Actor Ray Fisher on Wednesday accused director Joss Whedon of “gross, abusive, unprofessional” behavior on the set of 2017’s “Justice League.”
“Joss Wheadon’s on-set treatment of the cast and crew of Justice League was gross, abusive, unprofessional, and completely unacceptable,” tweeted the actor, who played Cyborg in the DC Comics superhero team-up movie. “He was enabled, in many ways, by Geoff Johns and Jon Berg,” he added, referring to the Warner Bros. executives who headed up DC Films (Berg also served as a producer on “Justice League”).
Fisher did not detail what Whedon did on set that he considered to be abusive behavior; reps for the actor, Whedon and Warner Bros. did not immediately respond to respond to requests for comment.
Berg told Variety it was “categorically untrue that we enabled any unprofessional behavior.” The producer told Variety that he recalled Fisher “being upset that we wanted him to say ‘Booyaa,’ which is a well-known saying of Cyborg in the animated series.” Berg did not respond to TheWrap’s request for comment.
Joss Wheadon’s on-set treatment of the cast and crew of Justice League was gross, abusive, unprofessional, and completely unacceptable.
He was enabled, in many ways, by Geoff Johns and Jon Berg.
Accountability>Entertainment
— Ray Fisher (@ray8fisher) July 1, 2020
Whedon famously took over “Justice League” from its credited director, Zack Snyder, and reshot several sequences and oversaw the film in postproduction. HBO Max last month announced plans to release Snyder’s previously unseen cut of the film.
Earlier this week, Fisher retweeted a video of himself praising Whedon at Comic-Con in 2017, saying that he wanted “forcefully retract every bit” of his 3-year-old statement that “Joss is a great guy and Zack picked a good person to come in and finish up for him.”
I’d like to take a moment to forcefully retract every bit of this statement: pic.twitter.com/1ECwwu6TG1
— Ray Fisher (@ray8fisher) June 29, 2020
“Justice League” has been mired in discord. One insider called the film, which had the worst opening for a DC Comics-based movie in years, “a Frankenstein” project made of the assembled parts favored by rotating executives and directors.
Despite the assembled might of Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman, Cyborg, Aquaman, and The Flash, “Justice League” opened well below studio expectations, at $96 million, and its worldwide tally was $658 million.