The It Ends With Us Press Tour Has Lost the Plot
Blake Lively's co-star Brandon Sklenar released a statement on August 20 defending author Colleen Hoover and "the women of this cast," writing, "All I ask is that before you spread hate on the internet, ask yourself who it's helping."
Trigger warning: This article discusses domestic violence and abuse. If you or someone you know is experiencing abuse or needs help, please contact ShelterSafe.ca. Province and community-specific resources and services can be found here and here.
It Ends With Us, the movie adaptation of the best-selling 2016 book from author Colleen Hoover is officially here — and so is tons of off-screen drama. The film, starring Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, follows the love story of Lily Bloom (Lively) and Ryle Kincaid (Baldoni). The thing is, this isn’t a romcom. As fans of the book know, the source material deals with heavy themes around domestic violence and ongoing patterns of abuse. Lily attempts to break the cycle of abuse in her family, with the help of her childhood friend and first love Atlas Corrigan (played by Brandon Sklenar).
It’s a tough watch. But even tougher to watch has been the ongoing It Ends With Us drama around the movie’s press tour, with rumours swirling of a feud between leads Lively and Baldoni, the latter of whom optioned the book and directed the movie in addition to starring in it. And the real-life It Ends With Us drama is completely overshadowing the important message of the film.
The It Ends With Us movie adaptation has been messy from the jump
Since news of the film adaptation was first announced in 2020, fans of the book have been nervous that the movie wouldn’t live up to the original material, a fear that was at least somewhat validated when photos of Lively filming in costumes that book fans were less than thrilled about emerged.
Then, when the press tour kicked off on August 6 fans quickly noticed that the leads, Lively and Baldoni, weren’t doing any press together. In fact, Baldoni was doing his press separately from the rest of the cast *and* author Colleen Hoover, and cast members Lively and Jenny Slate were avoiding questions about working with him. In addition, it seemed like pretty much all of the cast had unfollowed Baldoni on social media, which is suspicious.
People online went off, with TikTok FYPs quickly becoming a place for internet sleuths and DeuxMoi wannabes to flex their muscles. Quickly, rumours started to swirl that Lively — a producer on the movie — was overbearing, taking control of the film, re-writing scenes, and raiding her husband Ryan Reynolds’s closet for wardrobe. Simultaneously, other rumours started to emerge that Baldoni was allegedly toxic on set. (On August 13, there were reports that Baldoni has allegedly hired PR crisis manager Melissa Nathan. Nathan represented actor Johnny Depp during his trial with ex-wife Amber Heard, which feels…questionable.)
Blake Lively has been promoting the film like it’s a romcom
But it’s not just Baldoni and Lively’s alleged feud that has been pushed to the forefront. Another criticism lobbed at Lively et al has been around how the actress has been promoting the film, with many commenting that Lively doesn’t appear to be taking the weight of the movie’s themes seriously.
View this post on Instagram
Throughout the tour, Lively has leaned into certain aspects of her character’s traits, including her love for flowers (because yes, Lily Bloom is a florist), with the actress incorporating flowers into every single one of her press tour looks. This isn’t anything new for her or for Hollywood press tours. Alongside the likes of Zendaya for Dune and Challengers, Halle Bailey for The Little Mermaid, and Margot Robbie for Barbie, method dressing is a huge part of movie promo these days, allowing actors bring their films to life on the red carpet.
Method dressing can be a powerful tool, but as many people online have pointed out, while dressing in all pink and donning tiny purses may have worked for a movie with lighter themes like Barbie, when associated with a film about domestic violence, the clothing overshadows the movie’s important message.
This is how Blake Lively is promoting her movie about escaping an abusive relationship and breaking the cycle of the abuse…
Unhinged and tone deaf.
This isn’t Barbie! pic.twitter.com/ZM7HlGyrpE
— Gabriel Divina (@GabrielDivina2) August 13, 2024
In line with her affinity for florals, Lively’s talking points for the movie have felt similarly light and fluffy, with the A Simple Favor actress encouraging fans to don florals and see the movie with their BFFs (yikes). The press tour has even included a bizarre crossover with Lively’s husband and his newly released Marvel movie, Deadpool & Wolverine, with Reynolds popping up in a promotional video with Lively’s co-star Sklenar, making jokes about kissing his wife and asking about his squat routine. It was weird.
View this post on Instagram
Not to mention the fact that Lively rolled out the launch of her haircare line, Blake Brown Beauty in tandem with the movie, a move that feels pretty calculated and kind of gross. These PR tactics have been criticized in comparison to Baldoni, who has seemingly kept the topic of domestic violence at the forefront of most of his (always solo) interviews for the movie, telling CBS News he hopes the movie changes how people, and especially men, view domestic violence. It should be mentioned that when Lively has touched on topic of intimate partner violence, she has focused on it as an experience that doesn’t define survivors, or made light-hearted jokes, a response that some fans who have experienced domestic violence firsthand have seen as dismissive. And on August 13, Lively shared resources for The U.S. National Domestic Violence Hotline to her Instagram story.
The It Ends With Us drama overlooks the demographic of people that most matter when it comes to the film’s message
While it’s understandable that people would want to know exactly It Ends With Us drama what went down on set (we’re nosy!), the debates about whether you’re Team Baldoni or Team Lively leaves one very important demographic out of the conversation: Those who have experienced domestic violence. Instead of becoming the focus of the film, the topic of intergenerational trauma and ending cycles of abuse, has become diluted, relegated to a bullet point used to illustrate whether Lively and Baldoni is the “better person.”
Which is unfortunate, because as experts told Glamour UK in a recent article, anytime pop culture or media portrays intimate partner violence, “it should be done with the utmost caution,” as it is a sensitive issue that could further traumatize people.
Despite the cast remaining mostly mum, Lively’s co-star Brandon Sklenar addressed the controversy
After more than two weeks of nonstop speculation, Lively and Baldoni’s co-star Brandon Sklenar (who plays Atlas in the film) took to social media on August 20 to show support for his female co-stars and author Hoover. “Colleen and the women of this cast stand for hope, perseverance, and for women choosing a better life for themselves,” Sklenar wrote.
View this post on Instagram
“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.”
Many critics feel the movie shouldn’t have been made in the first place
If anything, maybe the It Ends With Us drama is just an indicator that the film shouldn’t have been made at all. If the final product and ensuing reactions are any indication, it’s extremely difficult to cover the topic of domestic violence in the sensitive and thoughtful way it deserves, especially in an ego- and money-driven industry like Hollywood.
While it’s inarguably important to have conversations about domestic violence in order to spread awareness and provide support, it can easily be mishandled. That’s especially true when you try to turn a beloved book into a Marvel-style blockbuster. While yes, some fans may take Lively’s frilly framing of the movie as a floral-infused romcom for gal pals to watch together on a Friday night as kind of icky, the reality is that this exact framing is what would get butts into seats, and money into pockets.
With blockbuster budgets comes an expectation of blockbuster return, and that can be a lot of pressure; so who can fault Lively — who has seemingly put a lot of her own personal stake into this film and its success — for trying to help do just that? Even if the means to do so might feel pretty gross.
As writer Stephanie McNeal noted in the aforementioned article for Glamour UK on the press tour controversy, what the controversy has demonstrated is that “the standard ways for publishers to market a blockbuster bestseller aimed at young women — merch, collabs with brands — don’t exactly work when the bestseller in question contains graphic depictions of potentially triggering subject matter.”
The reality of exploiting victims of domestic abuse or glorifying it for the film as a means to get attention, is a topic Baldoni himself addressed in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, saying: “Look, we live in a culture where, unfortunately, too many things are glorified. And we are fighting for attention, we’re in an attention economy…and so it makes perfect sense that people would feel that way.”
But just because that’s a reality, doesn’t necessarily mean we need to subscribe to it, especially when it comes to sensitive topics like intimate partner violence. It’s a dark and serious issue that deserves attention, and no amount of florals can cover that up.
