For the past year, Justice League actor Ray Fisher has accused the director of the movie’s reshoots, Joss Whedon, of racist and abusive behavior on the sets of the project, and the studio executives at Warner Bros. of enabling Whedon’s behavior. Now, Fisher, who played the role of Cyborg in the film , has issued a lengthy statement on Twitter detailing instances of racism that he feels his character was subjected to.
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— Ray Fisher (@ray8fisher) March 2, 2021
“Prior to the Justice League reshoots of 2017, racially discriminatory conversations were had and entertained-on multiple occasions-by Warner Bros. Pictures executives: Toby Emmerich, Geoff Johns, and Jon Berg. Had I been aware of those conversations in realtime, I would have addressed them in realtime. However-it wasn’t until the summer of 2020 that individuals who were in those meetings felt comfortable sharing with me what they had witnessed firsthand…”
“When it comes to matters involving race, I always try to give the benefit of the doubt to those who may be ignorant of their own biases. But when you have studio executives (particularly Geoff Johns) saying, ‘We can’t have an angry Black man at the center of the movie’-and then those executives use their power to reduce and remove ALL Black people from that movie-they are no longer entitled to any belief associated with doubt.”
The bulk of the accusations Ray Fisher has leveled so far have been against Whedon, and executive producers Geoff Johns and Jon Berg. In addition, the actor has accused Warner head Walter Hamada of enabling Whedon’s behavior by attempting to sweep the whole matter under the rug. In his latest statement, Fisher continues with his previously stated accusations.
“[Johns and Berg] understood full well that the racist rhetoric they chose to entertain in those meetings was offensive, discriminatory, and unacceptable. Furthermore, they dared not speak those things to me, nor any other Black person associated with the film. Instead, they chose the cowardly route of gaslighting- complete with extremely problematic requests such as asking me to ‘play Cyborg like Quasimodo’; and forcing a scene to be reshot so they could highlight the existence of Cyborg’s penis.”
In the original cut of Justice League that came out in 2017, the role of Iris West, played by Kiersey Clemons, a black actress, had been removed entirely from the film. The role of Cyborg’s father, Doctor Silas Stone, had also been reduced. It now remains to be seen whether Warner will publicly respond to Fisher’s latest comments, or whether the studio will attempt to deal with the matter privately, as they have tried to do in the past.
Zack Snyder’s Justice League stars Ben Affleck as Batman, Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman, Henry Cavill as Superman, Amy Adams as Lois Lane, Jason Momoa as Aquaman, Ezra Miller as The Flash, Ray Fisher as Cyborg, Jeremy Irons as Alfred Pennyworth, Diane Lane as Martha Kent, Ray Porter as Darkseid, Ciar&án Hinds as Steppenwolf, Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor and J.K. Simmons as Commissioner Gordon. The film arrives on HBO Max on March 18.