James Gunn has issued a clarification to Ray Fisher after the actor accused him of “using fake grace” on Twitter.
In 2020, Fisher, who appeared in Whedon’s Justice League, alleged that the director had engaged in “gross, abusive, unprofessional and completely unacceptable” behaviour on the set of the 2017 film.
Two years later, Whedon described the claims as “false and unjust” and said that he made Cyborg’s role in the film smaller as his storyline “made no sense”. He claims that test screening audiences found Cyborg’s character to be “the worst” in the film.
Many jumped to Fisher’s defence, including Gal Gadot and Charisma Carpenter, but the actor has pointed out that Gunn, who was recently appointed as the CEO of DC Studios alongside Peter Safran, “supported” Whedon.
Fisher, who played Cyborg, accompanied the tweet with a screenshot showing that Gunn had once apologised for liking the tweet that defended Whedon, and another one that showed that the tweet had been deleted.
He accused the director of using “fake grace on Twitter”, writing on Monday (19 December): “Him going to bat for Joss Whedon, pseudo-apologizing for it, and then deleting it immediately before taking his new DC job is not. Refusing to apologize for toxic behavior seems to be a job requirement for WB/DC.”
However, Gunn said that he has activated a feature on Twitter that sees all of his tweets automatically deleted “every few months”.
“It has nothing to do with my tweets to you,” he wrote in reply.
Fisher sent the tweet after Gunn said he has faced “unkind” backlash from DC fans in the wake of Henry Cavill’s firing as Superman.
Explaining his and Safran’s decision, Gunn wrote: “No one loves to be harassed or called names – but, to be frank, we’ve been through significantly worse. Disrespectful outcry will never, ever affect our actions.”
He explained their “choices” are made “based upon what we believe is best for the story and best for the DC characters who have been around for nearly 85 years”.
