Justin Baldoni admitted to having an unhealthy relationship with porn in an old interview that’s come to light in the wake of Blake Lively‘s lawsuit, as she accuses the actor of sexual harassment and attempting to destroy her reputation.
The Gossip Girl actress, who is married to Ryan Reynolds, claims there had to be an intervention to stop him showing her nude videos/images of women and to stop mentioning his previous experiences with sex.
The 40-year-old was also told to stop talking about cast and crew’s genitalia as well as to stop making comments about Lively‘s weight, or her dead father. Baldoni was also told to stop adding extra sex scenes not in the pre-approved script, which included orgasming on camera.
And whilst his attorney denies the claims as “categorically false” and “an intent to publicly hurt”, it has emerged that Baldoni previously admitted to struggling with a bad relationship to pornographic content ever since his youth.
“I was introduced to porn when I was 10 years old,” Baldoni told A Life of Greatness in 2021. “Long before I ever, you know, could have an erection or even knew how I felt about anything. It was like any young boy who sees boobs for the first time: it’s exciting.
“Because our culture has shielded them from us because they’re sexualized. It’s cultural. You go to places like Africa and different tribes, and the breast is the breast. We’ve sexualized this thing, so it becomes fascinating and interesting and you’re like, ‘Oh my God, boobs.’ And then hormones start raging.”
Baldoni’s attorney further claims he hired a crisis manager in a bid to handle “multiple threats and demands” from the 37-year-old Lively, who is counter-accused of threatening refusing to promote the film if she wasn’t satisfied.
Baldoni admits to “training” his brain
It’s suspected that consuming porn from a young age, or consuming too much of it at any age, can be very damaging to the development of a person and can impact their relationship with sex both mentally and physically.
And based on his comments, the director seemed to be aware of this risk as Baldoni admitted he “trained” his brain to manage how he used adult content but conceded his relationship with the topic wasn’t good.
“I trained my brain to deal with pain with the dopamine hit,” Baldoni added. “But it doesn’t mean that I’m not using something in an unhealthy way.
“And I found myself, over the course of my life, going back to looking at images and videos of naked women when I was feeling necessarily bad about myself. And I knew that it was an issue for me when I would tell myself that I don’t want to do that.”