As speculation continues to churn about a possible feud between It Ends With Us co-stars Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively, three crew members who worked on the project tell Rolling Stone that creative differences and a behind-the-scenes power struggle between the two were apparent during filming.
Over the course of the on-again, off-again production, which stretched from March through June 2023 in New Jersey, the crew members say they observed Lively and Baldoni’s contrasting approaches to filmmaking and noted a shift in Lively’s attitude while making the project. Eventually, according to all three sources, who asked not to be named out of concern for their jobs, it seemed clear that she didn’t want to be there.
“Everyone knew that they didn’t like each other,” says one crew member, who nevertheless believes the feverish gossip around the conflict is overblown. “I think some of the rumors online seem a little strong. I don’t think they hate each other. But I don’t think they would work together again. Their styles are way too different. Blake is very business-minded and very practical. Justin…is so on the other side of why he makes art that they were never going to be friends.”
The adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s popular novel, which was directed by Baldoni and produced by his company, Wayfarer Studios, tells the story of Lively’s Lily Bloom as she navigates an abusive relationship with Baldoni’s Ryle Kincaid. Ryle’s physical, emotional, and sexual violence highlights a pattern of abuse in Lily’s life, which she grapples with while she also weighs rekindling an old romance with her high school sweetheart and faces an unexpected pregnancy. Since the film’s opening on Aug. 9, the media circus surrounding It Ends With Us has overtaken the conversation about the movie itself. But despite — or perhaps partly due to — hints of a clash between the two stars, the film has been tops at the box office; since its release, it has made more than $240 million globally.
It was impossible for fans to ignore the tension between Baldoni and Lively once the pair appeared to avoid each other at the film’s premiere on Aug. 6 in New York City. Not only did they pose separately for photos on the carpet, according to Page Six the actors even sat in different theaters at the AMC Lincoln Square cineplex for the premiere. Once fans noticed that most of the other It Ends With Us cast members and Hoover didn’t follow Baldoni on social media, rumors of a conflict between the lead actor-director and everyone else involved in the film — especially Lively, who is also an executive producer on the project — caught fire.
The crew members who spoke with Rolling Stone, all of whom were hired and paid by Wayfarer, say that Baldoni and Lively seemed to avoid each other on set, with one source noting they “never saw them together” unless it was absolutely necessary. Still, all three crew members say that while the acrimony may seem intense from the outside, it all boils down to a mismatch of creative approaches and personalities.
“There were such conflicting ideas of how to make the movie, and since Blake was bankrolling it, Justin couldn’t really put his foot down,” offers one crew member. “But also he didn’t really have a strong opinion. He’s very good at directing actors and he’s good at acting, he’s an actor’s director, but as far as the direction of the entire picture goes, I don’t think it was his sort of film.”
Representatives for Baldoni and Lively didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Baldoni has created a reputation for himself as an outspoken, self-described feminist, deconstructing traditional ideas of masculinity at a 2017 TED Women conference, in his 2021 book Man Enough: Undefining My Masculinity, and on his interview show, “The Man Enough Podcast.” The plot of It Ends With Us falls squarely into Baldoni’s purview when it comes to gender and women’s issues: a woman navigating an abusive relationship with a man, ultimately leaving him to protect herself and her daughter. But according to TMZ, sources say that Lively told people about two instances in which Baldoni made her feel uncomfortable on set: The sources allege she felt he lingered longer than he should have when the two engaged in a kissing scene. They also claim she felt fat-shamed when he asked his on-set trainer how much she weighed before lifting her in a scene. A source close to the situation says Baldoni has a history of back problems and told his trainer he wanted to train to protect himself from injury. (Representatives for Baldoni and Lively didn’t respond to requests for comment on these reports.)
It Ends With Us cast members have largely remained quiet on the behind-the-scenes drama, though it appears some have aligned with Lively. One source told People that “the principal cast and Colleen Hoover will have nothing to do with [Baldoni].” Then, on Aug. 20, Brandon Sklenar, the actor who plays Lily’s other love interest, Atlas, became the first cast member to speak out on the controversy. In a lengthy Instagram post, Sklenar defended Lively, Hoover, and the other women in the film from any public backlash they’re receiving, saying, “The women of this cast stand for hope, perseverance, and for women choosing a better life for themselves.”
“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. It is, in fact, the opposite of the point,” he wrote.
Sklenar also alluded to possible issues on set, writing, “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. It’s been disheartening to see the amount of negativity being projected online.”
Sony Pictures Entertainment Chair and CEO Tony Vinciquerra came out in support of Lively, too, telling The Hollywood Reporter, “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. Blake’s passion and commitment to advancing the conversation around domestic violence is commendable. We love working with Blake, and we want to do 12 more movies with her.”
Representatives for Sony Pictures and Wayfarer Studios didn’t respond to Rolling Stone’s requests for comment.
CREW MEMBERS WHO spoke to Rolling Stone say they noticed a shift in Lively’s demeanor and enthusiasm during filming. She was initially excited to begin the project, they say, bringing in scrapbooks of ideas and notes regarding the details of her character’s wardrobe and set decorations. According to members of production, Lively had her own vision of how she wanted Lily to dress, which conflicted with the costume department’s ideas.
“We went dark because of picket lines and [in that time] the costume department was running around with their heads cut off trying to figure out how they could change everything to make sure Blake was happy,” one crew member says. “There were a lot of returns, exchanges, and repurchasing of an entire wardrobe.”
Another crew member says the production designer was put on the spot when Lively asked them to change the initial plan for Lily’s flower store in the film. They say the lookbook for the original set design was “almost Gothic” with rich, dark violet and deep red colors — what the crew member describes as “a moody vibe.” But when Lively came into the production office, they say, she said she didn’t think that look aligned with Lily’s character or style. (The production designer did not respond to Rolling Stone’s request to discuss the project.) While the design ultimately didn’t change much, the crew member says the incident was one example of the pressure that was felt behind the scenes over conflicting ideas.
The three crew members say Lively was not the presence on set they expected. She often had schedule conflicts, they say, which is common for actors but not usually for the principal actor who is also a producer on the project. Not long after photos of her on set leaked in the press, her passion for the project seemed to drop off precipitously, all three noted. It was widely discussed among the line members of production, these sources say, that Lively lacked a desire to be on set.
“There was lots of talk about, if this wasn’t contractually obligated she probably would have just scrapped the whole thing,” one crew member says. “Justin was a little inexperienced with running a big crew and Blake was, at first, too domineering, because she was treating us like a bigger production than it was. Then, after she stopped caring, she didn’t care about anything about the shoot… Normally that wouldn’t be that big of a deal, a lot of actors are like that, but she was so invested in the beginning and then the more she and Justin interacted, the less she cared about it.”
All the while, the production was plagued by other problems outside either Lively or Baldoni’s control. Union members picketed the New Jersey set. Production temporarily halted at one point when some cast and crew members contracted Covid. In early June 2023, smoke from the Canadian wildfires turned the sky over the New York City area orange, disrupting filming. Then at the end of that month, the writers’ strike shut the production down completely. It didn’t pick back up until January 2024, finally wrapping the next month in Los Angeles. The frequent stops and starts didn’t help an already rocky shoot — and may have dragged out the tension between its two principal stars.
WHILE THE CREATIVE differences between the lead actors were apparent on set, personal animus between Baldoni and Lively was not, according to one crew member who says the pair “seemed pretty amicable.”
They may have disagreed, but they were civil about it, the source says: “Blake had her own opinions on how she felt things should be done. Justin gave his two cents. Blake gave her two cents. She certainly had a say in the scenes and that trickled down to her wardrobe and all those things. But that’s pretty common.”
Another crew member agrees. “I feel like a lot of the things you’re seeing online makes it sound like it was a hostile work environment and it wasn’t in any way, shape, or form,” they say. “Everybody was very professional. Everyone was nice. They didn’t yell at each other. There was no, like, ‘Oh, Mom and Dad have to go behind a closed door and yell at each other.’ Nothing like that happened.”
According to crew members, Baldoni tried to foster a warm environment, making an effort to get to know everyone on a personal level and bridge the gap that typically exists between above-the-line — producers, directors, actors, and writers — and below-the-line members of production. He would bound into the production office or onto set high-fiving everyone, they say, describing him as a “super nice” guy who went out of his way to make small talk.
When Baldoni was getting ready to cut his hair to play Ryle, he told crew members he was donating it to charity because someone who worked on the production also cuts their hair every summer and donates it in honor of their mom who had breast cancer. Baldoni also invited crew members to attend a screening of Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves at the Newport Center Mall in Jersey City in March 2023 because he wanted to celebrate their film’s director of photography, Barry Peterson, who also worked on D&D. Baldoni attended and paid for the intimate gathering.
“Justin Baldoni is very much about ‘Namaste, peace, love,’ and is a happy guy,” one crew member says. “He was much more personable and available than pretty much any other director and certainly any other lead actor that I’ve worked with.”
Baldoni’s kindness didn’t take away from the fact that some crew members thought he was a green director. With only Five Feet Apart, a 2019 romance starring Haley Lu Richardson and Cole Sprouse, and the 2020 Disney+ film Clouds under his belt as a director, some crew members thought Baldoni was “out of his depth” on It Ends With Us, which was a more significant project than either of those films.
“There’s two types of directors: There’s the ones that want control over every little thing — they choose every color, choose every costume, all that — and then there are directors that hire people they trust and they spend all their time in rehearsal and in front of the camera dealing with actors. Justin was very much the latter,” one crew member explains, saying Baldoni “didn’t have notes on anything.”
“He just hired people that he trusted, but Blake really wanted to have her fingers in every little thing, which is fine, she’s executive producer. No one was upset by that. But I think she was kind of taken aback by how sort of laissez-faire Justin was.”
A report in The Hollywood Reporter seems to back up this impression: Sources told the outlet that Lively commissioned a second cut of It Ends With Us from editor Shane Reid, who was also an editor on her husband Ryan Reynolds’ latest movie, Deadpool & Wolverine.
Two crew members who worked on the set of Five Feet Apart tell Rolling Stone they enjoyed working with Baldoni and would happily do so again. All indications are the stars of It Ends With Us don’t feel the same way — and the feeling may be mutual. At the movie’s premiere, Entertainment Tonight asked Baldoni if he was willing to direct and star in a sequel based on Hoover’s follow-up book, It Starts with Us. Baldoni immediately suggested the perfect candidate to take over the directing job: “I think there are better people for that one,” he said. “I think Blake Lively is ready to direct.”
When asked about working directly with Lively, one crew member who has more than 20 years of experience working on films says, “It was fine. We’ll leave it at that. It was a fine shoot. Every production I’ve worked on has its cast of characters, and you know, it is what it is. It’s all good.”
FROM THE PERSPECTIVE of the crew members who spoke with Rolling Stone, the clash between Baldoni and Lively took on a whole new life after the premiere. Fan speculation and press coverage blew everything out of proportion, they say, and caused the situation to spiral beyond what they witnessed on set.
The gossip has only served to distract from what the film is really about: domestic violence. The marketing campaign around It Ends With Us has also been criticized for making light of the sensitive topic. In the weeks since, Lively posted on her Instagram story about the role of domestic violence in the film, also sharing a link to the National Domestic Violence Hotline. And Baldoni’s Wayfarer Studios announced a partnership with the No More Foundation, a nonprofit that provides domestic and sexual violence survivors with resources and access to help. According to those who worked with Baldoni behind the scenes, he consistently drove home the film’s message during filming and emphasized the importance of reaching viewers.
“I understood that he had a lot of weight on his shoulders that he was carrying,” one crew member says. “He was always reminding us that aside from the fact that we were trying to make the best possible product, we had an obligation to do the victims of domestic violence justice by telling their story in a way that was respectful and accurate, by shining a light on it. He was always reminding us that this movie has the potential to change lives.”
The film’s box office success suggests its message has gotten through amid all the off-screen drama. And if its performance is a referendum on the working relationship of its two stars, it seems, ironically, like the public is clamoring for more — even if we’re no closer to knowing what really went down between them. To the crew members that spoke with Rolling Stone, who spent four months observing and working with Baldoni and Lively, it’s merely a creative clash spun out of control in the public imagination. Yet the ongoing fan chatter, the anonymous sources leaking rumors and accusations to the press, and the continued, conspicuous silence from the major players involved hint at something messier. It Ends With Us would hardly be the first film where the lead actors didn’t like each other much or socialize at the premiere. So why has this supposed feud captured so much attention? Is it about the sheer wattage of Lively’s star power? The seemingly too-good-be-true nice-guy persona displayed by Baldoni? Is the rabid Hoover fandom amplifying passive-aggressive slights that might’ve otherwise slipped by unnoticed?
Whatever the root issue may be, the future of the franchise now hangs in the balance. According to a source with knowledge of the situation, Wayfarer Studios owns the rights to It Starts With Us, which was another bestseller for Hoover. Sony, which distributed It Ends With Us, would also be the studio distributing the sequel, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Yet even though It Ends With Us has been a massive hit, a Hollywood source tells Rolling Stone that there haven’t been any discussions regarding a potential sequel. Whether Baldoni and Lively’s story ends here remains to be seen.
From Rolling Stone US
