Entertainment
Sarah Michelle Gellar describes Buffy The Vampire Slayer set as ‘extremely toxic male’ environment: ‘If women became friends we became too powerful’-Ruth Lawes-Entertainment – Metro
Gellar played the titular role in the 90s teen drama.
Sarah Michelle Gellar played Buffy in the teen drama (Picture: AFF-USA/REX/Shutterstock)
Sarah Michelle Gellar has opened up about her experience on Buffy the Vampire Slayer following allegations of misconduct against its showrunner Joss Whedon.
The Grudge star, 45, played the titular role in the fantasy drama, which ran from 1997 to 2003 and followed the events of a small American town plagued by vampires, demons and other mystical beasts.
But in recent years the cast, including Cordelia Chase actor Charisma Carpenter, have accused Whedon of cultivating a toxic work environment and abusing his power while the teen drama was in production.
Gellar has previously said that while she is ‘proud’ to be associated with Buffy, she doesn’t ‘want to be forever associated with the name Joss Whedon’, adding she was focusing on raising her family.
Now the Cruel Intentions star has spoken further about her time on set at the Wrap’s Power of Women Summit in LA earlier this week, saying that it was ‘ingrained’ in her head that women were rivals.
She said according to the LA Times: ‘For so long, I was on a set that I think was known for being an extremely toxic male set, and so that was ingrained in my head that that was what all sets were like, and that women were pitted against each other — that if women became friends, then we became too powerful, so you had to keep that down.’
Gellar said it was a ‘toxic, male’ set (Picture: 20th Centu/REX/Shutterstock)
Buffy was an iconic 90s teen drama about vampires (Picture: 20th Century Fox/BBC)
‘And now that I’ve had this opportunity to work with so many more women and men that support women as well, I realised how easy an experience it can be, but unfortunately we’re still in that place where all of those departments a lot of times need to be women for us to have a voice.
As well as the cast and crew of Buffy, actors on the DC action film Justice League, including Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot, have accused Whedon, 58, of misconduct.
Gadot, 37, previously claimed he ‘threatened to make her career miserable’ during a row while shooting the blockbuster, with Whedon denying the allegation in a later interview.
Multiple actors have accused Whedon of misconduct (Picture: Getty Images)
He said: ‘English is not her first language, and I tend to be annoyingly flowery in my speech,’ with Gadot going on to clarify that she ‘understood perfectly.’
During an interview with New York magazine, Whedon addressed all the allegations, admitting he had been ‘difficult to work’ with but claimed that people had used ‘every weaponisable word of the modern era to make it seem like I was an abusive monster.
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‘I think I’m one of the nicer showrunners that’s ever been,’ he added.
Metro.co.uk has contacted reps for Whedon for comment.
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