The cyborg depicter has detailed an alleged instance which prompted him to speak out about Whedon, saying that he heard ‘blatantly racist conversations’ among studio executives.
- Oct 30, 2020
AceShowbiz – “Justice League” director Joss Whedon has denied Ray Fisher‘s latest allegation that he digitally altered the skin tone of a person of color in the movie. In a statement released through his spokesperson, the filmmaker labeled the claim as “false.”
“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,” Whedon said in the statement.
Explaining the editing process of a movie, “The Avengers” helmer continued, “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 process was further complicated on this project by the fact that [original director] Zack [Snyder] shot on film, while Joss shot on digital, which required the team, led by the same senior colorist who has worked on previous films for Zack, to reconcile the two,” the statement claimed.
But Fisher stands firm on his claim. In response to Whedon’s denial, the Cyborg depicter said in a statement to CinemaBlend, “This is only a hair’s breadth away from Berg’s, ‘Fisher was upset about booyah’ defense.”
“I’ve been trying my best to make sure that Joss Whedon and Jon Berg aren’t able to be thrown completely under the bus by the other guys. But when they make these half baked knee-jerk excuses publicly, they make my job a lot harder. I’m settling in with my family for the night,” he said, before promising, “I’ll have a more in-depth response tomorrow.”
Previously, Fisher elaborated his allegations of toxic work environment which he first raised against Whedon in July. In an interview with Forbes, he claimed to have heard “blatantly racist conversations” among studio executives.
“What set my soul on fire and forced me to speak out about Joss Whedon this summer was my becoming informed that Joss had ordered that the complexion of an actor of color be changed in post-production because he didn’t like the color of their skin tone,” the 33-year-old actor said. “Man, with everything 2020’s been, that was the tipping point for me.”
The magazine noted that multiple actors of color had their parts heavily reduced or completely cut from the film’s theatrical release, including Ryan Choi‘s Zheng Kai and Kiersey Clemons‘ Iris West. In response to this, Whedon’s representatives said that these decisions were made prior to him leading the project.
But Fisher said that “race was just one of the issues with the reshoot process.” He also complained about “massive blowups, threats, coercion, taunting, unsafe work conditions, belittling, and gaslighting like you wouldn’t believe” on the set.
Warner Bros. has since launched an internal investigation regarding Fisher’s claims, though the studio claimed that Fisher was not cooperative with a third-party investigator.
Source: Movies - aceshowbiz.com
