Joss Whedon denies digitally altering actor’s skin colour on Justice League following Ray Fisher allegations

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Kelly Rissman

US News Reporter

Joss Whedon has denied claims by actor Ray Fisher that he deliberately altered the colour of a non-white actor’s skin in Justice League.

Fisher, who played Cyborg in the 2017 superhero film, has previously accused Whedon of “abusive” behaviour on the film’s set after he took over directing from Zack Snyder mid-production.

Speaking to Forbes, Fisher this week claimed that “the erasure of people of colour from the 2017 theatrical version of Justice League was neither an accident nor coincidence”, explaining that learning about the alleged incident was the “tipping point” for him in speaking out in June.

“What set my soul on fire and forced me to speak out about Joss Whedon this summer was my becoming informed that Joss had ordered that the complexion of an actor of colour be changed in post-production because he didn’t like the colour of their skin tone,” he said.

In response to Fisher’s claims, Whedon’s representatives told the publication that this story was false.

“The individual who offered this statement acknowledged that this was just something that he had heard from someone else and accepted as truth, when in fact simple research would prove that it was false,” they said.

“As is standard on almost all films, there were numerous people involved with mixing the final product, including the editor, special effects person, composer, etc. with the senior colourist responsible for the final version’s tone, colours, and mood.”

They continued: “This process was further complicated on this project by the fact that Zack shot on film, while Joss shot on digital, which required the team, led by the same senior colourist who has worked on previous films for Zack, to reconcile the two.”

The Independent has contacted Fisher and Whedon’s representatives for comment. Warner Bros declined to comment.

Last month, Jason Momoa showed support for Fisher’s original allegations against Whedon, claiming that “serious stuff went down” on the set of Justice League and that it should be “investigated”.

An initial investigation into the claims was launched by Warner Bros in August. In response to more allegations made by Fisher, the studio stated that the actor had declined to meet with an investigator and was primarily disappointed with his storyline in the film.

Fisher responded that he had met with the investigator over Zoom on 26 August, accusing Warner Bros of a “desperate and scattershot attempt to discredit me to continue protecting those in power”.