Blake Lively has filed a complaint against It Ends With Us co-star and director, Justin Baldoni, for sexual harassment and an alleged coordinated effort to destroy her reputation, per the filing obtained by The Hollywood Reporter. Baldoni’s legal team fired back, slamming her “shameful,” “serious and categorically false accusations against Mr. Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and its representatives.”
According to Lively’s complaint, things got so bad during filming that an all-hands-on-deck meeting was held to address her claims of a hostile work environment.
The demands that were addressed in that meeting, according to the filing first obtained by TMZ, included not showing nude videos or images of women to Lively; no more mentions of Baldoni’s alleged previous “pornography addiction”; no more discussions about sexual experiences in front of Lively and others; no further mentions of cast and crew’s genitalia; and no more inquiries about Lively’s weight.
The filing also included other demands, like, “No more adding of sex scenes, oral sex or on camera climaxing by BL outside the scope of the script BL approved when signing onto the project.”
It claims the demands were embraced and approved by Wayfarer Studios. The cast and crew of It Ends With Us was also under a contractual obligation to promote the film as previously determined in the demands, which would focus “more on Lily’s [Lively’s character] strength and resilience as opposed to describing the film as a story about domestic violence.” They were also supposed to “avoid talking about this film that makes it feel sad or heavy [sic]—it’s a story of hope.”
In the days leading up to the film’s release, however, Baldoni pivoted and began focusing on the more serious aspects of the story. According to the filing, the actor and his team did so in an effort to explain why many of the film’s cast and crew unfollowed him on social media and refused to appear with him in public. “To that end, he and his team used domestic violence ‘survivor content’ to protect his public image,” the complaint states.
Lively’s additional claims include that Baldoni and company allegedly engaged in a “social manipulation” campaign to “destroy” her reputation. The lengthy filing includes 22 pages of texts from Baldoni’s publicist to TAG’s Melissa Nathan, who heads her own crisis PR firm, about how he “wants to feel like [Ms. Lively] can be buried,” to which Nathan replied, “we can’t write we will destroy her.”
THR reached out to representatives for Lively, Baldoni and Sony Pictures.
In a statement to The New York Times, Lively said, “I hope that my legal action helps pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak up about misconduct and helps protect others who may be targeted.”
Bryan Freedman, the attorney for Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and all its representatives, released a statement to THR, slamming Lively’s claims. He began, “It is shameful that Ms. Lively and her representatives would make such serious and categorically false accusations against Mr. Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and its representatives, as yet another desperate attempt to ‘fix’ her negative reputation which was garnered from her own remarks and actions during the campaign for the film; interviews and press activities that were observed publicly, in real time and unedited, which allowed for the internet to generate their own views and opinions.”
He continued, “These claims are completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media. Wayfarer Studios made the decision to proactively hire a crisis manager prior to the marketing campaign of the film, to work alongside their own representative with Jonesworks employed by Stephanie Jones, due to the multiple demands and threats made by Ms. Lively during production which included her threatening to not showing up to set, threatening to not promote the film, ultimately leading to its demise during release, if her demands were not met.”
“It was also discovered that Ms. Lively enlisted her own representative, Leslie Sloan with Vision PR, who also represents Mr. Reynolds, to plant negative and completely fabricated and false stories with media, even prior to any marketing had commenced for the film, which was another reason why Wayfarer Studios made the decision to hire a crisis professional to commence internal scenario planning in the case they needed to address,” the statement read. “The representatives of Wayfarer Studios still did nothing proactive nor retaliated, and only responded to incoming media inquiries to ensure balanced and factual reporting and monitored social activity. What is pointedly missing from the cherry-picked correspondence is the evidence that there were no proactive measures taken with media or otherwise; just internal scenario planning and private correspondence to strategize which is standard operating procedure with public relations professionals.”
The complaint follows months of speculation about some behind-the-scenes drama between Lively and Baldoni on It Ends With Us. The rumors began swirling on TikTok when Baldoni was noticeably absent from joint press events; there are no group photos of the co-stars at the New York premiere of the film; and Lively, author Colleen Hoover and co-star Jenny Slate not following the director on Instagram, despite him following them.
While a sequel film based on Hoover’s second novel in the series, It Starts With Us, hasn’t been announced yet, in most circumstances, it would be a no-brainer. But this rift between the co-stars and co-producers could put a dent in plans. Baldoni’s Wayfarer Studios has the rights to the sequel, which means even if he didn’t direct and the role of Ryle Kincaid was recast, the two would still have to work together in some capacity.
Both have been the focus of negative headlines since It Ends With Us hit theaters in August. Lively was criticized for her lighthearted interview snippets and cross-promotion of her new hair-care line because of the film’s serious, domestic violence storyline. Baldoni, for his part, has been accused of fostering an uncomfortable set that alienated Lively and the cast.