The movie “It Ends With Us” is based on the popular novel “It Ends With Us,” a love story by Colleen Hoover that spreads awareness about domestic violence. Justin Baldoni stars in this movie, playing Ryle, a doctor who works in a hospital and falls in love with a florist he meets called Lily, who Blake Lively plays. Millions of people were beyond excited to see the two of them bring this movie to life, but instead, a huge controversy between them broke out shortly after the movie’s premiere.
The movie process seemed to be going well at first. Blake and Justin are beloved people in the entertainment industry, but he was especially seen as a fit for this movie because of his advocacy for social awareness. He hosted a TED talk and wrote a book about masculinity issues men face and the pressures felt to be manly enough. Since Justin is known as a sensitive person, his role in this movie seems to be destiny. He even bought the rights to the book, and Colleen Hoover stated she felt he truly understood the message and its importance. So many people expected to see and hear all the great things and experiences that went into creating this movie, but so many people were shocked to see Blake and several other cast members unfollow Justin.
Rumors soon spread about some conflict behind the scenes, leaving many fans extremely confused about what happened with these Hollywood sweethearts. During the press tour, Justin avoided his co-star to death. He had never appeared in a single interview with her. A crew member spoke out and said they had very different filming styles, trying to reassure fans this situation is nothing but creative differences. But something isn’t adding up with that. The animosity and awkwardness are blatantly obvious, but the reasoning is not. It did not take long for people to figure out what had happened. While being utterly unknown to Justin, some scenes and storylines were written and directed by Ryan Reynolds, his co-stars husband. This was revealed in a red-carpet interview. Many people could see Justin had been sidelined during this production and many of his efforts were being brushed off, as well as the film he had worked so hard to adapt was being stolen from him. But many people still couldn’t wrap their heads around the idea. Justin was the person who had been wronged, so why were his cast members unfollowing him and letting him look bad?
The answer is simple: to protect Blake’s reputation. Since she is the victim in the movie, young girls in her character’s situation look up to her globally. It would be much worse for her to look bad rather than him. Despite the fact neither of them has spoken out about their issues, neither has denied anything as well. As viewers, we might not ever know why they won’t speak out or clarify anything but we can only assume that it’s for good reasoning. Even though the two of them might not be the best colleagues, Justin and Blake created an incredible film showing resilience, strength, mindfulness, and, above all, impacting domestic violence victims worldwide.
