“He sounds like a man-child…”: Before ‘It Ends With Us’ Justin Baldoni’s Book Teaching Young Boys About Masculinity Was Met With Brutal Reviews

Actor Justin Baldoni is widely known for portraying Rafael Solano in Jane the Virgin from 2014 to 2019, opposite Gina Rodriguez. Baldoni is also known for directing romantic-drama movies, including Five Feet Apart, Clouds, and the very recent It Ends With Us, in which he co-starred opposite Blake Lively. 

Apart from his career as an actor-director, Baldoni also has a talk show, Man Enough, in which he addresses redefining masculinity, female empowerment, fitness, marriage, and fatherhood. The actor started a podcast under the same name and in 2022 published a book, Boys Will Be Human, as a children’s version of Man Enough. However, the fans do not think the same about the actor.

It Ends With Us director Justin Baldoni’s book, ‘Boys Will Be Human’ was shred to pieces

Actor Justin Baldoni is open-minded when it comes to topics including masculinity, female empowerment, success in life, and much more. In 2022 he published a book titled, Boys Will Be Human: A Get-Real Gut-Check Guide to Becoming the Strongest, Kindest, Bravest Person You Can Be.

Goodreads described the book as a real-talk, self-esteem-building book that tends to help boys ages 11 and up to accept and embrace their feelings. They mentioned that the book is a perfect social-emotional learning tool for parents and educators. He wrote on his social media (via Celebrity Kind)

This is a book I desperately needed in middle school, as those years were some of the most confusing, painful, awkward, and difficult in my life. It was when I learned that my allegiance as a man was to my own gender and that being strong, powerful, dominant, and s*xual were only my options. 

The actor at the time shared that he hoped that his book would be the loud voice that young boys need to remind them that who they are is enough. However, the response to Baldoni’s book was not how the actor expected, as one of the readers wrote,

He sounds like a man-child who newly found therapy, discovering himself, the guy who used to act like a golden retriever with ADHD cute guy energy, and people took advantage of his low impulse control, walked all over him, and now somehow thinks he is ready to share his knowledge. No bro, you’re still a child.

Another user commented that they were not sure if boys would be interested in reading the book. A third user mentioned that even though it was refreshing to read men talking about how they abuse power or about feminism, they are pretty much certain that the men would NEVER read it. Users also found the book to be very boring.

Elizabeth Day takes down the How to Fail podcast episode featuring Justin Baldoni

Ahead of Blake Lively’s s**ual harassment complaint, Justin Baldoni had appeared on Elizabeth Day’s How To Fail episode, which, after the allegations, has been taken down. The podcast host shared on her social media,

Decided to remove the recent How to Fail interview with Justin Baldoni from all platforms while the distressing allegations made against him in Blake Lively’s recent filing are fully investigated.

She further mentioned that every individual has a right to a safe workplace, and every woman has the right to dignity in that workplace. Day noted that every form of abuse should be called out, and she salutes the individuals who dare to do so. In the episode, Baldoni talked about nearly breaking down while filming one scene in particular in the film [It Ends With Us].

The actor also mentioned his experience with sexual trauma and his diagnosis of ADHD at the age of 40. On December 20, 2024, Blake Lively filed a legal complaint against the co-actor and director of It Ends With Us, accusing him of s**ual harassment and disturbing and unprofessional behavior while filming. The actress also alleged that the director-actor had also launched a smear campaign against her. (via New York Times)

It Ends With Us was released over the summer, but the movie was overshadowed by THR’s report about the on-set feud between the two actors. The two of them did not come together to promote the movie together, nor did they follow each other on social media, which raised a lot of eyebrows.

Where Baldoni denies all the allegations, Lively has gained support from co-stars and friends from the industry and believes that her legal action can hopefully help pull back the curtain on such sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak up.

It Ends With Us is streaming on Netflix.