Charisma Carpenter "overwhelmed" by support following her Joss Whedon abuse allegations

The Hollywood Reporter

In a Hollywood Reporter essay, Carpenter writes of the response she's received since detailing last month her abuse allegations on the Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel sets: "Over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been overwhelmed by phone calls, emails, public comments and DMs of support in response to an open letter that I had posted on social media about my personal experience with an abuse of professional power," Carpenter writes. "The truth is that while the inundation of comments and calls were rooted in good intentions, some still fell short. It dawned on me that many may not know how to be an ally or to best support a survivor of trauma. I’m regrettably all too familiar with experiencing physical and mental abuse. I was terrorized at the hands of an abusive family member when I was a child. And I’ve had a gun held to my head at point blank range while barely escaping rape. And based on the open letter I wrote, you now know about the psychological abuse I endured while acting on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. I shared my experiences about my former boss, Joss Whedon, so that we may identify a very real problem that is still happening 20 years later. My open letter is not just trauma unpacking or dumping. It’s a wake up call. And a call to action. It was written in a concerted effort to foster change."