The best thing Joss Whedon has done since the first Avengers movie has been making the cultural critics that spend their days attacking Chris Pratt bend themselves into pretzels defending Whedon’s shitty behavior because they grew up watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Ray Fisher has really lead the charge on the “Joss Whedon is an asshole” movement and he’s now accusing Whedon of not only reducing the screen time of black actors in Justice League or outright cutting them out of the film, but also of digitally lightening the skin of black actors in post-production.
“What set my soul on fire and forced me to speak out about Joss Whedon this summer was my becoming informed that Joss had ordered that the complexion of an actor of color be changed in post-production because he didn’t like the color of their skin tone,” Fisher told Forbes. “Man, with everything 2020’s been, that was the tipping point for me.”
The role of Ryan Choi, played by Zheng Kai, was cut. Joe Morton, who played Cyborg’s father Silas, had his role mostly cut and reshot. While Zack Snyder included a diverse cast of characters, many of them had roles significantly altered, or disappeared from the film altogether before it arrived in theaters. Karen Bryson, who played Cyborg’s mother Ellinore, had her role cut as well. Additionally, Kiersey Clemons, who played Iris West, was removed from the film. All of them will appear in 2021’s Zack Snyder’s Justice League. According to representatives for Whedon, these decisions were made prior to his taking control of the project.
And listen to what else Fisher said here:
“Race was just one of the issues with the reshoot process. There were massive blowups, threats, coercion, taunting, unsafe work conditions, belittling, and gaslighting like you wouldn’t believe,” Fisher commented when asked for details.
As for the role Johns had in the abusive environment on set, Fisher didn’t mince words on either Whedon or Johns.
“Geoff Johns made a veiled threat to my career during the LA reshoots of Justice League,” Fisher said. “Multiple sources have informed me, that Joss threatened the career of another person associated with the production. Toby was made aware and tried to cover for Whedon rather than deal with the abuse. That situation had to be escalated to Tsujihara to get any results.”
But I mean, of course Joss Whedon doesn’t have a problem with people of color. Look at all the non-white characters he’s had in his shows and movies like uh… it’s pretty much just Zoe and Book, isn’t it?
Dumb guy will probably never work in the industry again.
They color correct, adjust skin tones on actors of all color. They adjust the tone of the sky, the entire palate of a scene. This guy was thinking he’d get to ride on the coattails of the George Floyd fallout to get attention? Good luck!
Hey Jonny, Storm any Capitols Lately?