Joss Whedon reportedly threatened Gal Gadot's career during Justice League reshoots
Fresh light is being shed on Gal Gadot's reported experience with director Joss Whedon during the making of Justice League.
In a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter, actor Ray Fisher laid out in detail his account of the indignities he suffered on set of the superhero blockbuster under Whedon and Warner Bros leadership at the time. Part of that article revealed an alleged "clash" between Gadot and Whedon, who was brought on to finish Justice League after Zack Snyder exited the project due to a family tragedy. Whedon declined to comment for THR's story.
According to THR's reporting, Fisher wasn't the only Justice League star who disagreed with Whedon's approach. THR quoted "a knowledgeable source" saying that Gadot also had concerns with Whedon's take on Justice League, including "issues about her character being more aggressive than her character in Wonder Woman. She wanted to make the character flow from one movie to the next." Justice League hit theaters only five months after Wonder Woman.
"The biggest clash," according to THR's source, came when Gadot pushed back on some new dialogue Whedon had written. In response, the director reportedly "threatened to harm Gadot's career and disparaged Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins."
Neither Whedon nor Gadot confirmed this anecdote on the record to THR, which only quotes an anonymous source. A representative for Whedon declined to comment when reached by EW.
In a statement to THR, Gadot said, "I had my issues with [Whedon] and Warner Bros. handled it in a timely manner."
Previously, the actress said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times in December, "I wasn't there with the guys when they shot with Joss Whedon — I had my own experience with [him], which wasn't the best one, but I took care of it there and when it happened. I took it to the higher-ups and they took care of it. But I'm happy for Ray to go up and say his truth."
Representatives for Gadot and Jenkins didn't immediately respond to EW's request for comment.
In a continuation of her relationship with Warner Bros., Gadot starred in Wonder Woman 1984, which is directed by Jenkins and features the actress as the fabled Amazon in her first DC superhero outing since Justice League. It has been one of the top theatrical successes of the COVID-19 era, grossing $45.9 million at the pandemic box office.
Gadot's experiences came to light as Fisher shared his frustrations during the reshoots of Justice League and his dissatisfaction with Warner Bros.' official investigation of the matter since first accusing Whedon last year of "gross, abusive, unprofessional, and completely unacceptable" behavior on the set of the 2017 superhero blockbuster.
In a statement provided to EW, former federal judge Katherine B. Forrest — who led Warner Bros.' official investigation into Fisher's claims — said her investigation involved "more than 80 interviews, the review of thousands of pages of documents, and over 2000 hours of work by me and my colleagues" and that "I found no credible support for claims of racial animus or racial or disability insensitivity." Whedon had no comment at the time.
An interview with Forbes published in October contained a rare statement from Whedon relating to Justice League accusations.
In the article, Fisher said that he had been "informed" that Whedon had changed the skin tone of a Justice League actor during the editing process. Whedon responded with a statement saying, "the individual who offered this statement acknowledged that this was just something that he had heard from someone else and accepted as truth, when in fact simple research would prove that it was false. As is standard on almost all films, there were numerous people involved with mixing the final product, including the editor, special effects person, composer, etc. with the senior colorist responsible for the final version's tone, colors, and mood." This accusation isn't discussed in the new THR story.
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