Joss Whedon Denied Threatening Gal Gadot On ‘Justice League,’ Saying She Misinterpreted Him Because ‘English Is Not Her First Language’

Joss Whedon has been laying low the last few years, and for good reason: Once a beloved TV and movie maven, he’s fallen from grace following a series of accusations alleging all manner of abuse. Now he’s breaking his silence. On Monday, New York published a lengthy profile of Whedon, in which he says he’s in therapy and working on himself. And while he admits that some of the accusations are legit, others get some push-back.

One of them involves Gal Gadot, who — along with Ray Fisher, whom he also addressed in the profile — accused Whedon of abuse on the set of Justice League, which he’d taken over mid-stream for Zack Snyder. Last year, she claimed Whedon “threatened” her, saying he’d make her career “miserable” after they didn’t get along on-set. Whedon denied the claim, saying, “I don’t threaten people. Who does that” But he didn’t stop there:

He concluded she had misunderstood him. “English is not her first language, and I tend to be annoyingly flowery in my speech.” He recalled arguing over a scene she wanted to cut. He told her jokingly that if she wanted to get rid of it, she would have to tie him to a railroad track and do it over his dead body. “Then I was told that I had said something about her dead body and tying her to the railroad track,” he said.

But New York made sure to get Gadot’s response to Whedon’s claims. And she did not agree with his version of events, saying, “I understood perfectly.”

Whedon also denied Fisher’s claims of abuse, even going so far as to call him a “bad actor in both senses.” It’s some tough words from someone who, earlier in the profile, admits to the New York reporter that he’s “terrified” of “every word that comes out of my mouth.”