It’s been known for a while that Joss Whedon has a problem keeping his mouth shut when he has an inappropriate remark on his mind, and being on Twitter certainly hasn’t made things easier for him. Recently, he was involved in a controversial situation where he called a new clip for “Jurassic World” sexist, something which was met with harsh negative reactions from the community, and prompted many people to point out that he has no idea what he’s talking about.
And now, Whedon decided to speak to Variety at the premiere of the new “Avengers: Age of Ultron”, a conversation which, as could be expected, quickly took a turn in the direction of his recent statements about “Jurassic World”. Variety were very eager to hear a comment about the situation from Whedon, who was quick to admit that he made a mistake sending out the tweet.
However, the way he worded his response made it sound like an apology at first, but it quickly became obvious that it was anything but that. In the end, Whedon seems to regret having to face the backlash from his statements, not having made the statements themselves. He added that he sees it as bad form to talk negatively about the work of other people, and it’s not something “a gentleman would do”.
For what it’s worth, Whedon also went ahead and deleted the tweet, but he explained that the clip made him feel provoked, and he saw it as practically impossible to not share his thoughts on the situation. In the end, he seems convinced that he meant what he said and he stood by his words, he simply regretted expressing them in a public manner like that.
Whedon’s career might not suffer from his claims, but this will definitely be remembered by film fans for a long time, as it was a statement that will echo through the channels of the movie industry for a while. The general consensus is clear – it’s very bad form to badmouth another professional who works in the same field as you, especially when he’s releasing something that can be seen as competition to your own work.
Personal opinions have a place in the professional world, but they should always be approached carefully and delicately, precisely so one could avoid disastrous situations like this one. There are discussion forums where one could express their thoughts on another professional’s work, but a person should always be prepared to hear backlash if they do that. In the end, Whedon is not exactly someone who keeps his words to himself, no matter how harsh those words might be, and while this hasn’t caused him any significant problems until now, it very well could in the future.