Actor Jon Bernthal is known for playing men who could, for the most part, be described as “masculine” in the traditional sense. In his podcast Real Ones, however, Bernthal has become a voice celebrating positive masculinity.
“I don’t know if I have any power… I’m no authority… I know that I’m a father, and I’m a father of two boys and I know the kind of men that I want them to grow up to be… and I know the kind of models of masculinity that I want them to see,” he said to Conan O’Brien. He went on to say that he does believe in the “cornerstones of masculinity,” he also believes in — well — human decency. “Equally important is being kind, is being empathetic, is to stand up for somebody who has less rights than you, somebody who is being picked on, somebody who is being put into the corner, somebody who’s just said, getting in touch with a side of them that’s softer, having the courage to do that,” he said.
Toxic masculinity, he went on, “reeks of such fear and such insecurity”.
Jesse Eisenberg on how fringe masculinity movements became mainstream
In 2023, Jesse Eisenberg starred in Manodrome, a film about a young man whose failures in life drive him to join a libertarian masculinity cult.
As Eisenberg explained to The Hollywood Reporter, he was “fascinated” to witness the growing popularity of incel culture.
“It started a few years before, when I was doing this movie The Art of Self-Defense, which is like an absurdist comic take on dangerous notions of masculinity,” he said. “And I just became really fascinated by these fringe-y movements, which are becoming more mainstream. And then doing this movie, which takes a very serious, very dark, almost fever dream dissection of this culture, I became more interested in the darker sides of it.”
Eisenberg went on to explain how the film hoped to show explore how these cultures may have sprung up in response to progressive changes in culture. “What this movie discusses, this group formed in the story is a backlash to what I personally think is wonderful progress about gender norms and gender roles, but for them, it feels like their whole world is being threatened,” he said. “And all their personal insecurities and fears and feelings of inadequacy manifest as anger towards women as opposed to looking inward to fix whatever issues are going on with themselves.”