The 'Jane the Virgin' star also opens up in a new interview that he has his 'ass grabbed multiple times by powerful women.'
- Dec 8, 2017
AceShowbiz - "Jane the Virgin" star Justin Baldoni is the latest Hollywood figure joining the #MeToo movement. The 33-year-old actor opens up about his experience of being sexually harassed multiple times since the early days of his acting career.
During the TedWomen conference, Baldoni, who is best known for his role as Rafael on The CW's series, revealed in an interview with Glamour that a producer sexually harassed him when he was in a hot tub at a West Hollywood spa. "When I was 21 or so, I was very new in the business," he began his story. "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," he continued. "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.' "
According to Baldoni, the person later "started talking about all of the movies he's done and all the people he knows." Baldoni shared that the producer's friends with George Clooney and Don Cheadle, before adding, "He slowly started to try to get me to take off my pants because I had my bathing suit on and he was naked."
It didn't take long for the father of two to assess the situation he was in at the time. He said that he left the hot tub, though it was not the last time he faced such harassment in the industry. "I've also experienced [harassment] as a man from women of power," he opened up. "I've had my ass grabbed multiple times by powerful 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,' " Baldoni concluded.
