UPDATE: Sarah Michelle Gellar has weighed in on Charisma Carpenter's claims against Joss Whedon, saying that while she's "proud to have her name associated with Buffy Summers", she "doesn't want to be forever associated with the name Joss Whedon". You can read her full response below:
2ND UPDATE: Another Buffy co-star, Amber Benson, is weighing in on the show's "toxic environment" via Twitter. See her post below:
3RD UPDATE: Michelle Trachtenberg, who played Buffy's sister Dawn, has also weighed in on Instagram, writing : "Thank you @sarahmgellar for saying this. I am brave enough now as a 35 year old woman….To repost this. Because. This must. Be known. As a teenager. With his not appropriate behavior….very. Not. Appropriate."
ORIGINAL POST: Charisma Carpenter is speaking her truth and that truth is detailing what she calls an "abuse of power" at the hands of Buffy The Vampire Slayer and Angel creator, Joss Whedon. Charisma Carpenter played Cordelia Chase on Buffy The Vampire Slayer for three seasons before heading over to the spin-off, Angel. Carpenter spent an additional four seasons on Angel and while Carpenter has made casual comments about how Whedon treated her in the past, this is the most detailed account of Whedon's alleged behavior that the actress has ever given.
Carpenter took to her Instagram to reveal in detail what she went through working for Joss Whedon. Carpenter was inspired to speak up when Justice League actor Ray Fisher came forward with his claims against Whedon on the set of the ensemble superhero film that sparked an internal investigation at Warner Bros. The end result of that investigation led to Whedon stepping down from the HBO series The Nevers as showrunner. She also reveals that she participated in the Justice League investigation because she believes Fisher's claims against Whedon since many of them mirror her own. I'm going to let Carpenter's words speak for themselves because it's a very in-depth post about his passive-aggressive threats to fire her, calling her "fat" while she was four months pregnant during her stint on Angel, and his desire to pit people against each other to compete for his approval. Perhaps the most disturbing of her claims was a sit-down meeting he had with her to discuss her pregnancy when he asked the actress if she was going to keep her baby before he attacked her character and accused her of sabotaging the show by getting pregnant. Carpenter was fired the following season after she gave birth. You can check out Charisma Carpenter's Instagram post below:
As a fan of a lot of Whedon's work, particularly Buffy the Vampire Slayer which is a beacon of female empowerment, it's disheartening to hear these claims. This honestly isn't the first time I've heard them. As I said, Carpenter has alluded to these issues before and now we have a more clear picture of what it was like for her all these years later. I know there are two sides to every story and Whedon has every opportunity to speak his truth as well but there's definitely a pattern here that can't be ignored, in my opinion. Carpenter may get a lot of heat for "waiting so long" to tell her story but I personally commend her honesty and believe that there is no time limit to speak your truth. No matter what anyone has to say about it.