I was recently having a discussion with someone about creative inspirations. We were going down the list of people who inspired us in music, movies, writing, and other things. A lot of ‘interesting’ names came up on both of our lists when we decided to get real and strip away the quality of their character. My friend (a successful screenwriter) had to admit that Woody Allen was a big inspiration for his creative writing. Even with disgusting sexual allegations, she had to admit that his writing genius was something that she admired.
For me, I had to come clean and admit that I used to worship at the altar of Joss Whedon. The list of projects he touched on was a list of my favorite things. Of course, I first discovered Whedon when I tuned in to the premier of a new show called Buffy The Vampire Slayer and became instantly hooked by the witty writing. My love for his writing went on through his other television work, Angel, Firefly, Dollhouse, and Marvel’s Agent of SHIELD. And even more into his film work, Serenity, Toy Story, Marvel’s The Avengers and Avengers: Age of Ultron, Justice League… I even loved his script for Alien Resurrection (minus the crappy third act. What the hell was that?!?). He even had an incredible stint writing comic books. His classic runs in Astonishing X-Men, Runaways, and continued Buffy The Vampire Slayer in comic form, writing seasons 8–12.
Even with the reports of his faux feminist views, bullying on set, repeated infidelity against his wife, and his creepy relationships with his female coworkers… even with all that disgusting bullshit, I still have to praise his character-driven stories and a lot of groundbreaking plot devices that have become a masterclass for the creators who came after him.
With celebrities like R. Kelly, Kevin Spacey (who was one of my favorite actors), and others, it’s become popular to take the stance of ‘separating the art from the person’. But that can be hard. Actually writing this post giving praise to Whedon in any capacity just feels… wrong. Nevertheless, creatively Whedon has left one hell of a legacy and has inspired me in my writing. I just wish his personal character matched his creative soul.