Ray Fisher Calls Out WB Execs Over ‘Racially Discriminatory Conversations’
Written by SOURCE on March 3, 2021
On Tuesday, Justice League’s Ray Fisher (Cyborg) took to his Twitter account to call out what he deemed “racially discriminatory conversations” that were “had or entertained” by Warner Bros. execs. on the set of the blockbuster film during reshoots in 2017.
Fisher has previously raised issues he had during the shooting of the film, including stating that director Joss Whedon (who came in to fill the spot left vacated by Zack Snyder) had engaged in “gross, abusive, unprofessional, and completely unacceptable” behavior on set. Other past developments include WB conducting an investigation into Fisher’s claims that resulted in “remedial action,” Fisher saying he wouldn’t work on anything with current DCEU chief Walter Hamada in charge, and Fisher subsequently being written out of The Flash. Obviously his future in the DC Universe remains unclear.
With that established, here’s Fisher stating his version of events on the set in his statement released on Tuesday
“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,” Fisher began. “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.”
Those executive producers are yet to comment on Fisher’s statement.
The actor went on to state that that aforementioned execs. weren’t ignorant to their biases, and that they were aware their rhetoric was “offensive, discriminatory, and unacceptable.” He highlights a few examples and states that they were only representative of “some of the issues.”
He continued his statement by saying that the upcoming Snyder-cut version of the movie is “proof of, and opposition to” the “race based discrimination” in the conversations held by the execs.
Last week, Deadline reported that Hamada “heard Fisher out,” and that was what launched the investigation into Fisher’s claims. That investigation was taken over by WarnerMedia, who stated there were “no issues worthy of pursuit.”
Deadline also included a statement from WarnerMedia in its report. That statement said, “Once again there are false statements being made about our executives and our company surrounding the recent Justice League investigation. As we have stated before, an extensive and thorough third-party investigation was conducted. Our executives, including Walter Hamada, fully cooperated, no evidence was found of any interference whatsoever, and Warner Bros. did not lie in the press. It’s time to stop saying otherwise and move forward productively.”
You can read Fisher’s newest accusations, in full, below:
