SEPT 5, 2024 | ARTS AND ENTERTAINMENT | By Zoe Smith
Colleen Hoover is no stranger to controversy, so it wasn’t much of a surprise when Hoover’s most famous novel and sequential film adaptation made massive headlines for all the wrong reasons.
“It Ends With Us” is Hoover’s best-selling book. The story follows Lily Bloom (Blake Lively), who moves to Boston to fulfill her dream of opening a flower shop. She meets alluring Ryle (Justin Baldoni), a charming neurosurgeon. The deeper she falls in love with Ryle, Lily begins to see a side of Ryle she hadn’t before, one that reminds her of her own parents. When her childhood love, Atlas, reappears suddenly in her life, he upends Lily’s life and forces her to make a difficult choice.
Baldoni wasn’t just the leading man in the film, but also he bought the rights to the film in 2019, giving him the creative space to work as director on the adaptation. Rumors began to circulate of some bad blood between Baldoni and Lively because the two were never spotted together during the film’s press tour. Each would conduct their interviews, and Lively was seen doing big events with other members of the cast as well as Hoover herself. The gossip only grew during the film’s premiere night when no one was photographed with Baldoni on the carpet, an odd move for the director and leading actor of the film. The pair didn’t even sit in the same theater during the screening. Right after the premiere, people across social media noticed that none of the cast members were following Baldoni on social media anymore.
The public didn’t know what was going on until inside sources spoke out, saying the dynamics felt like a ‘civil war’ on the set of the production. It was claimed that the tension began when Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds, stepped in to rewrite scenes, upsetting Baldoni. At first, it seemed like creative differences were what sparked the alleged feud. Lively seemed to have a vision for this film that didn’t align with Baldoni’s, and the mess was just getting started.
Baldoni has been open in multiple interviews that he felt passionate about creating and making this film because of the important issue in addressing domestic violence. “Yes, this movie is about love and hope, but we don’t shy away from the issue,” Baldoni stated in an interview. “If a Lily Bloom in real life can sit in this theater and maybe make a different choice for herself, maybe she sees herself on that screen, that’s why I made the movie.”
Fans became progressively more upset as Lively seemingly used this press tour to talk about everything other than the heavy, yet vital message of the movie. She instead used it to launch her new hair care brand, Blake Brown, promote her alcohol brand, Betty Booze, and joke about her husband’s recently released movie “Deadpool and Wolverine.” In most short interviews on the red carpet, Lively seemed more interested in talking about the use of flowers in the film, the Brittany Spears dress she was wearing and how it’s the perfect film to go see with a best friend, presenting the emotionally heavy film as a romantic comedy, an angle that left audiences upset.
In a heartbreaking interview with Lively and her co-star Brandon Sklenar (Atlas), the interviewer asks Lively how the movie might change the way fans approach her and if they see her in the street, they might feel inclined to share their own stories. The interviewer prompts Lively to share if she is prepared for that change. Lively disappointingly responds, “asking for like my address, or my phone number or like location share,” she giggles.
Fans weren’t upset that Lively was trying to promote the hopeful and romantic aspects of the movie, but they were disappointed that Lively didn’t balance it with a much-needed discussion around something that one-in-four women experience in their life. It is why fans started to align more with Baldoni as the drama progressed. Even something as simple as an Instagram bio told the fans everything they needed to know. On the week of the release, Baldoni linked a hotline for domestic abuse survivors in his bio, whereas Lively linked her hair care brand. Such a simple action told the audience a lot.
The public’s view of Lively continued to spiral downward as old videos circulated on the internet. A damming interview came out on YouTube from a journalist who interviewed Lively for her film “Cafe Society” years ago. Lively had just announced her pregnancy with Reynolds and the interviewer congratulated Lively on her “little bump.” Lively, when hearing this, responded with, “Congratulations on your bump.” The interviewer, who was not pregnant at the time and has opened up about her struggle with infertility, said that comment felt like a knife to the heart.
As mentioned earlier, this isn’t the first time Hoover has found herself and her work in the middle of a larger negative conversation. In 2022, Hoover’s son Levi came into public light as news surfaced that he had sexually assaulted a minor who spoke out on the social media platform X. Fans of the author were desperate for a response to the allegations, but all the public received was silence as the young girl was blocked. Before Lively and Baldoni had entered the picture, fans were already let down by the author who made her living off of writing tales of abuse.
Lively has yet to address any of the media circulating the film, and neither have Hoover or Baldoni. But it will be a while before fans are ready to forgive and forget the disastrous press tour.