Hollywood Sexual Harrasment/Assault Thread

[Khan]

Ironically, Armie Hammer is probably more noteworthy as a fucked-up mess than he is as an actor.

[Faulkner]

 

[Faulkner]

 

[Khan]

Wait, Armie Hammer had a career?

[DRW50]

 

I remember 3-4 years ago, a Buzzfeed writer had a long piece detailing the many attempts by Hollywood to "make him happen," to no avail. He called her out on Twitter, which led to a lot of backlash. I found her writing to be insufferable and phony (she had also written lengthy pieces trying to claim Tom Hanks and Ben Affleck had been career failures and disappointments and also had one of those "if you don't like the Kardashians you just hate women" type think pieces that have aged horribly given how deeply toxic that family is), but now I see it as another sign of his irrationality and inability to keep control. I'm amazed he was able to hold it together publicly as long as he did, based on the way he has spiraled this past year. Some of the photos from his private Instagram that were put in an article about him are still stuck in my head. Really fucked up stuff.

[Vee]

I'll admit I always thought Hammer was underrated and talented. But he's also always clearly been more than a little off IRL. He has made a fairly successful career of often playing men with the same beautiful exterior hiding seething depths of dysfunction; as it happens, that wasn't too far off the mark. I remember the horror film he did with Dakota Johnson, Wounds. I think that was as close to what's unfolding now as you get. It's a creepy scandal to say the least.

[DRW50]

https://slate.com/culture/2021/02/expanse-season-5-finale-cas-anvar-sexual-misconduct.html

 

(spoilers for The Expanse)

[amybrickwallace]

The Evan Rachel Wood/Marilyn Manson story gets more disturbing the more I read about it. She was and is such a brave woman for not only sharing her story to the public at large, but becoming an advocate and testifying before Congress on behalf of people who have gone through sexual abuse. 

[victoria foxton]

 

  

Edited February 9, 2021 by victoria foxton

[Faulkner]

Charisma Carpenter has offered her own account of abuse and mistreatment at the hands of Joss Whedon, which she posted in solidarity with Ray Fisher:

 

 

Edited February 10, 2021 by Faulkner
Edited to not even appear to diminish Charisma’s story.

[Khan]

And all that from someone (Joss) who is supposed to be all about female empowerment.  What a crock.

[Faulkner]

Support from Amber Benson:

 

 

[DRW50]

Amber and Charisma were two of my favorites on those shows. I'm glad they are in solidarity. Charisma has talked about this here and there for years now but has never felt fully comfortable (for good reason). 

 

Something really turned sour on Buffy after a few years - from season 4 on (starting in season 3), everything changes and it is very evident onscreen. Whedon's personality cult and playing favorites take a huge toll. Any producer who focuses more on selling himself to the public ends up hollowing out their work and the people who work for them. 

 

Whedon's chumminess and charm with the press helped mask so many of these issues and gave him a free pass that the quality of his writing had long stopped earning. It's sad, but not surprising, that only after Whedon seemingly ran into some real tangles at the big studios did the mask finally start to get pulled off.

[Cat]

 

ALL THIS. I have long felt that Charisma's firing from Angel represented something illegal and very, very unfair and there was a real code of silence around it. This is confirmation. Her firing and erasure from the Angel canvas went against the wishes of many fans who considered her more than a fan-fave, she was (along with David Boreanaz) an OG. To have Amber Bensopn confirm it and say that the Buffy cast is also still processing Whedon's toxicity 20 years later speaks volumes.

 

The part in Charisma's post about Whedon playing favourites and pitting cast members against each other really stuck out. We know SMG and Alison Hannigan were at loggerheads in the last few seasons (especially about whether Buffy should have ended after S5 or continued on UPN), and it makes sense that Whedon might pit the two female leads against each other. On the Angel front, I remember Joss waxing lyrical about Amy Acker (Fred) and I imagine around this time he decided the character of Cordelia was surplus to requirements. Whedon would invite a select few faves to his home for improv/Shakespeare dinners (like Acker and Alexis Denisof -- Wesley -- who is also married to Alison Hannigan). Only select faves were invited to those dinners and others were excluded.

 

I also wonder what happened with Glenn Quinn who was killed off after 12 episodes in S1 of Angel. 

[victoria foxton]