Last year, Justice League star Ray Fisher hit out at Joss Whedon, the man responsible for succeeding Zack Snyder in the director’s chair on 2017’s troubled DC blockbuster, slamming the filmmaker for what he described as “gross, abusive, and unprofessional” behaviour towards the film’s cast and crew.
In the months following, Fisher certainly hasn’t held back with his criticism of Whedon, producers Jon Berg and Geoff Johns, DC Films chief Walter Hamada, and Warner Bros.’ parent company WarnerMedia, and now in the lead up to this week’s release of Zack Snyder’s Justice League, the Cyborg actor has opened up to Vanity Fair about some of the issues he encountered with Whedon.
“You’ve signed on to do the movie, but there are certain things that you have to push back on,” said Fisher, discussing his reaction to Whedon’s rewrites. “There were a lot of really precarious things that they wanted to try that I found would have been slightly offensive to people that were differently abled. Some of those things, I was able to get out of the script. But it was an uphill battle for a lot of us during that time, and that’s no secret at this point.”
“You could tell very quickly that [Whedon] was very upset that people did not like Avengers: Age of Ultron very much,” Fisher continued. “This is what I gathered from the first conversation that I had with him. There was a bit of this sort of egotistical narcissism that ended up going into everything that he was trying to do. You can see it in some of the scenes that were produced. Flash falling on Wonder Woman’s [chest] is something that he yanked out of Age of Ultron and just copy-pasted here. In my first conversation creatively with him, he kept accidentally calling Diana ‘Natasha’, which is crazy stuff.”
SEE ALSO: Read our review of Justice League here
Fisher then went on to address Whedon’s attitude during production on the film’s reshoots, stating that: “There was a lot of belittling on set. There was a lot of mocking, both of previous work and of actors and people. He compared me at one point to Robert Downey Jr. And said, ‘Listen, I don’t like to take notes from anybody, not even Robert Downey Jr.’ And I said, “Well, okay. Be that as it may…'”
Following Fisher’s initial allegations, WarnerMedia conducted an investigation into the complaints made against Whedon, with the media giant releasing a statement saying it had taken “remedial action”. Details were never disclosed, but the timing was extremely close to Whedon’s exit from the upcoming HBO Max series The Nevers. Fisher meanwhile found himself removed from The Flash, although he did reprise his role as Cyborg for reshoots on Zack Snyder’s Justice League, which is released this Thursday.
In ZACK SNYDER’S JUSTICE LEAGUE, determined to ensure Superman’s (Henry Cavill) ultimate sacrifice was not in vain, Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) aligns forces with Diana Prince (Gal Gadot) with plans to recruit a team of metahumans to protect the world from an approaching threat of catastrophic proportions. The task proves more difficult than Bruce imagined, as each of the recruits must face the demons of their own pasts to transcend that which has held them back, allowing them to come together, finally forming an unprecedented league of heroes. Now united, Batman (Affleck), Wonder Woman (Gadot), Aquaman (Jason Momoa), Cyborg (Ray Fisher), and The Flash (Ezra Miller) may be too late to save the planet from Steppenwolf, DeSaad, and Darkseid, and their dreadful intentions.
Zack Snyder’s Justice League is directed by Zack Snyder and features Henry Cavill as Superman, Ben Affleck as Batman, Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, Ray Fisher as Cyborg, Jason Momoa as Aquaman, Ezra Miller as The Flash, Amy Adams as Lois Lane, Jeremy Irons as Alfred Pennyworth, Diane Lane as Martha Kent, Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor, Connie Nielsen as Queen Hippolyta, Robin Wright as General Antiope, J.K. Simmons as Commissioner Gordon, Amber Heard as Mera, Joe Morton as Silas Stone, Willem Dafoe as Vulko, Ciaran Hinds as Steppenwolf, Joe Manganiello as Deathstroke, Harry Lennix as Martian Manhunter, Kiersey Clemons as Iris West, Zheng Kai as Ryan Choi, Peter Guinness as DeSaad, Ray Porter as Darkseid, and Jared Leto as The Joker.
