It Ends With Us is creating huge buzz at the box office as a novel-turned-big screen drama about the long-reaching tentacles of domestic violence, abuse and generational trauma, but publicity for the movie is reading more like a soap opera.
With promotion fully underway for the film, which opened over the weekend, fans and internet sleuths have noticed a potential cast drama that stands to overshadow the movie, akin to the 2022 woes that plagued the release of Don’t Worry Darling.
There are rumours of a rift between the movie’s two leading stars, Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, who play Lily Bloom and Ryle Kincaid, respectively. The former served as a producer, while the latter was the director for the project, which is based on Colleen Hoover’s 2016 best-selling novel of the same name.
There has also been criticism leveled at the project’s subject matter, with detractors saying the marketing of the film glosses over the important and difficult themes of domestic violence and trauma and paints a romantic and rosy picture of a woman attempting to escape an abusive relationship.
Read on the learn more about the reported cast drama and why people are so frustrated with how the movie has been promoted by certain members of the cast.
The drama starts with the press tour
Last week, as the film’s cast was doing the press rounds, fans noticed that Lively and Baldoni hadn’t been photographed on the red carpet together, nor had they been paired for interviews with media outlets.
The realization came on the heels of Baldoni being largely absent from this summer’s group appearances for the film’s promotion, which was largely credited to his June admission that he had been in hospital recovering from an infection.
But on Aug. 6, when the cast gathered for the New York premiere, it was noted that Lively posed for photos alongside all of the film’s main costars, while Baldoni walked the red carpet separately, joined by his wife and family.
Additionally, fans have been scoping the stars’ social media accounts, noting that none of the main cast nor Hoover follow Baldoni, despite him being the director of the project — definitely unusual in Hollywood circles, especially around promotion time.
The Hollywood Reporter added some fuel to the fractured-cast rumours on Friday, when they reported that insiders with knowledge of the film said that “there was a fracture among the filmmakers in the post-production process, wherein two different cuts of the movie emerged.”
The outlet reported that Lively commissioned a cut of the movie from editor Shane Reid, who worked with her on Taylor Swift’s I Bet You Think About Me music video, which was rumoured to be the cut selected for theatres and potentially undermined the version Baldoni had wanted to appear on screen.
Additionally, Lively divulged that her husband, Ryan Reynolds, was involved in the creative process of the movie, which many believe may have added to the creative power struggle.
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“The iconic rooftop scene, my husband actually wrote it. Nobody knows that but you now,” Lively told E! News on the red carpet.
“We help each other,” she added. “He works on everything I do. I work on everything he does. So his wins, his celebrations are mine and mine are his. I mean, he’s all over this film.”
Speaking with People, the film’s screenwriter, Christy Hall, noted that the specific scene was “probably the trickiest one to tackle” because it is “perfect in the novel.”
However, Hall said she wasn’t aware that Reynolds had rewritten a part of the dialogue that was included in the final version of the sequence until she happened to notice the additions while watching a cut.
“There were a couple of little things that I thought had been improvised. Like when he says, ‘Pretty please with a cherry on top,’ and she talks about the maraschino cherries. When I saw a cut, I was like, ‘Oh, that’s cute. That must have been a cute improvised thing.’ So if I’m being told that Ryan wrote that, then great, how wonderful,” she told People.
“There were a few little flourishes that I did not write, but I assumed that they had been improvised on set,” she continued. “But, again, like I said, the moments that I felt like needed to be honoured 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.”
Lively and Baldoni have remained mum
When promoting a movie the film’s stars are pretty quick to sing each other’s praises, but that has not been the case for Lively.
Lively has instead chosen to praise the support she received from Reynolds throughout the production and in a telling moment chose to dodge a question posted by Yahoo Entertainment about working with Baldoni.
On his end, Baldoni has been polite when speaking about Lively and Reynolds, but hasn’t addressed any rumours about a rift.
“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, and from beginning to end,” he told Today last week. “Ryan was so generous… he’s a creative genius… His gift is levity, and her gift is levity.”
He even suggested that Lively get promoted to director should It Starts With Us, the book’s sequel, be adapted for the big screen.
“I think there are better people for that one. I think Blake Lively is ready to direct,” he told Entertainment Tonight last week.
Fans pan portrayal and promotion
Cast drama aside, fans have expressed alarm about how the movie tackles the heavy theme of intimate partner violence, saying it doesn’t take the subject matter as seriously as it should and that the marketing and trailers for the movie prioritize the romance of the film, rather than the abuse.
“Just so you know, if you haven’t read It Ends with Us, it’s not a romcom,” one fan wrote on X. “Don’t grab your girls and florals. Know that it’s about domestic violence and there are some triggering scenes. This promo of this movie is pissing me off.”
“Having watched It Ends with Us, I’m now quite confused why the promo was giving romcom instead of pushing a message encouraging women in those situations,” another X user shared.
Lively has come under fire, too, for what many see as a light-hearted promotion of the movie, where she also used the press rounds to promote her sparkling soda brand Betty Buzz with the sales of “Betty Blooms,” a limited series of flower bouquets sold in the drink cans and bottles.
Last week, the actor also debuted a line of hair care products via Instagram, a move that the New York Times argued was a “brand-building” tie-in to the movie, but was also deemed insensitive, given the film’s subject matter.
“You could say Blake Lively’s hair is a tool she uses to sell her performance, but her performance is also a tool she uses to sell her hair. Those who are impressed with her locks in “It Ends With Us” can learn from her Instagram that she recently debuted a line of hair-care products called Blake Brown. (Brown is her father’s last name),” the Times article reads, adding that a promotional email sent out explaining how to make It Ends With Us-inspired cocktails using Lively’s mixers and Reynold’s brand of gin feels like a “cheery gimmick that seems awkwardly out of step with the context of the film itself, which tells the story of a woman dealing with domestic violence.”
These choices have been part of what Rolling Stone’s CT Jones calls a “glossy marketing campaign is proving that Hollywood hasn’t found a respectful way to market movies about domestic violence.” Instead, “It’s prioritized selling a romance by covering up the themes of abuse at almost every opportunity.”
It should be mentioned, however, that fans have been praising Baldoni for taking the themes of the movie seriously while promoting the film.
“Thank you so much for being the ONLY person on this cast promoting the actual point of this film. Idk what the drama is but we can at least thank you for keeping the theme as real as it is for everyone else in real life,” one person wrote on a video he shared to Instagram, which included a clip of him speaking about domestic violence on Today.
“Thank for talking about the real point of this film. This is a seriously topic and you are the only one taking it seriously,” agreed another fan in the comments of the post.
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If you or someone you know is experiencing abuse or is involved in an abusive situation, please visit the Canadian Resource Centre for Victims of Crime for help. They are also reachable toll-free at 1-877-232-2610.