The movie “It Ends with Us”, tells the story of Lily Bloom (played by Blake Lively), an aspiring florist and the tumultuous and often violent relationship she shares with neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid (played by Justin Baldoni). However, it seems the drama behind the scenes was more shocking than the ones that unfolded on screens.
Lively received a lot of backlash for her actions during the press tour for the movie, as fans felt she was making light-heartedness of a film that to its core, is a story about domestic abuse. In contrast, Baldoni received significant support from fans. He shared domestic abuse hotline numbers and spoke about the storyline with deep respect. During the press tour, Lively and Baldoni were never photographed together and never mentioned each other in interviews. This led people to speculate that something was not right between the co-stars.
On the 20th of December 2024, Lively filed a complaint (mandatory before filing a lawsuit in California) against Baldoni and other members of the studio (including the lead producer Jamey Heath) for sexual harassment and a public campaign to destroy her reputation. The complaint describes men on the set including Baldoni improvising kissing scenes, showing Lively naked pictures of his wife, entering her trailer while she was naked and looking at her after she asked him to look away. Additionally, Baldoni, who also directed the movie, wanted to add more sex scenes which Lively refused.
During the filming of the scene where Lively gives birth, she asked for a closed set – because she would be exposed. Baldoni refused and Lively was only provided with a tiny piece of cloth to cover herself.
Lively stated: “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.”
Before the film’s release, Baldoni and Heath hired a crisis PR expert – Melissa Nathan, who worked with Johnny Depp during his legal crisis with Amber Heard. Lively’s complaint subpoenaed thousands of pages of text messages between Baldoni and his crisis PR team. The messages include Baldoni suggesting creating a story where Lively looks like a bully to get people off her side.
After Lively gave an interview with being “cancelled” according to the Daily Mail, a member of the crisis PR team sent Baldoni and Nathan this message: “The narrative online is so freaking good and fans are still sticking up for Justin and there has been no pickup of those two articles which is shocking to me. But I see this as a total success, as does Justin”. Nathan responded: “The majority of socials are so pro-Justin and I don’t even agree with half of them lol”.
As I mentioned earlier, Lively faced much criticism for her attitude during the press tour while Baldoni was celebrated. The reason Lively did not speak about the abuse themes in the movie was that she was following the original promotional plan of the movie, where the cast was told to focus on more uplifting aspects. When Baldoni and his PR team saw the backlash Lively was facing, they decided for Baldoni to focus on domestic abuse survivors and awareness. This also helped fuel a lot of hate for Lively.
In my opinion, Lively did come across poorly during the rollout of the movie. She appeared dismissive and did not have a nice attitude toward interviewers. She seemed to spend a lot of time prioritising on promoting her own companies instead of the film. That is not the fault of Baldoni or his team. However, Lively was subjected to abuse on the set of the movie, and perhaps she didn’t want to talk about the film as it could have been traumatic. Baldoni has reportedly caused Lively an immense amount of anxiety and sexually harassed her, and deserves punishment for that both online and offline. Although Baldoni claimed to have said he wanted to feel as though she (Livley’s reputation) could be buried, it seems as though Baldoni’s reputation will be the one six feet under.