TikTok sensation and box office success It Ends With Us has taken over the internet, and not because of its success. Drama between cast members and the cast’s behavior has stirred up controversy during the promotion of the film.
It Ends With Us was released by Colleen Hoover in 2016. The book follows protagonist Lily Bloom as she navigates a toxic relationship with her partner Ryan Kincaid while confronting memories of her past relationship. The book explores the themes of domestic violence, love and resilience.
Established actor, producer and director Justin Baldoni optioned the book in 2019. Baldoni told Associated Press, “…I was so moved by it after I read it…The intention for optioning it was to make a film that could truly impact and make a difference in the lives of women.”
It Ends With Us became a TikTok sensation in 2021. Selling over nine million copies and becoming the New York Times #1 Bestseller in 2022, seven years after the book was released.
“And then when everything went bonkers,” Baldoni told Associated Press. “I just remember like saying ‘what is happening’ and then also feeling in some way this strange confirmation. It felt very much like…this is an important story that I need to tell and be a part of and have our company tell.”
Baldoni and his production company “Wayfarer Studios” bought the rights to the book in 2019 and announced that they would be turning it into a movie. Partnering with “Columbia Pictures” and “Saks Picture Company,” the movie was set to release in early 2024.
Actress Blake Lively was announced as Lily Bloom in January 2023 along with Baldoni portraying Ryle. In Lively’s contract, it was agreed upon that Lively would sign on as a co-star as well as a producer. However, being a producer wasn’t all that Lively did on set.
“There wasn’t a part of this production that [Lively] didn’t touch and have influence on,” Baldoni told PEOPLE reporter Benjamin Vanhoose. “And everything she put her hands on and her mind to, she made better.”
Ramblings about creative differences on set broke the internet on Aug. 6 during the New York City premiere of It Ends With Us when Baldoni wasn’t pictured with the rest of the cast. Further investigation revealed that the majority of the cast, including Hoover, unfollowed Baldoni on Instagram. The initial rumor mill speculated that the reason for the tension was that Baldoni and Lively had separate final cuts for the movie and Lively’s version was the one that ended up on the big screen.
There is no question that Baldoni and Lively had different visions of how the movie should play out, but the unorthodox producer, director and writer dynamic made the production process wonky. Usually, if a production team and a director have different visions, it’s easy for the production company to fire the director and hire a new one who shares the same vision. In this instance, Baldoni’s vision matched with what the production companies and Hoover wanted the movie to look like at first. However, as filming progresses, you start to see people take sides.
Several crew members from the movie explained to Rolling Stone that on set, it was the production team and Baldoni with one vision and then there was Lively’s version.
“Everyone knew that they didn’t like each other,” one anonymous crew member told Rolling Stone. “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. “
The overarching difference between both visions is how much domestic violence should be highlighted. A criticism of Hoover across all the books she has written is her romanticization and normalization of domestic violence.
“Colleen Hoover is genuinely doing so much damage to the romance genre and the people who read her books,” said X user @criminalplaza. “All of her books romanticize abuse and young people are reading this thinking it’s okay and WANTING it to happen to them.”
Hoover has tried to shift the conversation surrounding the book by promoting it as a rom-com or attempting to release a coloring book for It Ends With Us. Her attempt to spin the audience’s narrative on her writing led to Hoover agreeing with Lively’s vision of selling the movie as a rom-com instead of highlighting the true issue that the movie should portray, the emotions of women who deal with domestic violence.
Although Lively was hired on as the star and a producer, Lively made the movie her own. The reason for the drama surrounding the movie is that Lively seems to be taking over a movie that wasn’t hers in the first place. We first see this with protagonist Lily Bloom’s wardrobe. The media first caught the whim of Bloom’s wardrobe when pictures were released during the filming of the movie in August of 2023.
“Whoever is in charge of making this movie has not read the book,” TikTok influencer @talkingtotequila said. “This is not Lily. I don’t know who it is but it’s not Lily.”
Lively took control and personalized Lily Bloom’s clothing, using her own pieces to portray the main character her way.
“Those are my real life boots. A lot of it’s my real-life clothes or my husband’s clothes or my girlfriend Gigi’s clothes,” Lively says in TODAY show interview. “I was borrowing some.”
Baldoni didn’t quite have the same vision for Bloom’s wardrobe and wanted to stick to how the book described her wardrobe. He eventually took a step back and let Lively decide what she thought was best for her character, despite the fact that the wardrobe department had a different vision.
“According to the members of production, Lively had her own vision of how she wanted Lily to dress,” a crew member said to Rolling Stone. “Which conflicted with the costume department’s idea.”
Costuming wasn’t the only creative liberty Lively took. Actor Ryan Reynolds, husband to Lively, was also a part of the film’s production. Lively along with her husband took it upon themselves to direct scenes and put their own touches on the movie..
“The iconic rooftop scene my husband actually wrote,” Lively tells E! at the New York City premiere.
Ryan Reynolds is a part of The Writers Guild of America (WGA) which represents writers in film, television, radio, and online media. From May 2, 2023, until Sept. 27, 2023 everyone apart of WGA was on strike. Being a member of WGA during the strike means that you are barred from doing any screenplay until an agreement is reached. The opening scene that Reynolds wrote had to be rewritten during the WGA actors’ strike because of the time the film was taped. Reynolds producing work during that time is considered scabbing and goes against WGA guidelines.
Reynolds writing the scene and Baldoni not knowing about it spurred another issue that audiences had with Lively. Lively spent much of the promo time promoting other endeavors besides the movie, including Reynolds’s new movie Deadpool x Wolverine released during the same time as It Ends With Us. Lively also spent time promoting her new line of hair products as well as her new liquor.
“Why is Deadpool x Wolverine sold out,” Lively said during an Allo Ciné interview on the It Ends With Us NYC premiere carpet. “I’m sorry I got distracted back there…No I didn’t even answer it, sorry, it’s like flashing sold out.”
When Lively talked about promoting the movie, she emphasized the romance of the movie and encouraged the audience to wear the flowers and bring their friends, another similarity to the promotion of last summer’s Barbie.
Lively’s constant promotion of Deadpool x Wolverine while on a press tour for It Ends With Us prompts the audience to believe that Lively was trying to make this press tour become the next Barbie x Opphenimher.
“The whole ‘grab your friends, wear your florals’ that Blake Lively said-yikes,” said Tiktok user @m.andthefrigandtoad. “They could’ve used this movie to educate and bring more awareness to DV/SA and this undermines that so much.”
While Lively romanticizes the movies, Baldoni was seen on the press tour doing the complete opposite. Through every interview, Baldoni advocates for women who have been a victim of domestic violence.
“This isn’t my night,” Baldoni said to ET at the New York City premiere. “This is a night for all the women we made this movie for…if a Lily Bloom in real life can sit in this theater and maybe make a different choice for herself than the one that was made for her, maybe she sees herself and she leaves the theater and chooses something different for herself.”
The romanticization of domestic violence becomes obvious in the way the movie is organized. The movie made it seem as if Lily truly didn’t see how harmful Ryle was until the last incident that occurred between them. It wasn’t until then that Lily started to piece things together.
The book not only spent a much longer time on the domestic violence part of Lily and Ryle’s relationship but Lily almost immediately recognized the abusive signs in Ryle’s behavior from the first incident that happened.
While the movie was written in a way where the audience was left to feel bad for Ryle, it didn’t hit the mark of demonizing domestic violence. Sympathy is understandable, domestic violence doesn’t just stem from anywhere, hurt people hurt people. However, it came to a point where the audience felt so bad for Ryle, it was easy to ignore the violence he had towards Lily.
Activist and domestic violence survivor Ashley Bendksion said to NPR, “When we use trauma as entertainment, it can feel really explosive and just irresponsible, and in many ways, tone-deaf to the actual issue.”
