It Ends With Us hasn’t ended yet. The film was controversial from the start, with arguments over its source material’s depiction of domestic violence and whether or not star Blake Lively fit the lead role of Lily Bloom. Also, the costumes. And that was before it even came out.
Fans were quick to pick up on a rift between director and star Justin Baldoni and the rest of the cast. Then public opinion quickly turned against Lively as her tone-deaf marketing efforts fell flat (“Wear your florals!”), though they didn’t hamper the movie’s box-office success. At the same time, rumors spread that Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, had been too controlling over the film, with Lively reportedly commissioning her own edit of the final product. Meanwhile, Baldoni was being praised for centering domestic violence during his (noticeably solo) press ventures.
Four months after the film’s release, however, public sentiment took a drastic turn when Blake Lively sued Justin Baldoni for sexual harassment, accusing the actor of launching a PR smear campaign to destroy her reputation.
Here’s everything that has gone down, starting with the latest: A trial date has been set for March 2026.
February 21, 2025: Lively pushes back against “insulting” THR depiction.
Through a spokesperson, Lively responded to a The Hollywood Reporter cover, which featured an illustration of herself and Baldoni that framed Lively as the aggressor in their dispute. The picture shows Lively using an iPhone as a slingshot aimed at Baldoni, while Baldoni holds an Indiana Jones-style whip in one hand and a copy of the It Ends With Us book in the other.
“The framing in this picture is outrageously insulting as it plays into every sexist trope about women who dare file a workplace complaint, turning them into the aggressor, and suggesting they deserve the retaliation that comes their way,” Lively's statement, published in the Daily Mail, claims. “In addition, the story is extremely offensive as it incredibly seems to explain away documented examples of sexual harassment and retaliation by calling them ‘cultural misunderstandings.’”
February 21, 2025: A new report claims Jenny Slate filed a complaint during production.
According to a report by The Hollywood Reporter, Jenny Slate was one of the actors referenced in Lively's amended lawsuit, having allegedly complained to Sony about producer Jamey Heath's comments to her about “motherhood.” Here's the excerpt from the report:
A source told THR that Heath felt Wayfarer's kind gestures were being “weaponized against them.”
February 18, 2025: Lively releases an amended complaint.
Lively files 163-page complaint in New York, updating her initial lawsuit with "significant additional evidence and corroboration of her original claims," as well as "a new claim for defamation."
According to The New York Times, the updated complaint alleges two unnamed women from the cast are willing to testify to about their own “uncomfortable” experiences on set. The lawsuit claims one of these actors reported her concerns about Baldoni and another producer to a Sony Pictures Entertainment representative, while the other spoke directly to Lively. These complaints were allegedly documented a year before the film was edited, with Baldoni responding to one of the complaints in writing.
“Ms. Lively was not alone in raising allegations of on-set misconduct more than a year before the Film was edited,” Lively's attorneys, Esra Hudson and Mike Gottlieb, said in a statement, per CBS.
In his own statement, Baldoni's lawyer Bryan Freedman called the amended complaint “underwhelming,” claiming it's "filled with unsubstantial hearsay of unnamed persons who are clearly no longer willing to come forward or publicly support her claims.”
Per the NYT, Freedman's statement continued, “Since documents do not lie and people do, the upcoming depositions of those who initially supported Ms. Lively’s false claims and those who are witnesses to her own behavior will be enlightening. What is truly uncomfortable here is Ms. Lively’s lack of actual evidence.”
February 16, 2025: Ryan Reynolds appears to joke about the scandal.
Lively and Reynolds make bold statements at SNL's 50th anniversary special, with Lively arriving in a silver floral gown reminiscent of her IEWU press tour looks. Meanwhile, Reynolds takes part in the special by appearing to joke about the ongoing legal battles.
During an audience Q&A with Tina Fey and Amy Poehler, Reynolds was asked how it’s going. “Great,” he replied, before feigning nervousness. “Why? What have you heard?”
You might not be surprised to learn this bit only sparked further controversy. After an SNL cue card handler claimed Reynolds personally pitched that joke, reps for Reynolds and NBC denied that statement, per USA Today.
Baldoni's lawyer, of course, also had some thoughts about the joke. "I'm unaware of anybody, frankly, whose wife has been sexually harassed and has made jokes about that type of situation," Freedman said during an appearance on the podcast Hot Mics with Billy Bush.
February 2, 2025: As promised, Baldoni’s team sets up a website.
In early February, Baldoni’s team launches a website, which currently features an amended version of his legal complaint as well as a “timeline of relevant events.”
Among the new information shared in these documents is a statement Lively and Reynolds allegedly drafted amid the backlash to the film’s press tour in August 2024. According to Baldoni’s lawyers, the couple wanted Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios, and producer Jamey Heath to release the statement taking “accountability for the negative press toward Lively and Reynolds.”
Baldoni’s lawyers claim their client refused to sign the statement even though Lively and Reynolds told WME that “the gloves will come off” if he declined.
Another notable excerpt from the document pertains to an alleged text exchange between Baldoni and Reynolds that took place prior to filming in February 2023. According to the screenshots, Reynolds joked about his nether regions while asking to adjust the film’s schedule.
"All this to say, I’d have your line producer’s face tattooed to my perineum if he/she/they can figure out how to start two weeks earlier. Completely understand how big of an ask that is,” Reynolds allegedly wrote in one text. “But the perineum is one of the most nervy parts of the human body to expose to trauma. So..”
Baldoni’s lawyers claim Baldoni and Reynolds were “expressing mutual respect” throughout this exchange, with Reynolds signing off, “Looking forward to seeing you. And thank you again for all you’re doing. I happen to adore you, Justin. xo.”
January 27, 2025: A voice note about the rooftop scene confirms it became contentious.
A (unverified) six-and-a-half-minute voice note, sent by Baldoni to Lively, in the wee hours of the morning, about her reaction to his reaction to her script changes to the “iconic” rooftop scene, seems to confirm that this was a point of contention during filmmaking. In the recording Baldoni apologizes, apparently for not taking her revisions more seriously.
January 26, 2025: Lively reappears.
Though she’s been basically out of sight since the suit dropped, it seems the star is back to work. Michele Morrone, an Italian actor who has an unspecified role in the upcoming sequel to A Simple Favor, which Lively shot in Italy while It Ends With Us was going through post-production, shared a smiling selfie with Reynolds and Lively, writing, “Missed you guys! Love you!!”
January 24–25, 2025: Baldoni’s loved ones praise him on his birthday.
Quiet since the premiere, Baldoni’s family publicly showed their support in honor of the star and director’s 41st birthday on January 24. His mother, Sharon Baldoni, posted three photos from his wedding to Emily Baldoni in 2013. In the caption Sharon reflected on a different project of Justin’s: Jane the Virgin. “Remembering a wonderful moment after the final ending of ‘Jane the Virgin’—a moment where joy and love permeated the set, where friendships and family were born and kindness and integrity permeated the hearts of all the actors and crew,” she wrote. “Life has its moments and also its surprises—as you keep your integrity through it all Justice and truth will shine today and into eternity…May God continue to bless you in truth.”
The next day, his wife Emily Baldoni shared a family photo on Instagram with the caption, “Celebrating the man, husband, and father that you are. I’d choose you again and again.”
Meanwhile, the lawyers are fighting about a potential gag order.
January 22, 2025: Colleen Hoover quits Instagram.
The author who started it all leaves the platform without so much as a goodbye. Is it related to the drama? Maybe. She eventually returns to Instagram in February, having reportedly removed posts that include Lively and Baldoni.
January 21, 2025: Raw footage shows awkward conversation during a dance scene.
Ten minutes of footage from filming a scene in which their characters dance shows up online, thanks to Baldoni’s team. In it, Lively can be heard commenting on Baldoni’s nose, while Baldoni assures Lively that her spray tan smells good. Both sides say the video proves their point. Intimacy coordinators later weigh in.
The same day, Baldoni’s team promises to publish an unedited trove of correspondence on a dedicated website.
January 16, 2025: Baldoni sues Lively and Reynolds for $400 million, alleging defamation and extortion.
The suit was filed on behalf of Baldoni, producer Jamey Heath, publicist Jennifer Abel, crisis publicist Melissa Nathan, and Baldoni’s production company. “This lawsuit is a legal action based on an overwhelming amount of untampered evidence detailing Blake Lively and her team’s duplicitous attempt to destroy Justin Baldoni, his team and their respective companies by disseminating grossly edited, unsubstantiated, new and doctored information to the media,” said Baldoni’s attorney in a statement to People. One of the details that jumps out from the suit is the mention of a “megacelebrity friend” of the couple’s, who by all accounts seems to be Taylor Swift.
Lively’s team immediately responds, calling the suit “desperate" and “another chapter in the abuser playbook” in a statement. “This is an age-old story: A woman speaks up with concrete evidence of sexual harassment and retaliation and the abuser attempts to turn the tables on the victim,” the statement reads. “This is what experts call DARVO. Deny. Attack. Reverse Victim Offender.”
January 7, 2025: Baldoni’s lawyer promises “receipts” of “bullying” by Lively, invokes Nicepool.
“It is painfully ironic that Blake Lively is accusing Justin Baldoni of weaponizing the media when her own team orchestrated this vicious attack by sending The New York Times grossly edited documents prior to even filing the complaint,” Freedman told People in a statement. “We are releasing all of the evidence which will show a pattern of bullying and threats to take over the movie,” Freedman added, claiming, “Consistent with her past behavior Blake Lively used other people to communicate those threats and bully her way to get whatever she wanted. We have all the receipts and more.”
Freedman also goes on Megyn Kelly’s show to point out that the character of Nicepool from Deadpool & Wolverine seems to have been written to mock his client. ICYMI, Deadpool & Wolverine is a dark meta-comedy in which Deadpool, played by Lively’s husband, Reynolds (who also worked on the script and is one of the film’s executive producers), encounters different versions of himself. Nicepool is a long-haired self-identified male feminist that, Baldoni’s lawyer says, is meant to mock his client. This thread sums up the similarities between Nicepool and Baldoni. The theory lends credence to the idea that Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds had issues with Justin from the jump; however, Baldoni’s lawyer says that the humorous character undermines the seriousness of their accusation of sexual harassment.
January 1, 2025: WME says Reynolds didn’t make Baldoni’s agent drop him.
Baldoni had alleged that in retaliation over their spat, Reynolds, a valued WME client, reportedly pressured Baldoni’s agent, at the same agency, to drop him when they interacted at the premiere of Deadpool & Wolverine. However, the agency dismissed that version of events, noting that Baldoni lost his agent after the first Times story, which was long after the premiere in question. “Baldoni’s former representative was not at the Deadpool & Wolverine premiere nor was there any pressure from Reynolds or Lively at any time to drop Baldoni as a client,” the company said.
It’s also worth noting that publicist Stephanie Jones’s husband is an agent at WME.
December 31, 2024: Blake Lively files in New York; Baldoni sues the Times.
On New Year’s Eve, Lively’s attorneys filed a lawsuit against Baldoni and other parties in New York federal court. According to Page Six, much of the complaint mirrors her California lawsuit. You can read her lawyer’s statement at People.
On the same day, Baldoni and nine other plaintiffs (including publicists Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel) filed a lawsuit against The New York Times over the paper’s report on Blake Lively’s initial filing, titled, “‘We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine.”
According to People, the plaintiffs are suing the publication for “libel, false light invasion of privacy, promissory fraud, and breach of implied-in-fact contract.” Here is the statement of Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, to People:
According to People, the lawsuit claims the NYT “‘cherry-picked’ and altered communications stripped of necessary context and deliberately spliced to mislead.” Baldoni’s complaint reportedly contains text messages that aim to disprove allegations of a manufactured smear campaign, with his lawyers alleging the director “consistently expressed his desire to avoid harming Lively and protect the Film but also recognized a legitimate need for public relations protection in light of Lively’s false and damaging claims.”
You can read Baldoni’s full complaint here.
In response, a New York Times spokesperson sent the following statement to People:
In a statement to CNN, Lively’s lawyer said “nothing in this lawsuit changes anything” about Lively’s allegations, adding, “We look forward to addressing each and every one of Wayfarer’s allegations in court.”
December 28, 2024: Baldoni’s lawyer claims the actor’s countersuit will “shock everyone.”
After The Daily Mail UK reported that Baldoni will be filing a countersuit against Lively in January, Bryan Freedman released the following statement to Deadline:
Among other complaints, The Daily Mail reported that Baldoni’s counterclaim will accuse Lively’s publicist Leslie Sloan of Vision PR of planting negative stories about Baldoni in the press.
According to Deadline, Sloan preemptively denied that allegation in a statement, claiming Melissa Nathan’s sister Sara Nathan (who works for the New York Post) forwarded Sloan an anonymous tip “regarding allegations of HR complaints on the set of It Ends with Us” back in August. “After that, I was contacted by various press outlets asking about allegations of HR complaints,” Sloan said, adding that she responded to those inquiries by “referring them to Wayfarer or Sony for information regarding HR complaints.” She continued, “It’s clear that Mr. Baldoni and his Wayfarer Associates are suggesting that I originated press stories about HR complaints on set, which is false.”
December 26, 2024: Baldoni faces new scrutiny.
In the week following Lively’s bombshell lawsuit, her critics were quick to rethink their assumptions about her and other women who may have been victims of “smear campaigns,” whether orchestrated by PR professionals or not. Baldoni’s reference to a thread mentioning Hailey Bieber drew particular attention.
Meanwhile, in the reverse of what happened to Lively during the IEWU press tour, Baldoni’s old actions resurface in a new light, like his “wedding apology” and cringey proposal.
December 24, 2024: Baldoni’s former publicist files her own lawsuit.
According to The New York Times, Joneswork founder Stephanie Jones is suing Baldoni for breach of contract, claiming she was “forced out of representing Mr. Baldoni and his film studio amid concerns that Ms. Lively would go public with accusations of misconduct against him.”
On December 24, the Times reported that Jones was the source behind the WhatsApp messages and emails released in Lively’s lawsuit. Per the NYT, the emails and texts released in Lively’s lawsuit came from publicist Jennifer Abel’s company phone, which Jones gained access to after firing Abel from her company.
In her own lawsuit, per the Times, Jones says she fired Abel for stealing documents from Joneswork while planning to start her own company. Jones alleges Abel and Nathan launched “a smear campaign against Lively” without Jones’s knowledge or approval. You can read the full report here.
December 23, 2024: Baldoni loses an award and a cohost as his lawyer fights back.
On December 9, IEWU star Hasan Minhaj presented Justin Baldoni with the 2024 Vital Voices Solidarity Award, which “honors remarkable men who have shown courage and compassion in advocating on behalf of women and girls worldwide,” according to their website. On December 23, Vital Voices announced that Baldoni has been stripped of the honor in the wake of the allegations against him. “On Saturday, December 21, we learned through news reports about a lawsuit brought by Blake Lively against Mr. Baldoni, his publicists, and others that is disturbing and alleges abhorrent conduct,” Vital Voices wrote in a statement on Instagram.
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More bad news for Baldoni: Since 2021, journalist Liz Plank has cohosted the Man Enough podcast alongside him and Wayfarer exec Jamey Heath, who was also accused of misconduct in Lively’s lawsuit. Per the podcast’s website, the show “creates a safe environment” for the hosts and guests to explore “what it means to be a man today and how rigid gender roles have affected all people.”
Plank announced she was leaving the podcast in a message to Man Enough listeners on December 23. “Thank you for trusting me with your hearts and stories, for holding space for mine, and for making this show what it was,” she wrote on Instagram. “As this chapter closes for me, I remain committed to the values we’ve built together. Thank you for being here, for trusting me, and for being by my side for the last four years. We all deserve better, and I know that together, we can create it.”
While Plank continues to “process everything that has happened,” she promised to “continue to support everyone who calls out injustice and holds the people standing in their way accountable.”
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Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman denies all accusations that his client embarked on a smear campaign against Lively. “TAG PR operated as any other crisis management firm would when hired by a client experiencing threats by two extremely powerful people with unlimited resources,” he said, per People.
Freedman went on to say that the public “responded organically” to the It Ends With Us press tour. “The standard scenario planning TAG PR drafted proved unnecessary as audiences found Lively’s own actions, interviews, and marketing during the promotional tour distasteful, and responded organically to that which the media themselves picked up on,” he said. “It’s ironic that The New York Times, through their effort to ‘uncover’ an insidious PR effort, played directly into the hands of Lively’s own dubious PR tactics by publishing leaked personal text exchanges that lack critical context—the very same tactics she’s accusing the firm of implementing.”
December 22–23, 2024: Stars line up behind Lively.
"You have been nothing but honest, kind, supportive, and patient since the day we met,” nthe novel's author, Colleen Hoover, wrote online alongside a photo of her and Lively hugging, per The Daily Beast. “Thank you for being exactly the human that you are. Never change. Never wilt.”
IEWU cast members Jenny Slate and Brandon Sklenar are also standing by Lively. “As Blake Lively’s castmate and friend, I voice my support as she takes action against those reported to have planned and carried out an attack on her reputation,” Slate told TODAY.com on December 23. “Blake is a leader, loyal friend and a trusted source of emotional support for me and so many who know and love her.” She continued, “What has been revealed about the attack on Blake is terribly dark, disturbing, and wholly threatening. I commend my friend, I admire her bravery, and I stand by her side.” According to People, Sklenar shared a link to Lively’s legal documents, writing, “FOR THE LOVE OF GOD READ THIS.” He tagged Lively and added a heart emoji.
Meanwhile, Lively’s sister Robyn Lively shared multiple excerpts from the Times article on her own Instagram Stories, writing, “FINALLY justice for my sister @blakelively.”
Lively’s Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants costars Amber Tamblyn, America Ferrera, and Alexis Bledel shared a joint statement on Instagram in support of their “sister.”
“As Blake’s friends and sisters for over 20 years, we stand with her in solidarity as she fights back against the reported campaign waged to destroy her reputation,” reads a post shared on Instagram. “Throughout the filming of It Ends With Us, we saw her summon the courage to ask for a safe workplace for herself and colleagues on set, and we are appalled to read the evidence of a premeditated and vindictive effort that ensued to discredit her voice.”
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Actor Amber Heard also declared her support for Lively after The New York Times published details of Baldoni’s alleged smear campaign, apparently spearheaded by crisis PR manager Melissa Nathan. Heard’s ex-husband, Johnny Depp, also hired Nathan during his defamation trial against Heard in 2022. In a statement to NBC News, the actor wrote, “Social media is the absolute personification of the classic saying ‘A lie travels halfway around the world before truth can get its boots on.’ I saw this firsthand and up close. It’s as horrifying as it is destructive.”
December 20–21, 2024: Blake Lively sues Justin Baldoni for sexual harassment.
On December 21, 2024, TMZ reported that Lively filed a lawsuit against Baldoni for sexual harassment. Her lawsuit also accuses the director of embarking on a “social manipulation” campaign to “destroy” Lively’s reputation, which she says harmed her business and caused “severe emotional distress.”
Per TMZ, the lawsuit (well, technically a complaint as a required precursor to a suit) claims a meeting was held during filming to address the “hostile work environment,” which was also attended by Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds. According to the report, Lively came to the meeting with a list of demands regarding Baldoni’s alleged behavior, including “no more adding of sex scenes, oral sex, or on-camera climaxing by [Lively] outside the scope of the script [Lively] approved when signing onto the project.”
The same day, in a statement to TMZ, Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman alleged Lively filed her lawsuit to “fix her negative reputation,” describing her accusations as “false, outrageous, and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt.” Regarding the problems during production, Freedman accuses Lively of “threatening to not show up to set, threatening to not promote the film, ultimately leading to its demise during release.”
Lively denied planting negative stories about Baldoni or his production company. “I hope that my legal action helps pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak up about misconduct and helps protect others who may be targeted,” she said in a statement.
Hours later, The New York Times released its own extensive review of the court documents. Per the Times, Lively “claimed Mr. Baldoni had improvised unwanted kissing and discussed his sex life, including encounters in which he said he may not have received consent” and “repeatedly entered her makeup trailer uninvited while she was undressed, including when she was breastfeeding.”
In one alleged text exchange with crisis PR expert Melissa Nathan in early August, Abel suggested Baldoni “wants to feel like [Lively] can be buried.” Nathan allegedly warned against documenting their plans, writing, “We can’t write we will destroy her. Imagine if a document saying all the things that he wants ends up in the wrong hands.” She reportedly added, “You know we can bury anyone.”
Meanwhile, Baldoni’s lawyer claims Lively planted “negative and completely fabricated and false stories with media” about Baldoni, which “was another reason why Wayfarer Studios made the decision to hire a crisis professional.” In his statement to the Times, the lawyer claims Wayfarer “did nothing proactive nor retaliated” against Lively.
Baldoni was immediately dropped by his agency, WME, which also represents Lively and Reynolds.
December 5, 2024: Baldoni says he “had a near breakdown” while filming.
On the How to Fail podcast, released on December 5, Baldoni spoke about the intensity of the role, saying, “There were moments in the filming of this where I had to just leave. I’d have to remove myself and go and shake it out.” Specifically, “There’s a moment in the movie where Ryle finds Lily’s phone and he finds a phone number and he’s very jealous and he’s heartbroken and he’s angry. And he doesn’t harm her. But you can see in his eyes how dangerous he is. And in particular after that scene I had a near breakdown and I had to leave and just cry…because there was so much pain.”
Fall-winter 2024: The quiet before the storm
Reynolds and Lively appeared to be lying low as other stories naturally pushed the IEWU brouhaha off the internet’s front page. They were photographed out and about and playful on social media. Lively drops a lip hack, shares a baking fail, and wears some good outfits.
August 2024: The press tour implodes.
The movie premieres to mostly positive reviews and strong box office numbers, but fans quickly pick up on a Bad Vibe. None of the other cast members are seen taking pictures with Baldoni, and when asked about him in interviews, they quickly change the subject.
Asked what it was like having Baldoni as both a scene partner and a director, Jenny Slate pivoted and said that it’s a “tough job” to do both things at once, and that she, herself, wouldn’t want to have two jobs at the same time.
Meanwhile, Lively appeared to dodge a question about building trust with Baldoni as a scene partner during a Yahoo! Entertainment interview posted on TikTok on August 9. “I mean, this movie was such a challenge because you have scenes that are deeply painful and traumatic and physical, but you also have scenes that are full of levity and light and romance,” Lively said. “And normally, when I see this type of character like Ryle on screen, you know what’s going to happen, and you’re like, ‘Ah, that guy’s full of red flags.’”
She continued, “But the way that Colleen wrote Ryle, I think, is just so—I think that’s why the story resonates with so many, is [because] you get why Lily stays. You get why Lily chooses to believe a different reality because you’re watching her in real time. You, too, are going like, ‘I know what I just saw, but I don’t want to…maybe I didn’t just see that.’ That is the the magic of this film is, is how she made these characters so, so winning.”
Multiple viewers in the comments described Lively’s answer as “wild” given that she did not mention Baldoni in her answer at all.
Baldoni’s podcast cohost and friend Liz Plank does attend the It Ends With Us premiere and posts about it to her Instagram Stories. However, she doesn’t pose for pictures with Baldoni and didn’t tag him in any of her posts. What’s more, they haven’t released a new episode of their podcast, Man Enough, since mid-June.
Hugh Jackman’s presence is also noted, as Reynolds appeared to be using the event to promote Deadpool & Wolverine. He's even in a promotional video.
Fans notice that Lively, It Ends With Us book author Colleen Hoover, Jenny Slate, and Brandon Sklenar don’t appear to follow Baldoni on Instagram. All of this blows up on TikTok.
In further interviews, it seems that Ryan Reynolds played a major role in whatever creative power struggle may have erupted between Lively and Baldoni behind the scenes. Lively (who is a co-executive producer on the project) revealed that Reynolds wrote a pivotal scene of the film. “The iconic rooftop scene, my husband actually wrote it,” Lively told E! News. “Nobody knows that but you now.” She continued, “He works on everything I do. I work on everything he does. So his wins, his celebrations, are mine and mine are his.” (Did his work constitute being a scab during the 2023 writers’ strike? Allegedly, no. Though it seems to have taken the movie’s credited screenwriter by surprise.)
This has led to a lot of fan speculation that Reynolds and Lively may have seized creative control of the film, to Baldoni’s dismay. “You literally can’t convince me that Ryan Reynolds isn’t the reason for all this Justin Baldoni/It Ends With Us drama, and I feel like Justin doesn’t want anything to do with the drama, and for that reason has chosen a step back from the PR events leading up to the movie,” pop culture TikToker Arianna Lillie said in one video. “And I’m not saying that Blake Lively has specifically been problematic, but I knew something was up the second I heard that Ryan Reynolds was coming in and rewriting scenes of a movie that Justin Baldoni is not only starring in, but also directing, and is the whole reason this project is happening.”
In an interview with People back in April, Baldoni said there “wasn’t a part of this production that [Lively] didn’t touch and have influence on,” adding, “Everything that she put her hands on and her mind to, she made better.” She confirmed this in an interview with Variety. “It was so important to me to work off camera,” Lively told Variety on August 6. “The work I did as a producer was far more all-consuming than anything I did playing Lily. I just did it all. There’s nothing I didn’t touch on this film.”
At the premiere, Baldoni said he doesn’t want to direct the film’s potential sequel based on Hoover’s follow-up novel, It Starts With Us. “I think that there are better people for that one,” he told Entertainment Tonight at the New York premiere on August 6, per People. “I think Blake Lively’s ready to direct, that’s what I think.”
But the biggest backlash lands squarely at Lively’s feet, as her cross-promotion with her hair care and beverage lines backfires, and her comments about the movie’s themes of domestic violence come as tone-deaf. “When are they gonna start talking about emotional and domestic abuse in a relationship and raise awareness for that,” one user commented on a video of female cast members and Colleen Hoover that had been posted to Lively’s Instagram feed. “Am I the only one that is seeing that [Lively is] promoting stuff in her name but not talking about what the book is actually about? 😐,” one user commented on Lively’s Instagram post promoting her beverage company in conjunction with It Ends With Us. Eventually, she does post some information about domestic violence resources, but it seems to be too little, too late.
As is becoming somewhat routine, Internetizens go digging through Lively’s previous work and find all kinds of unflattering moments, the most memorable being the “little bump” jab she threw at a Norwegian reporter who made a seemingly innocuous comment on Lively’s pregnancy. There’s also her poor choice of words during the Gossip Girl days.
Baldoni, meanwhile, manages to sound sensitive and knowledgeable on the subject. “I want men to go to the theater and in some ways see a version of themselves,” he said in an interview with CBS News. “You have two very different characters. Both of them in Atlas and Ryle have had past trauma. One handles it very differently than the other, and my other hope is the men who have not done the work, who have not done the work to heal, if they see bits of themselves in Ryle, have a chance to step back and say, ‘You know what? I don’t want to blow up my life. I don’t want to hurt the person I love the most.’”
Baldoni responded to criticism that It Ends With Us “glorifies” domestic violence with an even hand, saying, “[People] are absolutely entitled to that opinion, and it makes perfect sense as to why they would feel that way.”
“Also, if anybody has had that real-life [domestic violence] experience, I can imagine how hard it would be to imagine their experience being in a romance novel,” he said. “To them I would just offer that we were very intentional in the making of this movie.”
Then there were the weight rumors…When Lively began working on the film, she had recently given birth and was reportedly uncomfortable with her weight, especially after Baldoni asked her about it, per Page Six. However, some sources reported that he asked specifically because of a scene in which he was to lift her, and he needed to know to prevent aggravating a back injury. On August 9, Page Six reported that “multiple sources” claim Baldoni made Lively “uncomfortable” on set and created an “extremely difficult” working environment for the entire cast.
By the end of the month, the only person from the movie to directly address the Blake-lash and feud rumors is Brandon Sklenar, who wrote online, “Vilifying the women who put so much of their heart and soul into making this film because they believe so strongly in its message seems counterproductive and detracts from what this film is about…. What may or may not have happened behind the scenes does not and hopefully should not detract from what our intentions were in making this film.”
2023: The cast shoots It Ends With Us
At the top of the year, Lively and Baldoni are announced as the leads for the hotly anticipated adaptation. As director, it was Baldoni's decision to cast Lively.
“I just thought that she would make an incredible Lily, so I flew out to meet her,” Baldoni told reporters of the decision. “We had a three-hour meeting, and, you know, at the end of the meeting, I just said, ‘You are absolutely Lily. I would love for you to play her.’” Baldoni says he was asked to play Ryle by Colleen Hoover herself. “It was her thinking that I could do it that actually gave me the confidence and the freedom to explore it for myself.”
Throughout the shoot, pictures from the set cause fans of the book to question the direction of the movie (especially Lively’s outfits), as well as express concern over her being too old to play the character, who in the book is in her early 20s. Hoover will later explain that, due to her own ignorance, the characters in the book are too young for their life experiences, and that the movie is more realistic.
Also in 2023, Ryan Reynolds is shooting Deadpool & Wolverine. Also in 2023, there are WGA and SAG strikes, meaning that work on scripts is paused, some sets picketed, and most shoots (including D&W and IEWU) eventually shut down. Both strikes end in late 2023, and both movies start filming again. All of this becomes important later!
2019: Baldoni begins work on the movie.
ICYMI, It Ends With Us is a film adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s 2016 best-selling novel. In the book, florist Lily Bloom (Lively) finds herself falling for the devastatingly handsome but abusive and controlling neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid (Baldoni). Baldoni’s production company, Wayfarer, optioned the book in 2019.
This article may be updated.
