This article was originally published on FearHQ.com.
As we're sure you'll recall, Avengers and Buffy the Vampire Slayer writer/director Joss Whedon was hit with some pretty serious allegations last year. Justice League star Ray Fisher seemed to open the floodgates with claims of unprofessional, abusive behaviour on set, and the likes of Buffy's Charisma Carpenter and Michelle Trachtenberg soon weighed in with even more damning accusations.
At the time, Buffy Summers herself, Sarah Michelle Gellar, only released a rather vague statement offering support to her co-stars and distancing herself from Whedon, but the actress has now painted a slightly more detailed picture of the environment she worked in for so many years.
“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 during The Wrap's Power of Storytelling: Producers Roundtable.
“And now that I’ve had this opportunity to work with so many more women and men that support women as well, I realized 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,” she added.
Gellar didn't mention Whedon by name, nor did she specifically address any of the troubling allegations made against him. While some may take issue with this, she did make it very clear that she didn't intend to become too embroiled in the drama with her previous statement.
Whedon responded to the accusations in an interview (more here) earlier this year, but if anything, it only made him come out looking worse as he was clearly attempting to paint himself as the victim.