Justin Baldoni plays Rafael on Jane the Virgin. I haven’t seen the show and am not familiar with him but I might have to change that. Justin recently spoke at the TedWomen conference. He opened his talk by saying he is constantly cast to play characters who, “ooze machismo, charisma and power,” and are “very different” from how he sees himself. Justin is developing a weekly talk show with actor Matt McGorry called Man Enough, in which they are hoping to redefine, “what it means to be a man today.” While in New Orleans for the TedWomen conference, Justin told stories of the harassment he has endured in Hollywood. He also admitted that he is likely guilty of inappropriate comments in his past but he wants us to know he is genuinely sorry.

During the TedWomen conference, Baldoni told Glamour magazine that he stands with all the individuals who have come forward with sexual harassment stories because he experienced it himself during his early years of her career. “When I was 21 or so, I was very new in the business,” he said. “A girlfriend at the time had gotten me a spa certificate… I remember there were hot tubs and steam rooms and all kinds of stuff, and it’s kind of fancier people, wealthier guys. I went and jumped in the hot tub and I saw a guy kind of look over.”

“I saw him look over at me, jump out of the other hot tub, and jump in with me, and he said, ‘Oh what do you do? And I said, ‘Oh I’m an actor,’ and he explained, “Oh I’m a producer,’ and he started talking about all of the movies he’s done and all the people he knows. He’s friends with Clooney, Cheadle, and this person and this person, and he slowly started to try to get me to take off my pants because I had my bathing suit on and he was naked.”

Baldoni also admitted that he’s been on the giving end of inappropriate conduct toward women: “I guarantee at some point in my life there is a woman or two that I in some way made uncomfortable by saying something or doing something that was chauvinistic or sexist….and all I can do is say, ‘I’m sorry, I was naive, I was young, I screwed up, and I’ll try to do better.’”

[From People]

I respect what Justin is doing by saying this. I watched his full talk because, at first, I felt his apology was a little too generic to be authentic. However, during his talk, he spoke about how boys are raised “not to be soft” and that everything from showing affection to not participating in “locker room talk” made you a target for other boys. To Justin’s credit, he is on a journey of self-discovery and it sounds like he’s open to the fact that much of his own thought process needs to be adjusted when it comes to toxic masculinity. But what I appreciated about his Ted talk is that he acknowledges that he is and has been mostly talking to women. Justin wants more men to listen and participate in the conversation and he understands that will be his biggest challenge with Man Enough. Fortunately, Justin was raised by a “sensitive” man, something Justin said he resented growing up because he believe it made him “soft.” Even though society and Hollywood tried to convince Justin that he should be an overbearing tough guy, it sounds like his dad laid a solid enough foundation to allow Justin this breakthrough. Good for Justin, I’ll be curious to see how Man Enough goes.

Photo credit: WENN Photos