The Comprehensive Guide to the Drama of "It Ends With Us" Movie | Vanity Fair

“What’s Going On With Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni?” The Cut asked, in one of the many attempts to explain the alleged behind-the-scenes drama plaguing the big-screen adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s 2016 bestseller It Ends With Us, now in theaters.

Speculation about the offscreen dynamics between Lively and Baldoni, who directs the film, is an executive producer, and stars as its male lead, began after multiple TikTok users noticed that the costars haven’t appeared together while promoting the film—and didn’t even pose together at the film’s New York premiere. Case in point: most of the cast of It Ends With Us showed up to test how well they know each other in a recent video for Vanity Fair. But Baldoni wasn’t there—and has been largely absent from early press commitments, only appearing later in the tour to do interviews solo. Eagle-eyed observers have also noticed that despite the fact that Baldoni follows the film’s entire cast on social media, he isn’t followed back by Lively, Hoover, or Jenny Slate, who plays his sister in the film.

It’s all led to a Don’t Worry Darling–esque frenzy, with bystanders suspecting offscreen feuding between Baldoni and Lively—and tabloid dispatches that tell two different sides of the story. “All is not what it seems,” a source told People on August 13. “There is much more to this story. The principal cast and Colleen Hoover will have nothing to do with him.” The following day, production sources told TMZ that Baldoni has allies on the film, likening the dynamics to something of a “civil war” between factions within the production.

Amid the discourse, the film earned more than $50 million across the US in its opening weekend, making it the No. 2 movie at the box office—second only to Lively’s husband Ryan Reynolds’s new film, Deadpool & Wolverine. (This marks the first time that a married couple has topped the box office in respective films since 1990, when Bruce Willis opened Die Hard 2 and Demi Moore opened Ghost.) But it has also led some of It Ends With Us’s key players to make some strategic moves. Hoover made her TikTok private as of release day and, according to The Hollywood Reporter, Baldoni has hired veteran PR crisis manager Melissa Nathan—who represented Johnny Depp during his trial with Amber Heard.

Ahead, a breakdown of the naked truth—or something close to it—that has emerged from the drama behind the scenes of It Ends With Us.

TikTok user Jenna Redfield was one of the first to pinpoint the icy relations between Baldoni and Lively, who has yet to directly reference her costar and director while promoting the film. In a video posted before the movie’s release, Redfield noted that Baldoni and Lively share a mutual friend in the writer Liz Plank, who cohosts the Man Enough podcast with Baldoni and attended the It Ends With Us premiere—but afterward, only posted photos tagging Lively.

Elsewhere at the premiere, Slate seemingly shrugged off a question about Baldoni, who himself only shared photos from the event that picture him with his wife and select production members—but not his own cast.

Although onlookers have drawn their own conclusions, Brandon Sklenar—who plays Lively’s other love interest, Atlas—told People that Baldoni did a “great” job juggling his duties as lead actor, director, and producer. “Everybody in this film is just on the top of their game across the board,” Sklenar added. “It was a really pleasant environment to work in.” Baldoni has kept things similarly copacetic, calling Lively a “dynamic creative” on The Today Show, and stating that “everything she touched, she made better.”

The apparent estrangement between Lively and Baldoni is just one element of the It Ends With Us press tour that’s created controversy. There’s also been backlash to the way that Lively has promoted the film and Ryan Reynolds’s presence at events for the movie—and subsequent backlash to the backlash.

Essentially, some have taken issue with Lively’s choice to sidestep the film’s darker themes of domestic violence in interviews, a topic Baldoni frequently mentions during press. Lively has also used the film as an opportunity to help launch a hair-care line and promote her existing brand, sparkling soda company Betty Buzz, by selling “Betty Blooms,” a limited series of bouquets in Betty Buzz bottles. As reported by The New York Times, recipes for It Ends With Us–themed cocktails using Betty Buzz and, in one instance, Reynolds’s Aviation American Gin, were included in a promotional email for the movie. Decisions like these led to what Rolling Stone called a “glossy marketing campaign” that proves “Hollywood hasn’t found a respectful way to market movies about domestic violence.”

On August 13, Lively shared a BBC interview clip filmed at a screening of It Ends With Us in which she says, “This movie covers domestic violence, but what’s important about this film is that she is not just a survivor and she’s not just a victim. And while those are huge things to be, they’re not her identity.” She wrote over the clip on her Instagram Story: “Thank you to everyone who came out to show that people WANT to see films about women, and the multitudes we hold. It Ends With Us is a story of the female experience. All the highest highs, and lowest lows. And we are so proud of it. We have been in celebration of this film and of getting a message so important out there to the masses.” Lively also included a link to the The National Domestic Violence Hotline in the post.

The following day, Sony Pictures chief Tony Vinciquerra praised Lively for “advancing the conversation around domestic violence,” telling The Hollywood Reporter, in part: “Blake, Colleen and so many women put so much effort into this remarkable movie, working selflessly from the start to ensure that such an important subject matter was handled with care. Audiences love the movie. We love working with Blake, and we want to do 12 more movies with her.”

Hours earlier, Baldoni’s production company Wayfarer Studios announced a partnership with the No More Foundation to offer resources and information related to the abuse depicted in It Ends With Us. The organization is also featured on a title card card shown before the end credits.

On the day of the movie’s release, multiple sources told Page Six that Baldoni made Lively feel “uncomfortable” about her postpartum body on set. (Lively made the film after welcoming her fourth child with Reynolds.) The piece also alleges that the director/leading man fostered an “extremely difficult” behind-the-scenes atmosphere. While sources who have worked with Baldoni denied that he would ever intentionally upset any of his actors, another industry source said that the discontent extends to the whole cast. “It’s not just Blake,” said the source. “None of the cast enjoyed working with Justin…They certainly didn’t talk to him at the premiere.”

On August 14, sources told TMZ that Lively’s discomfort allegedly stemmed from a scene in which Baldoni’s character Ryle lifts her character Lily into the air. According to the tabloid’s anonymous sources, “Justin has a history of back problems and before lifting Blake, he went to his on-set trainer and asked how much she weighed and how could he train to protect his back from injury.” Sources also claim that Lively took issue with how long Baldoni allegedly lingered during a kissing scene between the two of them.

Both Baldoni and Lively have nodded toward creative differences during the production. Baldoni argued that “there’s always friction that happens when you make a movie like this,” telling ELLE UK, “It’s that friction, I believe, that creates beautiful art.” Meanwhile, Lively told Hits Radio UK that she had to fight for the inclusion of Lana Del Rey’s “Cherry” in the final cut. “They begged me to take that song out of the movie,” she said, adding, “I’m not supposed to be talking about this. They felt like it was too charged and heavy.”

Lively also raised eyebrows by telling E! News at the It Ends With Us premiere that her husband Ryan Reynolds wrote her and Baldoni’s characters’ meet-cute scene. “The iconic rooftop scene, my husband actually wrote it. Nobody knows that but you now,” she said at the time. The film’s actual credited screenwriter, Christy Hall, said she wasn’t aware that Reynolds had contributed dialogue to the sequence. “There were a few little flourishes that I did not write, but I assumed that they had been improvised on set,” Hall told People. “But, again, like I said, the moments that I felt like needed to be honored are there. So I recognize the scene and I’m proud of the scene. And if those flourishes came from Ryan, I think that’s wonderful.”

What emerged from alleged discomfort and disagreement on set was a “fracture among the filmmakers” during the post-production process as two “different cuts of the movie emerged,” sources told The Hollywood Reporter. Lively, who was a producer on the film, reportedly commissioned her own cut of the film from the film’s additional editor Shane Reid, a frequent collaborator with the actor and her husband. Reid was also the editor on Reynolds’s Deadpool & Wolverine, as well as Taylor Swift’s “I Bet You Think About Me” music video, which Lively directed.

There is no official word on the existence of two cuts—or which version the studio released. (Oona Flaherty and Robb Sullivan are credited as the film’s editors.) One source told Page Six that “the studio went with a more feminine edit,” which another source denied: “As a producer, Blake was given the opportunity to provide edits and feedback to the film. It’s completely normal for there to be multiple edits of a film. Sony went with the cut they deemed to be the best, and that was a cut that included Blake’s edits, and all parties were on board.”

Despite all of the alleged discord, Baldoni has been complimentary about Lively’s involvement in the production. “You can’t summarize Blake’s contribution in a sentence because her energy and imprint is all over the movie and really, really made the film better,” he told Today, calling Reynolds “a creative genius” as well. When asked if he’d work with the couple again, he said, “If they’d have me.”

At the premiere of the film, Baldoni demurred when asked point-blank whether he’d be down to direct a movie adaptation of the book’s sequel, It Starts With Us. “I think there are better people for that one,” Baldoni told Entertainment Tonight. “I think Blake Lively is ready to direct. That’s what I think.”