Joss Whedon

He’s kinda schlumpy. A little disheveled, hair messed, clothes nondescript and ill-fitted, not exactly a paragon of chiseled stylish manhood.

It does not matter. Joss Whedon, creator/writer/director of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," and also "Firefly" and "Serenity" and the upcoming big-budget "Wonder Woman" flick (not to mention all sorts of famous scripts and comic books), is one of the loosest and funniest and most articulate and most likable dudes working on the fringes of Hollywood today.

Say what you will about the low-budget camp factor of "Buffy," but that show rocked a thousand ways from Sunday, not least of which because it did the unthinkable, which was feature a badass complicated intelligent babe heroine with a sense of purpose and a hot libido who was surrounded by men who actually respected her and found her power and leadership to not be a threat to their egos or their penises. Shocking. Plus, "Serenity" kicked ass.

Anyway. Here is a video of Joss Whedon, being honored at some sort of Equality Now ceremony for his contributions to that oh-so-rare Hollywood concept of the strong, empowered female. He is introduced by none other than Meryl Streep, who should know.

Note this as you watch: Whedon uses no notes. He says "um" a lot. He slumps and doesn’t gesticulate much and seems, at first, like he’ll be a terrible speaker. You sort of wonder why he’s there at all.

Then he kicks into gear. You find he’s deeply articulate, funny, well spoken, warm, can move through an idea with grace and humor and nearly zero pretense. He answers the question he is most often asked in his life, in every interview, every press junket, every movie premier: "Why do you create such powerful female characters?" His answer is fantastic.

Like millions of radiant, wicked-smart women, my girlfriend adores "Buffy." But she adores Whedon more. He "gets it" in a way huge numbers of frat boys and fat senators and US governments and a thousand other entertainment writers/directors don’t. This will show you why.