Justin Baldoni is currently battling Blake Lively in an ugly lawsuit where she has accused him of workplace harassment and he has pursued defamation charges. Both Baldoni and Lively’s personal and professional lives came under scrutiny after the legal drama. Now, former staffers of Baldoni have raised accusations against the “toxic positivity” culture at Wayfarer.
The claims from several employees were covered by an article in The Los Angeles Times. According to the employees, Baldoni’s attempts at making films about the terminally ill felt insincere to some degree. They even accused him of “evangelizing” his Baha’i faith in the workplace.
Former employees complain about Justin Baldoni’s toxic positivity in films
The trial in the legal battle between Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively is set a year away. In the meantime, the situation that began on the It Ends With Us set has escalated beyond epic proportions. Both sides are not safe from public and media scrutiny and Baldoni is facing a slew of accusations this time.
The Los Angeles Times published a piece on Wednesday with a few claims from his former employees. One of these employees who worked at Wayfarer shared that Baldoni propagated toxic positivity on set, which felt very insincere. The former employee shared with the LA Times:
It was constant positivity all the time — I would say toxic positivity. I’m always a little dubious of people who advertise themselves as disruptors of the status quo or quote-unquote ‘good people.’ It felt phony.
Accusations were also brought against his previous projects, which focused on terminal illness and a positive outlook on life. Two former staff members shared that his projects felt slightly exploitative as the stories were based on real individuals. One of the former employees shared:
The message was always, ‘These people are dying and they still have a positive outlook, so everyone has a reason to be positive.’ But, you know, you’re also making money off these people, so it feels at least slightly exploitative.
In 2012, Justin Baldoni hosted the CW docuseries My Last Days, which talked about six people with terminal illnesses. Variety wrote in its review of the series, “While it is a spectacle for a good cause, it is still a spectacle, and one that sometimes is guilty of reveling in its own self-satisfaction.”
Baldoni’s first directorial venture was Five Feet Apart, which was inspired by Claire Wineland, who suffered from cystic fibrosis. Travis Flores, another cystic fibrosis patient, sued Baldoni for copyright infringement after claiming that Baldoni’s film bore striking similarities with a screenplay Flores had written years earlier.
The director’s second film Clouds explored a teenager suffering from osteosarcoma. Ezra, the film he executive produced from last year, had an autistic child at the center of its plot.
There were also accusations raised against Justin Baldoni’s spiritual workplace environment
Former employees claimed that Baldoni and other executives pushed ideals of Baha’i faith on the set, making them uncomfortable. One employee claimed that “there was an evangelizing aspect” to how Baldoni spoke about the religion on the set. They shared that it “felt professionally inappropriate.”
Another employee shared, “Bahai values were a driving force behind everything they did.” They claimed that talks about religion often came up at the workplace, especially from Wayfarer co-owner Steve Sarowitz who was a new member of the faith. The former employee shared, “As a newer Baha’i member, Steve wanted to talk about it all the time.”
However, not all employees have complaints about Baldoni and his spiritual side. His former personal assistant Melissa Ames told the LA Times, “He is highly creative and in tune with his spiritual side. He has a heart for helping others. Working at Wayfarer was one of the best times of my life.”
A spokesperson for Wayfarer told the New York Post that employees were “encouraged to celebrate and practice their individual beliefs however they see fit.” They added that the leadership supported a place of spirituality rooted in various faiths and backgrounds.
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