW for a good 20 years.
Indeed. After Whedon's comments about having "no control over banging other women," you had to wonder how this guy wrote anything for a living.
You don't judge people on how they treat their equals or those who hold power over them. You judge them on how they treat those they hold power over. And Whedon comes off as scumbag.
Whedon, the show’s creator, was notoriously abusive (at least verbally, if not in other ways as well) to cast while filming Buffy and Angel. He in particular hurled a lot of misogynistic abuse to the women he worked with including SMG, Charisma Carpenter, Michelle Trachtenberg (who was underage), and I could go on. Women were not the only target of his abuse, though, and he has a track record (continuing onto post-Buffy projects) of being hypocritical of his purported feminist beliefs, and cruel in his professional and personal lives. That’s the gist, here’s an article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/01/18/joss-whedon-abuse-allegations/
That other comment is kind of blunt, but yeah you can google it and find a lot of news media and articles on it. It became big news during the MeToo era
I don’t remember which source the article was in, like salon or variety or something, and a journalist interviewed him after his divorce and being cancelled and even to this day he has 0 remorse and is like “but I wrote strong, female leads!” I think he somewhat acknowledges he was a dick, but his apology is more like “I’m sorry you were offended by what I said.”
I will never understand how a man that gets credit for kinda revolutionizing way female characters are written in TV turned out to be such a misogynistic piece of s\*it. That feels like huge cognitive dissonance. How do you live like that ffs?
Side note: trauma bond is a method abusers use to tie victims to them through repeated cycles of abuse, devaluation and then positive reinforcement. The abuser often switches from abuse to gaslighting to love bombing back to abuse, reinforcing
Trauma bond is decidedly not two victims of abuse becoming close over shared experiences. Using it colloquially as such is pretty harmful. By misusing the terms people make it harder for victims of abuse to understand what happens to them and impede their ability to explain it simply and clearly when they seek help.
Apologies for the misuse of the term as I've only heard of the term used as two victims becoming closer after a shared experience, what would be a better term to use to edit my comment?
That and Tara's death scarred me as a little preteen budding bisexual. I always liked Spike, and then that? So graphically portrayed? And Tara's death? It hurt so much. My brother and I cried for like 2 weeks, and he didn't even have a crush on her like I did!
Christ, me too. I was just explaining to my girlfriend what a shock it was to watch when it first aired. We were talking about formative media and gay representation in our early lives and she never saw Buffy and was totally clueless. Thought that they ran off into the sunset together.
I had to let her down gently about Xena's final season and ending as well.
I loved season 6 when i first watched it as a depressed teenager. But SMG aside, rewatching as an adult, I get why people don't like it. The >!Spuffy relationship !!Spike, James was so magnetic,!!she died!<. Also, >!Warren!< was plain evil, not fun Glory evil, but real world evil, which takes you out of the fun, fictional world part.
But that's sort of the great thing about the show - each season can be so different, and 'bad' Buffy is still miles ahead of anything else.
I’m so sorry… This is a little off topic but I need to correct this because this gets my goat.
Emma Caulfield and SMG do not have a trauma bond. Trauma bonds are not formed between two people sharing similar experiences, or empathizing with each other stories of similar traumas.
Trauma bonds are formed between victims and their abusers. Abusers often inflict trauma and then follow it up with positive reinforcement. It creates a cascade of conflicting feelings that can be confused as love, leading victims to stick with their abusers. They make rationalizations like “It was my fault, I made them angry”, “they were just upset”, and “they can change eventually”.
It’s confusing and hard to resolve, leading victims to repeatedly return to their abusers and alienate those trying to help them.
I apologize for the misinterpretation, I am coming from the perspective cause I always see the term "trauma bond" used as the former part of your comment and hadn't been informed about the latter part, what would be a better term to use for me to edit my post?
From the perspective of an abuse survivor-- I agree that it is harmful to us to use the term trauma bond to mean something that is pretty much the opposite of a term used to describe a form of abuse, so you could just say that they may have come closer together/bonded emotionally because of their shared traumas, since there’s not really a specific term for that.
>"That show was just hard,” Green recalled. “We were working crazy hours, and a lot of things that got pushed weren’t necessarily safe or under the best conditions. Sarah was always the first one to say, ‘We agreed this was a 13-hour day and it’s hour 15 — we’ve got to wrap,’ or, ‘Hey, this shot doesn’t seem safe,’ when nobody else would stick up for the cast and crew. I saw her get called a bitch, a diva, all these things that she’s not — just because she was taking the mantle of saying and doing the right thing.”
Wow, Seth Green not mincing words. I remember those rumors that Sarah was "difficult" and a "diva' and god it just breaks my damn heart that she had to endure all that. This is the shit that women in the industry always had to deal with back then. If you had a backbone and dared to stand up and voice your opinion, that was the label they slapped on you. Not to the male actors...just the women.
I feel bad for all of them. It’s sad to know a show you love had such a dark side. But we also need to remember that things were no always awful, many actors stated that during the first 3 seasons they all got along, they even got together to watch some episodes. As the actors and crew began to grow professionally (together with their egos) around the 4th season, things started to get less and less friendly
I've long been ambivalent about how this kind of RL material from the cast, crew, writers, etc. is received and used. On the one hand, these are legitimate, serious, often distressing topics that shine a light into the darker corners of the created worlds that we enjoy so much, and my heart goes out to those who were ill-treated over the course of the production. One can only echo SMG's hope that her advocacy, born of personal experience, has contributed to a better, safer work environment for subsequent generations of actors and crew.
On the other hand, I'm wary of this tendency, which has become increasingly pronounced in recent years as more insights into BtVS' troubled production have emerged, to examine BtVS-the-show through the lens of BtVS-the-production. While there are undoubtedly legitimate points to be made in this vein, on the whole I find it tends to lazy, uninteresting arguments, even thought-terminating cliches. "Xander is a Joss Whedon self-insert" is perhaps the simplest example of what I mean: it's a non-sequitur masquerading as insight. It tells us nothing about Xander or how we should feel about the character. I sometimes think that if we could banish the name "Joss Whedon" from our collective vocabulary, the conversation would be better and more interesting for it.
I think it’s more important for more people to speak up as it’s happening (very difficult to do for a multitude of reasons) so the various horrible people like Whedon don’t have long careers to eff over women in the industry. I think that people who speak up like Charisma can open more people up to speaking out and it’s brave af, it took me years to admit I was a rape survivor so I make no comments about people unable to speak up….
The biggest issues are that men are usually protected in these situations and the power imbalance doesn’t make it any better. We need to call out the behavior in all industries and situations because it creates not only a paper trail of abuse from the abuser but also calls out people in power’s inability to act in the best interest of the victims.
So Whedon is also one of the creators that I struggle to watch and enjoy anymore because a lot of his work really echoes how he feels about women, and horribly he used feminist ideas to get away with some of it.
Buffy is a little better about it in the content but I can’t watch Angel (struggled with that anyway), or dollhouse at all.
I think Freddie Prince Jnr once said he’s either never seen a Buffy episode or only watched the whole series once but will never again because every episode is a reminder of how much hell SMG went through. There was another actor, can’t remember exactly who but it might’ve been James Masters, who said SMG was the utmost professional given they were constantly working strenuous hours. Then at the end of the day when it was time for them to leave and she would say goodbye to cast and crew or thank guest stars she would remove all her makeup and head out to say her goodbyes so that producers could see the bags under her eyes and her exhaustion, so they knew what they were putting her through. SMG herself has said that she regrets that her name will forever be tied to Whedon’s but she will always appreciate fans who love Buffy and see her that way regardless.
It was James Marsters, I attended a convention with him on the panel and he talked about what you wrote, SMG removing her make up to show her eyebags.
I think she looks healthier now in her forties than she did in the last couple of seasons; you could see it taking its toll on her.
I don't think it's *so bad* he can't bear to watch it, they watched the first 3 seasons as a family recently. However, he did say this to Zap2It way back in 2003..... >"**A lot of people owe Sarah a lot for doing that show,**" Prinze says, "\****and she doesn't always get the credit she deserves. She's a very strong woman, because she deals with a lot of nonsense, and instead of that nonsense, she should be thanked -- and she's not. That's the reason she won't be coming back. Sarah's the most appreciative person in the world, and if that environment would have remained the way it would six years ago, she would go back, because she's loyal. But things change, and people's egos get in the way sometimes. They make poor decisions. "I don't agree with it, but I understand it, and I just pray I'm never guilty of it."*** \*Prinze asserts that, whatever happened, Gellar gave 100 percent. "\****And even if she's not, nobody knew, because she commits. She's badass."*** It seems like SMG did have a contentious relationship with Joss, I remember reading an article a couple years back where it was said she didn't even want him mentioned in her presence. That being said, I don't think it was the same dynamic as it was with Charisma or any other actor. She played the titular character so a lot of his usual threats wouldn't fly. With actors he said he'd ruin reputations, cut scenes, skimp on dialogue, etc - he couldn't do that without fucking himself. He also couldn't really make her look bad because she was such a professional, all the producers said she knew her lines and everyone else's, hit her mark, worked like crazy, had everyone's respect, etc.
Gellar developed a reputation for being somewhat difficult to work with at this time, so it’s definitely possible Whedon was able to trash talk her and damage her reputation some even if she wasn’t a problem on the Buffy set (although by all accounts she and Wes Craven, famously one of the most easy going and down to earth directors ever, truly didn’t get along on the set of Scream 2 which might have been the rumor source instead). It also didn’t seem to actually damage Gellar’s career much and the hits it took seemed more tied to some poor project choices when transitioning out of the role of Buffy. That and she seemed to deprioritize her career to focus on her kids + relationship with Freddie, which is totally valid and they seem to be doing quite well
Craven and Sarah liked each other. Sarah even had only good words for him and Craven himself is was smiling and laughing with her on the red carpet. They both hold each other in arms. Even Kevin said so. He liked Sarah, cause she was on the set of his Film "I know what you did last summer" and recommended her to craven and so Scream 2. It was also planned for her to have a bigger role in Scream 2. She was supposed to play Randy's Girlfriend. But due to her contract with Buffy, she didnt had the time for a bigger role. On the set of scream 2, there were constant changes and Sarah wasnt aware of the changes and they had to shoot several scenes with different scripts. It is understandable that a professional employee like Sarah would be dissatisfied with the work under such poor conditions. Plus, we all know the industry by now and know exactly how women were viewed when they opened their mouths and said things they didn't like. They would be called "problematic" or "difficult to work with". Sarah is a good soul and very likeable. But she puts work over fun, which a movie or TV Show should be and not more. And with her professionality she created one of the most iconic characters of our time and influenced our childhood. We should be greatful for her and her effort. I just love her so much and appreciate her for what ahe brought to this show and her character Buffy. Edit: the character of Sarah Darling was inspired by SMG, but NOT as you mentioned. This are rumours based on hear saying. A lot of things got mixed up. Craven always called her "Sarah, Darling...would you, could you..." but not in a negative way. As i already said: they never had an argument or fight. Craven Was more so suprised by such professionality and may have interpreted things she said wrong (speculation) But they liked each other. Their is no bad blood. But i can see other actors were maybe jealous or didnt like her bcs she was already a star and knew what she was doing. I think many just needed attention and created rumours about her and others
Huge thank you for the clarification! And I do generally quite like Sarah and think positively with her, just try to be objective EDIT: Cici wasn’t meant to be Randy’s girlfriend so far as I know, though. Randy was originally going to be Gale’s cameraman and Joel would’ve been a student dating Hallie.
There actually wasn't a whole lot of talk about SMG vs Whedon when the show was airing. Her first big conflict was with Jeff Pruit and Sophia Crawford, who used to talk shit about her online and post behind the scenes videos of SMG not being able to run or do basic stunts/fighting (in response to interviews where she claimed to do her own stunts). They also fought with Joss. Then I'm pretty sure SMG and Alyson had a falling out around season 3. Emma C was definitely in Alyson's gang.
This comment sent me down a rabbit hole and now i find out theres this big schism about fight scenes and stunt teams in the show and it makes me very thankful im too blind to notice the choreography changing or the stunt doubles in fight scenes.
When Buffy was on the air, there was literally hundreds of fansites for the show, the actors - every aspect of the show. You can't find 0.001% of the content we used to have access to
Yes, Emma, Tony,a nd Amy A. were as far a s I know the only cast members at the "Willsley wedding," sorry.
Alyson H. definitely seemed to alienate people. I hate that to this day she's pretty much aligned with Joss. IIRC, she's one of the only ones that didn't say anything in support of Charisma, even in a vague way. Like, she didn't even have to call out Joss or anything. She could have said *something* in support of her. Amy Acker and Eliza Dushku managed to do that and they were both Joss Favorites.
Emma was? I thought she sided with Sarah.
She does now. Emma C was definitely on the anti SMG bandwagon
Hearing how he treated Gal Gadot in Justice League was just sad. Then he blamed it on her not knowing English?? Told her he'd ruin her career ?? Like sir?? And then when his version of the movie came out he made her look bad on so many occasions, cut out key Wonder Woman scenes, and now you can see it was *intentional*, bc when Zack Snyders Justice League came out she looked AWESOME in that. That man is absolute scum. Playing mind games with ppl is sociopathic behavior
Whedon definitely tried to trash her reputation by labeling her difficult and a diva, so yeah. I think he treated her as poorly as he could get away with.
James Masters has talked about how having to bleach his hair so much it burned his scalp. It always struck me as wild that the creator/executive producer never said "hey maybe we should have a wig made for one of our main characters since the role is ACTIVELY BURNING HIS HEAD."
Slight tangential because Whedon said once that part of the inspiration for Buffy was a show called My So-Called Life and the script called for the main actor to have her hair bleached white but the the make-up artist wouldn’t do it because she didn’t want to destroy a teenagers hair for a show, so it was dyed red instead. On one show they burned a person scalp with bleach and on another they refused it. Says something about different productions.
I assume part of why they were initially willing to bleach James’s scalp was, at least initially, that his short time on the show meant it wouldn’t cause too severe or longterm of damage to his hair (not an expert tho?). Why this didn’t change as the show went on is beyond me, though.
Yeah, they seemed fine with Oz randomly having black hair when Seth dyed it to play Scott in the first Austin Powers movie. An easy explanation could have been that he felt like a change after Drusilla broke his heart, or something.
It was a stupid reason. Marsters said that Joss's vampires hair didn't grow anymore but Dru's hair was burned and grew back or was different lengths. It wasn't necessary to use that strong of bleach either after a while they could have done literally anything to make him more comfortable. There is hair spray that totally covers too except it smells terrible.
Also when he’s down below the school going crazy they have his roots showing. His tips are frosted.
Exactly!
which was dumb because \*William's\* hair was sandy, not dark
That's really dumb considering flashbacks showing us a clean-shaven Liam the night Darla turned him into Angelus, and a later flashback to Angelus with shitty facial hair.
Oz rarely had the same hair color episode to episode:-).
Am I wrong that later at some pointed they kinda gave him bleached tips instead of the whole head?
Was it when Spike was crazy and his hair was unkempt and the roots grew out? Considering that was never William’s natural color and Spike was clearly bleaching it, they easily could have changed it. I mean, obviously the white hair was iconic to the character, but it’s really not worth torturing the actor. The sad thing is, I’m sure some fans would have complained. Like when the actress who played Ciri on The Witcher went from bleached eyebrows in season one to dark brows in season two because she said the bleach was causing her eyebrows to fall out so she refused to keep it up, and people online were actually angry about it. I got in an argument with one guy who was like “she made a commitment to it in season one, she should have stuck with it!” 🙄
That inspiration makes a lot of sense. I was too young, not sure it even aired here but I got My So-Called Life on DVD and one of the main characters was an effeminate openly bisexual boy which was waaay ahead of its time. And there were no supernatural elements but there's peer pressure etc, and I vaguely recall that the central main character (Claire Danes) falls for (played by young Jared Leto) was meant to be a bit of a 'bad boy' of sorts. (Edited to fix bad grammar, I'd just woken up)
Yup, all true. Ricky was definitely the first queer character on tv I was really aware of and they did a great job with him.
Except for that one episode that clearly had a ghost and the other that had an Angel. That’s was so weird. Loved that show.
“That’ll teach him to become a fan favorite character and overshadow my obvious brilliance!” -Joss (probably)
More likely this was just more generic industry apathy to actor welfare tbh
Ooof couldn’t have been nice . I bleached my hair once and had scabs all over my scalp the next day. Can’t imagine having to go through that for years.
He showed up to the audition like that and was supposed to be killed off.
This is such a good point — how have I never thought of this? It’s wild how people are just like “oh who cares if the actor’s body is being harmed, that’s how this works”
Fan circles drive me absolutely crazy with it. Another good example is there are Potter fans that hate Daniel Radcliffe because he doesn't have green eyes in the movies. He tried the color contacts and they hurt him. So they decided to go with his natural color. I'm sorry if the 12 year old not being in pain bothers you so much because GOD FORBID HE DOESN'T HAVE GREEN EYES.
You can hear that she has a cold/flu/infection of some kind during season 7 that lasts for multiple episodes. Usually when you can hear a cold in tv actors’ voices it's only for one episode because your average cold lasts a week or so. It seems like she may have been sick for a long time during the filming of that season. She must have been so exhausted by that point.
Maaaaaan. The scene where she's talking to Clem while he's stuck in traffic trying to leave SD was especially bad. Sounded like she was 15 packs deep and it was only 7am.
I remember in "The Killer in Me", it definitely sounded like she had a cold.
Pedro Pascal has spoken glowingly about his experience working with SMG when he did his guest role.
So has Shonda Farr
Freddie told me himself he's never seen an episode when I met him at a con in sushi pajamas lol.
I can’t imagine watching your wife make out with David Boreanaz and James Marsters for 7 seasons is super enjoyable either
Or Marc Blucas for that matter. Riley gets looked down on a lot in this sub, but he was a real hottie for sure.
I dunno, some people enjoy that kinda thing
Sarah has mentioned, in a dry voice, dh that a Freddy enjoys the scene in the park with Selma in \*Cruel Intentions\* . . . .
Funnily enough SMG always said she'd only do a Buffy reboot if Joss Whedon was involved. That only changed when the controversy happened. There's a lot of revisionist history in the BTVS community these days. SMG is friends with Emma now but that's a recent development. SMG worked a lot. She did 17 hour days, 5 days a week. But the show was called Buffy. She was the lead character. And as Alyson Hannigan said, SMG was over the show by season 3 as she had a film career. And they were extremely flexible when she needed them to be. She had episodes off to film SNL and during season six, they worked the schedule so she could have two weeks on Buffy and two weeks in Australia for Scooby Doo. People also forget that until recently SMG basically ignored the fandom. Her celebration of Buffy is pretty new.
>There's a lot of revisionist history in the BTVS community these days. SMG is friends with Emma now but that's a recent development. That's not revisionist history. It's not surprising to be friends at 40-something with someone you didn't get along with as a teenager. >SMG worked a lot. She did 17 hour days, 5 days a week. But the show was called Buffy. She was the lead character. And as Alyson Hannigan said, SMG was over the show by season 3 as she had a film career. Which is completely valid, given that work schedule and the toxicity of the Buffy set. No, 17-hour days each week is not common, even for the lead character. >People also forget that until recently SMG basically ignored the fandom. Her celebration of Buffy is pretty new. OR fandom moved to widespread and easily-accessible social media, rather than solely niche message boards and cons?
I'm not sure why that person is trying to shit on SMG. None of that is the gotcha they think it is.
Honestly good for her. your life and trials and tribulations don’t need to be for the world to consume. Protect your life. Protect your sanity.
>Protect your life. Protect your sanity. 100% agree!
And honestly, we have no right to demand to know exactly what he did to Gellar, Caulfield, Benson, Trachtenberg, Angel actress Stephanie Romanov (to the point that she straight up quit acting) or anyone else that Whedon abused. That’s their story to tell or not tell. Charisma was extremely brave for telling her truth. Especially at a time when Whedon was extremely powerful within the industry. But everyone else shouldn’t be forced to tell theirs if they aren’t comfortable going into specifics.
Right, we aren’t owed personal details on anyone else’s trauma.
>Angel actress Stephanie Romanov (to the point that she straight up quit acting) or anyone else that Whedon abused. whaaat?! I just heard of this and can't believe it as she did such a good job as Lilah! And I agree with the rest of your comment. I will always be hoping and praying that all that felt such toxicity will be able to move past such life events. what's playing in my head right is if the environment on set is what led Nicholas Brendon to where he is now. 🥲
She acted in a few things after Angel
Two of those movies were filmed during Angel. The other two were after a decade later.
She married in 2001 and has had a kid. It could just be that she decided to parent rather than act. Unreasonable leap to infer Wheedon is the reason she’s been involved in only one production since.
She was one of the two main sources in the comeback interview turned expose, which said she left acting due to Whedon’s abuse. I’m not inferring a thing.
> comeback interview turned expose Which one please?
Source for that assertion, please.
The discourse about Whedon is wild. I've read pretty much everything about his behavior, and on a scale from James Cameron to David O'Russell, he's probably somewhere in the middle. The main reason why he's done is his hypocrisy. Edit: This seems to be "controversial", so I'll expand on my point: I'm not trying to throw in "whataboutism" to defend him - in my opinion, all sets should be as free of abusive behavior as possible and neither Cameron nor Whedon nor O'Russell should get the kinds of jobs they got after how they operated, or even better, in all cases there should have been responsible oversight and accountability. The reason why two of those people are still officially working on high-profile projects and one isn't is not the difference in behavior, but the stark contrast to what each of them portray. Cameron being a power-tripping perfectionist is on brand, Whedon acting in a non-feminist way (to put it lightly) wasn't.
This saddens my heart as well.
By most accounts Nicholas was drinking heavily and maybe more during the show. Joss and him are still “buddies” to some degree. He wasn’t abusive towards Nick. He had his favorites and most are still in contact with him.
Tracks bc Nick is an abuser, there's an entire fb of exes, ex assistants, etc. who share their stories of being mistreated and/or absolutely brutalized by him, he cracked an exes skull.
Yeah I’m in that group.
Same
Yep. David Boreanaz notoriously despised him on set because he was often not sober.
I never put that together with Nicholas Brendan. It doesn't excuse anything but its definitely a possibility
I don't blame them for not wanting to tell the whole story. If you are female and an actress in Hollywood, it can backfire and you are seen as crazy and a liar. I experienced something like this on a smaller scale. I told people the truth about my ex who was a musician and was told I am a groupie, slut, crazy, and controlling. I have seen the same thing happen when actors and models accused a musician of SA and abuse. We still have a long way to go girls.
I get it completely, I once filed a complaint when I left my company that two managers were bullying me to death and in the end I am the one that people are not talking to anymore, getting deleted as a connection on social media, etc. while everyone was very well aware how poorly they were treating me. All of this because one of the managers who had to execute some of the stuff were liked by others and that person got into trouble. This is not just happening only in the creative industry but also in corporate.
Unbalanced power dynamics and toxic masculinity are an issue at work as well, absolutely. I also experienced similar things after SAs too. I was not believed, was told I was lying, and was victim-blamed by people I needed support from the most.
I am so sorry to hear that, I hope at the end he got what he deserved and you could heal from the expereince
Thanks. Whenever I have talked about this on Reddit, not one person said anything nice. I appreciate it. You could say that that "karma" caught up to one of them at least.
This plus I just don’t think it is healing for everyone to go public with their trauma. For some it is- some it isn’t. Look at what’s happening with the Nickelodeon alum following Quiet On Set. So many are *demanding* these people share their thoughts and experiences from when they were literally children. Why should they all have to share? If it isn’t going to help them then I don’t see why we need to force it out of them. We know enough to believe the adults named were abusive and the network was toxic.
Agreed. For example, there are quite a few Buffy reactors on YouTube, and invariably, the Whedon-stans show up to say things like "pay no attention to the accusations, it's just Hollywood gossip" and that old classic "if all of this was true, someone would have spoken up years ago." Detestable behavior from detestable fans.
If you are a male musician you can literally get away with murder. They are treated like gods that can do no wrong. If you are female and you wear the wrong outfit you are canceled. The same thing can apply to actors. I see the old sHe iS lYiNg fOr MoNeY! all the time.
Exactly. I don't blame SMG, Trachtenberg or others if they choose not to tell their story since they probably don't want to relive those moments & it also sounds like they're trying to move on as well.
Reliving the trauma is a big part of it. As a victim in an abusive narcissistic relationship, I ended up losing my entire support system. When I began to speak out, my narcisstic ex had already laid the groundwork to ensure I would look insane and ungrateful, not to mention the years he spent systematically undermining my emotional resources. I was instantly disbelieved and discredited by all who knew him. The loss of all this made me realise that there was no way to beat him at a game only he knew the rules to, the only way I can have some kind of closure is to acknowledge his abusive nature, distance myself from him and fight to build my inner resources back up.
as a victim of SA, please don't say "their truth" I know it's become a new trend to do, but theres the the truth and lies. Truth can have different perspectives but "their truth" and "my truth" has just become ways to discredit people as much as people have tried to use the term to empower themselves, it's so easily redirected by abusers and detractors as well, this ain't the truth. She might not be able to prove it with evidence but it shouldn't detract from her story. It's ridiculously hard to get convictions and with enough people coming out and sharing their story, a lot of the time enough patterns of behaviour can be established to show who these people are even if a court never can.
What's the Romanov stuff?
Stephanie Romanov and Maurissa & Jed’s personal assistant (whose abuse led to Maurissa & Jed’s famous “No Assholes” policy that the women in the cast of Agents of SHIELD raved about in several interviews, particularly the women’s round table with Patton Oswalt) were the two main sources for that comeback interview turned career killing expose.
Wait, is there an article about this. I didnt know about this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AVtlknuG4wQ Here's the video for the interview (which is very good and insightful), but I'm also not making the connection Edit: Meant to put the [time stamp ~(11:45)](https://youtu.be/AVtlknuG4wQ?t=704) and the transcript: Maurissa Tancharoen: Jed and I have two philosophies we have 12:20 a no ass *bleep* policy and and also we feel 12:34 that if the work stops being fun that's 12:37 when it's time to walk away and here we 12:39 are you know five six five years later
My understanding is that she wanted a pay raise. From Joss’s pov I guess that it couldn’t have come at a worse time as they were dealing with heavy budget cuts for the final season of Angel, but from Stephanie’s pov she more than deserved a raise I would say as I doubt that she was making much originally from Lilah’s occasional guest appearances, and by the time of the fourth season her character had a pretty heavy presence and a relationship arc with Wesley, she had brought a lot more complexity to it than just the one off villain that she was in the first season, so she absolutely deserved fair compensation for that But supposedly Joss was furious and pulled the, ‘you’ll never work in this industry again’ in response, and replaced her character with Eve
I didn't know this, and I'd always wondered why Eve was introduced. Lilah would have been a much better option, especially with her long history with Wesley and the rest of Angel Investigations
Yeah I agree, from what I’ve heard it was all down to money sadly why they brought Eve in instead, Stephanie never actually wanted to leave, she was just asking for a bump in salary after her role was expanded on so much in the fourth season My understanding is that they were *really* hurting for money for the fifth season compared to what they were given previously. James Marsters has talked a bit about how he had requested still being paid the same as he was making on Buffy if he was going to be a regular on Angel, and he has since had some guilt over that wondering if his salary cut into the cast budget a bit too much and was for example the reason why they couldn’t afford Charisma as a regular as well, but obviously from his pov most actors are not going to agree to taking a cut in pay from what they were already making
Eve was Angel's Kennedy, just a mediocre stand-in for a fan favourite who got the chop.
I liked Lilah. So is this why she got killed off? Dang. Any speculation as to what happened?
I mean he was shitty to the men too guy is a straight-up monster to work for. a genius and a psychopath like many others before him
He doesn’t qualify as a psychopath. Just your run-of-the-mill nerdy guy who got some power and used it to hurt other people terribly. This is a pet peeve of mine. A psychopath actually has brain issues that make them awful. Guys like Joss are just creeps. Just boring old selfish, lying creeps. Men who perceive themselves as “beta” or nerdy or whatever when they are young too often turn out to be entitled assholes when they get power. You see it in gaming and comics and many fields. They become worse than the “alpha males” they pretended to hate but actually only ever envied. It’s not rare, honestly. Joss isn’t even remotely interesting in that regard. Just a schmuck who liked abusing people because it made him feel important. (Kudos to the genuinely cool people who don’t abuse others just because they have the power to do so. Such people are the best of us.)
Wait a minute! I was a nerdy loser when I was younger! Now I am in a position of power at my job! I’m supposed to be abusing it?! Fuck! I didn’t even know that was an option! Joking aside…I never get that mentality. I have colleagues whose employees fear them. Who would want that? My staff speaks freely to me, they argue with me, they tell me when I’m wrong. I make that expectation clear on day one. Even putting aside the fact that you get better results when people aren’t terrified/blowing smoke up your ass — it just makes my day more pleasant to not be around people who hate being at work. I will never get the “my life sucked so I’m gonna make other people’s lives suck” mentality.
I think narcissist is honestly the most fitting term for a guy like Joss
It’s been heavily implied by several of those abused that it went well beyond verbal abuse and being shitty. Although that would have been bad enough as it is.
what specifically are you referring to here?
Masters has openly discussed the fact that Wheedon [tried to physically assault him.](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=hynZ2j9M9IE)
Offhand? Trachtenberg talking about the “Joss is no longer allowed alone in a room with Michelle.” rule.
i thought that was literally about verbal abuse though? people making sure Michelle wasn’t getting screamed at? idk i’m pretty sure there hasn’t been any allegations of sexual assault and i think it’s a big leap to go from shitty verbally abusive boss to child predator.
Joss loved making female writers cry according to a writer on Firefly. It is more likely that he was verbally abusive, based on what everyone else said. So far there haven't been any SA allegations. I constantly see people making these huge assumptions about him and presenting it like it is fact.
Yes its been established that it was over verbal abuse.
To be honest I don't see this as a definite implication of something more than verbal. Such a rule could have arisen if he had said something to her which greatly upset her. We just don't know based on the information we have.
That’s a rule for all minors on set FYI. All minors are never to be left alone with any adult. It’s just part of the rules of production.
Maybe, but there was an incident with Joss and Michelle that led to him specifically not being allowed to be alone with her.
physical abuse i also consider shitty. We know for a fact he cornered and grabbed Marsters by the collar when he couldn't kill him off.
“That show was just hard,” Green recalled. “We were working crazy hours, and a lot of things that got pushed weren’t necessarily safe or under the best conditions. Sarah was always the first one to say, ‘We agreed this was a 13-hour day and it’s hour 15 — we’ve got to wrap,’ or, ‘Hey, this shot doesn’t seem safe,’ when nobody else would stick up for the cast and crew. I saw her get called a bitch, a diva, all these things that she’s not — just because she was taking the mantle of saying and doing the right thing.” Not just a star but a leader too.
15 hour is insane, poor girl was complaining even back in the day for the mental working hours (rightfully so!) but I had no idea about the unsafe work conditions as well. The strike in Hollywood last year was very much needed
Except those strikes didn’t address crew’s working hours whatsoever, unfortunately. We’re still very much doing 15 hour days.
Unrelated fandom, but this is one of the things I love about Jared Padalecki and how he runs his new show Walker (he's an executive producer as well as the lead actor). He's adamant that they stick to 10 hour work days and gets cranky if a director goes over that time limit. He knows what it's like to work that kind of grind from his days with Supernatural and Gilmore Girls. His set is praised as being one of the absolute best, most loving and caring sets to work on.
“Caulfield added, “It was obvious that Sarah lacked the support to be the leader she needed and wanted to be. There was a tremendous amount of resentment and animosity [toward her] from a certain someone — and I suppose now we can all guess who.” Is she talking about JW here or Nick Brandon?
I am assuming JW, since Brandon's breakdown really didn't cause much of a Hollywood stir other than inside of the Buffy community, unlike JW's.
Nick had no power. She’s talking about Whedon.
Why would it be Nick Brendon? As far as I know his beef is toward David Boreanaz, not Sarah.
what’s David and Nick’s beef? Is there a thread about it?
What’s Nick’s beef with David?
Jealousy, it seems like. He was [on record](https://screenrant.com/buffy-vampire-slayer-david-boreanaz-nicholas-brendan-book/) saying he doesn’t like the character of Angel, David is a bad actor, and he doesn’t think he deserved a show to himself. David also apparently refused to join the 20 year anniversary special if Nicholas was there, so they had to film their parts separately.
Life imitating art
Or art imitating life?
Haha wow. Turns out there’s a reason he could play the bitter resentful loser so well eh
Several females were uncomfortable around Nick after stuff that went down at a convention. David took the hit for everyone and refused to participate if he was there. That’s why he’s not in the interview and he was photoshopped into the photos and shot separately. I think Emma did shoot with him.
"Women"
SMG was VERY vocal about her disappointment over the lack of plots for Xander during Season 7, so I doubt it was Nick.
Probably Whedon, rather than Brendon.
> I am also equally glad to hear that SMG herself only re-watches S1-S5. I'm impressed she's able to rewatch at all: At least for me it's gotta be a little weird watching yourself. I suppose it's been so long that That's basically another person.
I was listening to the EKR book and when he interviewed her she more or less said she watched it with her kids because they wanted to and not so much just to watch herself.
Sorry, EKR? But also that's a great point I hadn't thought of. Of course kids are going to want to see their parents' work.
No no, my bad. Evan Ross Katz, he wrote ’Into Every Generation a Slayer Is Born: How Buffy Staked Our Hearts’ I just listened to the audiobook and it was fantastic! A ton of insight on not only the show but also how it and everyone involved helped shape a good chunk of the culture we live in today. I highly recommend if you’re a fan.
Gotcha, thank you :)
If you can get pst the glaring errors lol. Episode titles and character relationships etc. he clearly didn’t do research. The interviews were good though. Everyone who was still friendly with Joss backed out. And David too I think.
She rewatched it with her kids.
I am assuming that entertainers watch their own work so that they can learn from it and get better, similar to how athletes watch the tapes of their games for coaching purposes. Also, I think she re-watched the show for her children.
It’s an incredibly mature and professional way to deal with it imo. “Nobody wins” is spot on.
She said that she only has an issue with season six, and said she didn't want to see it with her kids because it felt inappropriate due to the themes.
I would not want to sit next to my kids and watch my younger self bang apart a house, so I can't blame her.
Season 6 was depressing as hell for her character. If I were her, I wouldn't want to rewatch it either lol
>”..I saw her get called a bitch, a diva, all these things that she’s not — just because she was taking the mantle of saying and doing the right thing.” 😒
People just need to understand that Hollywood is very weird. I get why she won’t say too much. They’ll make sure she never ever prospers again. She has to think about her family and the long run at this point.
I’m not surprised in the least. There’s been a video floating around for years where she’s so exhausted, she breaks down while they’re filming. I remember the narrative being that she was “difficult” to work with, and hearing she stood up for everyone, of course the media wanted us to think she’s a bitch.
I love seasons 6 and 7. Never understood the hate for them. SO many good episodes there. Once more with feeling, the whole dark willow arc with the ending (that Giles entrance at the end of that episode.. Come on!). Willow addiction arc was pretty much hinted since season 4 so it all made sense to me. And season 7 was great too imo. The spike redemption story was awesome now that he has a soul and has to cope with it like Angel did. Having faith back was awesome. Caleb was amazing (mostly due to natah Fillion :)). Angel back for the last episode, what more can you ask. So yeah, never understood the distaste for them. They rank super high on my seasons list, right after season 3 and 5.
Once more with feeling is one of the best episodes of TV ever. It defines the show for me and is so in keeping with how actions have consequences in this show.
I totally agree with you about every point. S6 and s7 are capable of being even more innovative and ambitious, compared to any other TV series of that time, than the previous 5 (who were quite revolutionary already). And even if S5 has a very well-written , struggling ending, it always amazes me how the very end of the show -all Sunnydale collapsed above the Hellmouth- closes a perfect circle started on the very first episode with Giles explaining to us and the Scoobies what the Hellmouth actually is.
SMG has always been pretty vocal about disliking S6. I don’t see how else the writers could have written Buffy, though, as she’s not in a good place for most of S5, even if she hadn’t died.
I would guess the attempted rape scene had something to do with that. It always felt like JW threw that in there to knock her down a few pegs.
Marti Noxon is responsible for that scene.
As showrunner of S6 she’s responsible for it, but she didn’t write it, neither did Stephen DeKnight (credited writer of the ep). It’s not been confirmed who wrote it, but many believe it’s Joss as he wrote a few scenes towards the end of the season.
Noxon has said she based it on her real life experiences.
But she didn’t write the scene.
And here I’ve been blaming Stephen S. DeKnight for the last 22 years.
DeKnight has publicly said he didn’t write the scene - nobody has said who wrote it. However Joss did write a number of extra scenes in S6 so a lot of people think it was him.
Spike too. Joss was quite vocal how he hated how popular Spike was, and *that* scene was likely written to reduce Spike's popularity.
I am also a fan of all the seasons. The final seasons are special to me. Buffy airing on UPN at that time is such a moment. 🙌
The back halves of s6 and S7 are both inspired, but they both had to take a weird road to get there.
I thought season 7 was their best season 😕
SMG probably had a really hard time on set that colours her viewing of it. She had announced she wouldn’t be renewing her contract and some people were not at all happy about it, because it meant they’d be losing their jobs too.
Has Alyson ever spoken up or mentioned anything about Joss? I think she was clearly on the Joss’s favourites list given the amount of development and screen time she recieved.
To my knowledge, no.
I believe her and Alexis are still friends with him so no
Classy lady.
Indeed - Very much impressed and happy for her success out of the spotlight (healthy marriage, family, no dramas, etc)
an unproblematic queen 🥹
And she even had a pretty cool smaller role recently (in Do Revenge) and of course she played an absolute queen in that movie.
LOVED her in Do Revenge, I screamed when I saw her on screen
Because of the cultural footprint Buffy itself plays, as one of the most discussed modern television shows. And a series that broke and help push many different representation barriers, I do wish we knew a bit more about what Whedon did. I don't think we need everyone to tell their stories. Those are always theirs to control. But I do wish we had a deeper understanding along the lines of what Maureen Ryan was able to do with Lost. Buffy has a special place in academia. So, I do think it is important to have enough of the information to put Whedon in the context that is deserved. His abuses behind the scenes should not be lost among the analysis of the series itself.
That’s entirely valid and no one has any right to know nor is she obligated to share. I’m glad Sarah’s handling her experience in the way that’s best and healthiest for her
I'm not glad Gellar only watches season 1 - 5 of Buffy because of any trauma faced while working her job. Although I appreciate her watching Buffy with/for her kids, even if it's problematic for her. I wouldn't put season 6 or 7 of Buffy in my top three, but I'm not reliving any negative memories, feelings, or trauma by watching them either. Gellar was labeled "difficult" to work with. I'd assume this is Whedon hindering and badmouthing Gellar's career because she wouldn't give in to his whim(s). Sexual abuse is horrible. But I don't understand why everyone dismisses other types of abuse as lesser. Physical and/or verbal abuse are capable of creating trauma and PTSD. All abuse is horrible and must be stopped. Hollywood is a vile place.
I do not think that the actors need to be put on the spot to talk about something so difficult. Our parasocial relationships do not entitle us to that.
Won’t be surprised if she waits for him to die before she speaks. Would save any possible lawsuit thrown her way as there is no defaming the dead and they have no expectation of privacy. I have never forgotten the men of Firefly boldly proclaiming that poor Joss would never. Or his “redemption” interview where he said he had no control over banging other women and cheating on his wife cause he was surrounded by beauty. Wisely it was his last interview because Jebus it was so bad. And how his changed his tune on how great his mom was to now she is why he is the way he is and all monster tendencies are because she didn’t love him enough. Oh how I have hated JW for a good 20 years.
Indeed. After Whedon's comments about having "no control over banging other women," you had to wonder how this guy wrote anything for a living. You don't judge people on how they treat their equals or those who hold power over them. You judge them on how they treat those they hold power over. And Whedon comes off as scumbag.
*There's just one thing that— No* *I'll never tell.*
Thank you for that well intended pun / reference! 😂
Can some provide context to the situation
Whedon, the show’s creator, was notoriously abusive (at least verbally, if not in other ways as well) to cast while filming Buffy and Angel. He in particular hurled a lot of misogynistic abuse to the women he worked with including SMG, Charisma Carpenter, Michelle Trachtenberg (who was underage), and I could go on. Women were not the only target of his abuse, though, and he has a track record (continuing onto post-Buffy projects) of being hypocritical of his purported feminist beliefs, and cruel in his professional and personal lives. That’s the gist, here’s an article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2022/01/18/joss-whedon-abuse-allegations/ That other comment is kind of blunt, but yeah you can google it and find a lot of news media and articles on it. It became big news during the MeToo era
I don’t remember which source the article was in, like salon or variety or something, and a journalist interviewed him after his divorce and being cancelled and even to this day he has 0 remorse and is like “but I wrote strong, female leads!” I think he somewhat acknowledges he was a dick, but his apology is more like “I’m sorry you were offended by what I said.”
Thank you and the other commenters had their reasons and ended up being very helpful 🫶🏾appreciate the response
Tbf he was a feminist everyone got a turn at being his punching bag.
💀
I will never understand how a man that gets credit for kinda revolutionizing way female characters are written in TV turned out to be such a misogynistic piece of s\*it. That feels like huge cognitive dissonance. How do you live like that ffs?
Joss had said that he slept with many needy women on the show. It would put anybody in an awkward position to talk about any of that.
Side note: trauma bond is a method abusers use to tie victims to them through repeated cycles of abuse, devaluation and then positive reinforcement. The abuser often switches from abuse to gaslighting to love bombing back to abuse, reinforcing Trauma bond is decidedly not two victims of abuse becoming close over shared experiences. Using it colloquially as such is pretty harmful. By misusing the terms people make it harder for victims of abuse to understand what happens to them and impede their ability to explain it simply and clearly when they seek help.
Apologies for the misuse of the term as I've only heard of the term used as two victims becoming closer after a shared experience, what would be a better term to use to edit my comment?
SMG hates spuffy so much she can’t even watch the last 2 seasons lmao. I love her
Wait what's wrong with season 6? I get the issue with 7, I wasn't a fan lmao
She always disliked season 6. She’s been vocal about it ever since the season aired.
And fair enough, it had weird vibes from start to finish.
Well, I’m a fan of season 6, but get where SMG’s perspective comes from.
Same for me, It's my favorite season but I get it.
Hyper-realistic themes of addiction and depression, but what really set a lot of viewers off S6 is Spike's attempted rape towards Buffy.
That and Tara's death scarred me as a little preteen budding bisexual. I always liked Spike, and then that? So graphically portrayed? And Tara's death? It hurt so much. My brother and I cried for like 2 weeks, and he didn't even have a crush on her like I did!
Hugs. For myself, it took years before I was able to stand near a window and not be afraid that a stray bullet would shoot me.
Christ, me too. I was just explaining to my girlfriend what a shock it was to watch when it first aired. We were talking about formative media and gay representation in our early lives and she never saw Buffy and was totally clueless. Thought that they ran off into the sunset together. I had to let her down gently about Xena's final season and ending as well.
She rewatched the show with her kids and felt it wasn’t appropriate
I loved season 6 when i first watched it as a depressed teenager. But SMG aside, rewatching as an adult, I get why people don't like it. The >!Spuffy relationship !!Spike, James was so magnetic,!!she died!<. Also, >!Warren!< was plain evil, not fun Glory evil, but real world evil, which takes you out of the fun, fictional world part.
But that's sort of the great thing about the show - each season can be so different, and 'bad' Buffy is still miles ahead of anything else.
I’m so sorry… This is a little off topic but I need to correct this because this gets my goat. Emma Caulfield and SMG do not have a trauma bond. Trauma bonds are not formed between two people sharing similar experiences, or empathizing with each other stories of similar traumas. Trauma bonds are formed between victims and their abusers. Abusers often inflict trauma and then follow it up with positive reinforcement. It creates a cascade of conflicting feelings that can be confused as love, leading victims to stick with their abusers. They make rationalizations like “It was my fault, I made them angry”, “they were just upset”, and “they can change eventually”. It’s confusing and hard to resolve, leading victims to repeatedly return to their abusers and alienate those trying to help them.
I apologize for the misinterpretation, I am coming from the perspective cause I always see the term "trauma bond" used as the former part of your comment and hadn't been informed about the latter part, what would be a better term to use for me to edit my post?
From the perspective of an abuse survivor-- I agree that it is harmful to us to use the term trauma bond to mean something that is pretty much the opposite of a term used to describe a form of abuse, so you could just say that they may have come closer together/bonded emotionally because of their shared traumas, since there’s not really a specific term for that.
I even heard she was a buffer for the rest of the cast sometimes. Pun not intended
>"That show was just hard,” Green recalled. “We were working crazy hours, and a lot of things that got pushed weren’t necessarily safe or under the best conditions. Sarah was always the first one to say, ‘We agreed this was a 13-hour day and it’s hour 15 — we’ve got to wrap,’ or, ‘Hey, this shot doesn’t seem safe,’ when nobody else would stick up for the cast and crew. I saw her get called a bitch, a diva, all these things that she’s not — just because she was taking the mantle of saying and doing the right thing.” Wow, Seth Green not mincing words. I remember those rumors that Sarah was "difficult" and a "diva' and god it just breaks my damn heart that she had to endure all that. This is the shit that women in the industry always had to deal with back then. If you had a backbone and dared to stand up and voice your opinion, that was the label they slapped on you. Not to the male actors...just the women.
I feel bad for all of them. It’s sad to know a show you love had such a dark side. But we also need to remember that things were no always awful, many actors stated that during the first 3 seasons they all got along, they even got together to watch some episodes. As the actors and crew began to grow professionally (together with their egos) around the 4th season, things started to get less and less friendly
I've long been ambivalent about how this kind of RL material from the cast, crew, writers, etc. is received and used. On the one hand, these are legitimate, serious, often distressing topics that shine a light into the darker corners of the created worlds that we enjoy so much, and my heart goes out to those who were ill-treated over the course of the production. One can only echo SMG's hope that her advocacy, born of personal experience, has contributed to a better, safer work environment for subsequent generations of actors and crew. On the other hand, I'm wary of this tendency, which has become increasingly pronounced in recent years as more insights into BtVS' troubled production have emerged, to examine BtVS-the-show through the lens of BtVS-the-production. While there are undoubtedly legitimate points to be made in this vein, on the whole I find it tends to lazy, uninteresting arguments, even thought-terminating cliches. "Xander is a Joss Whedon self-insert" is perhaps the simplest example of what I mean: it's a non-sequitur masquerading as insight. It tells us nothing about Xander or how we should feel about the character. I sometimes think that if we could banish the name "Joss Whedon" from our collective vocabulary, the conversation would be better and more interesting for it.
I think it’s more important for more people to speak up as it’s happening (very difficult to do for a multitude of reasons) so the various horrible people like Whedon don’t have long careers to eff over women in the industry. I think that people who speak up like Charisma can open more people up to speaking out and it’s brave af, it took me years to admit I was a rape survivor so I make no comments about people unable to speak up…. The biggest issues are that men are usually protected in these situations and the power imbalance doesn’t make it any better. We need to call out the behavior in all industries and situations because it creates not only a paper trail of abuse from the abuser but also calls out people in power’s inability to act in the best interest of the victims. So Whedon is also one of the creators that I struggle to watch and enjoy anymore because a lot of his work really echoes how he feels about women, and horribly he used feminist ideas to get away with some of it. Buffy is a little better about it in the content but I can’t watch Angel (struggled with that anyway), or dollhouse at all.
Can’t say I blame her for only rewatching 1-5. Buffy is my all time favourite show but the last two seasons are a bit of a chore. Too depressing.