It Ends With Us, the film adaptation of the massively popular Colleen Hoover book, raked in $50 million across the U.S. in its opening weekend, making it the No. 2 movie at the box office. The whole cast and crew should be very proud of their success — this is worthy of a group celebration! Well, it would be, but that would require them all to like one another.
Fans are speculating that there’s beef between Justin Baldoni, the film’s director and male lead, and Blake Lively, the film’s star and producer. But let’s start at the beginning.
If the press for It Ends With Us is just starting to cross your transom, you might think that this whole project is Lively’s baby. In the film, she plays Lily Bloom, a florist (Hoover does not believe in subtlety) who finds herself in an abusive relationship with a sexy neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid (Baldoni). In order to promote the film, Lively has surprised fans, done talk-backs, and given countless interviews. Somehow, she’s managed to do all of this press without interacting with or even really mentioning Baldoni, the man who actually brought this movie to life.
Baldoni, who you might know from his five seasons on Jane the Virgin, optioned It Ends With Us back in 2019. “I’m so passionate about this book and so honored Colleen Hoover chose me to help bring it to the world,” he wrote on Instagram at the time, sharing a photo of the two of them in high spirits. In 2023, it was announced that Baldoni would direct and act in the film, and that Lively would serve as both star and executive producer. At some point between then and now, it seems that some bad blood has developed.
Over the past few weeks, Lively and Baldoni have not interacted once during their press tour. Instead, he has been endeavoring on a lot of solo press, while she has teamed up with Hoover and her co-stars Brandon Sklenar and Isabela Ferrer. At the film’s premiere, Lively and Baldoni didn’t even take a picture together. (Remember, the whole movie is about their relationship.) Lively posed with her castmates and Hoover. Her husband, Ryan Reynolds, even brought Hugh Jackman along. Meanwhile, it appears that Baldoni only posed for photos with his family, a few friends, and some of the film’s non-Lively producers. Weird!
People on the internet began to notice that something was up. Over on the r/ColleenHoover sub-Reddit, someone pointed out that Lively and Hoover had unfollowed Baldoni on Instagram. TikTok user Jenna Redfield posted a video that now has over 2 million views analyzing the film’s premiere.
@jennaredfield Replying to @Jenna Redfield more thoughts about what’s happening behind the scenes Clarification: I meant box office this weekend will likely come in above DP, not overall. This is all speculation. Please wait for media confirmation on anything being said/theorized. #itendswithus #justinbaldoni #blakelively #ryanreynolds #hughjackman
♬ original sound - Jenna Redfield
Redfield pointed out that Baldoni and Lively share a mutual friend in the writer Liz Plank. She’s good friends with Lively and co-hosts the Man Enough podcast with Baldoni. Plank attended the premiere of It Ends With Us, but only shared photos of Lively. Again, weird!
Fans have also pointed out that it also feels like Lively and Baldoni are promoting two different movies. She’s taking a more positive outlook on the film, wearing florals and launching a hair-care line a few days before the movie hit theaters. He’s taken a more serious approach, talking about domestic violence in nearly every interview.
In case you need more evidence that there’s a chill between Baldoni and his cast, here’s a video of Jenny Slate expertly dodging a softball question about the director.
What the heck is going on here? Did someone tell Slate that if she even used a pronoun to refer to Baldoni she’d be blacklisted? There are, of course, theories. Some are speculating that Baldoni must have done something horrible and everyone has taken Lively’s side. A source told People that Baldoni doesn’t just have drama with Lively, but the whole cast, saying, “All is not what it seems. There is much more to this story. The principal cast and Colleen Hoover will have nothing to do with him.” Others are wondering if Lively, with the help of Reynolds, staged some kind of creative coup on the project. She did say in an interview with E! News that Reynolds came in and wrote one of her scenes. Could that have something to do with why, when asked by ET if he had plans to adapt Hoover’s sequel novel, Baldoni demurred? “I think that there are better people for that one,” he said, adding, “I think Blake Lively’s ready to direct.”
Still, Baldoni has also heaped plenty of praise on his leading lady: “She is a creative force, she’s an executive producer on the film, and she is so brilliant,” he told People recently. “And I believe that her performance is going to help so many women feel seen and showcase this unique experience in a way that I don’t believe I’ve seen in another film.”
This whole situation is kind of giving Don’t Worry Darling, but without the sexual intrigue and the spitting. I am still desperate to know what happened here, so please feel free to get in touch if you have the tea. I promise I won’t tell anyone except all of my co-workers and at least five of my friends.
This post has been updated.
