Actress Michelle Trachtenberg on Thursday elaborated on allegations earlier this week that her boss of “Buffy and the Vampire Slayer” was guilty of abusive behavior on his “toxic” set.
Trachtenberg made the cryptic new allegations against show creator Joss Whedon, 56, in an updated Instagram post: “The last one. I’ll comment on this. Was. There was a rule. Saying. He shouldn’t be alone with Michelle again. get into a room, ”the 35-year-old wrote.
The actress was 15 when she took on the role of Dawn Summers, the younger sister of Sarah Michelle Gellar’s ‘Buffy’, who she played from 2000 to 2003. Trachtenberg, who later appeared in the CW’s ‘Gossip Girl’, did not go enter explicit details about what led to the alleged rule – or who introduced it.
Trachtenberg’s allegations come after Charisma Carpenter, who played Cordelia Chase, posted claims about Whedon’s alleged “toxic” and “hostile” behavior. She also claimed he called her “fat” during a one-on-one meeting when she was pregnant.
Joss Whedon abused his power on countless occasions while working on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel sets, Carpenter, 50, wroteAlthough he found his misconduct amusing, it only worsened my fear of failure, made me powerless and alienated from my peers. The disturbing incidents triggered a chronic physical condition that I still suffer from. It is with a beating, heavy heart that I say that I have dealt with it in isolation and sometimes destructively. “
Trachtenberg first came forward after Gellar, 43, responded to Carpenter’s viral post in a statement on Instagram in which he sided with “survivors of abuse”.
“While I’m proud to have my name associated with Buffy Summers, I don’t want to be associated with the name Joss Whedon forever,” posted Gellar. “… I stand behind all survivors of abuse and am proud of them for speaking out.”
Trachtenberg responded to Gellar for the first time on Wednesday, writing: “Thank you @sarahmgellar for saying this. I am now brave enough as a 35 year old woman … to post this again. Because. This must. Be known. As a teenager. With his inappropriate behavior … very much. Not. Appropriate. “
Representatives for Whedon – currently working on “The Nevers” for HBO – have not responded to The Post’s requests for comment.
The industry prodigy first faced a wave of negative press and soured social media after his ex-wife, architect Kai Cole, accused him of cheating in a damning online essay for The Wrap in 2017.
Cole accused the director of ‘multiple cases’ over their 15-year marriage – claiming the first of those alleged outbursts were on the set of ‘Buffy’.
“He hid multiple cases and some inappropriate emotional issues he had with his actresses, co-workers, fans, and friends while continuing to marry me,” Cole wrote.
“He cheated on me for 15 years so he could get whatever he wanted. I believed, everyone believed that he was one of the good guys, committed to fighting for women’s rights, committed to our marriage and the women he worked with. “
A thriving Whedon fan site was shut down after 15 years amid Cole’s allegations, including her statement that “I now see how he used his relationship with me as a shield, both during and after our marriage, so that no one left his relationship with others. question women. or view his writing as something other than feminist. “
Whedon and Cole met in 1991 and married in 1995, a year before production began on ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer,’ a groundbreaking TV show centered around a strong female hero who has often been hailed as a defining feminist series.