Sarah Michelle Gellar calls Joss Whedon's Buffy the Vampire Slayer set 'extremely toxic'

Sarah Michelle Gellar has slammed Joss Whedon for his "extremely toxic" Buffy the Vampire Slayer set.

While speaking at the Power of Storytelling: Producers Roundtable during The Wrap's Power of Women Summit in Los Angeles on Wednesday, the 45-year-old opened up about the set environment the series director created.

Sarah, who played the titular Buffy Summers on the show, claimed the set for Buffy was infamous in the industry for misogyny at the time of the series' production between 1997 and 2003.

"For so long, I was on a set that I think was known for being an extremely toxic male set, and so that was ingrained in my head that that was what all sets were like, and that women were pitted against each other - that if women became friends, then we became too powerful, so you had to keep that down," the actress said. "And now that I've had this opportunity to work with so many more women and men that support women as well, I realised how easy an experience it can be, but... unfortunately we're still in that place where all of those departments a lot of times need to be women for us to have a voice."

Sarah's Buffy co-star Charisma Carpenter accused Joss in February 2021 of "hostile and toxic behaviour" on the set of the show and its spinoff Angel.

At the time, she also revealed that she was participating in WarnerMedia's investigation into the director's behaviour on the set of Justice League.