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Justin Baldoni has addressed criticism that his new film, It Ends With Us, glorifies domestic violence. Speaking to the Associated Press, the actor and director, who stars as abusive husband Ryle Kincaid opposite Blake Lively's Lily Bloom, said that critics are “are absolutely entitled to that opinion, and it makes perfect sense as to why they would feel that way.”
He continued, “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.”
“Also, if anybody has had that real-life [domestic violence] experience, I can imagine how hard it would be to imagine their experience being in a romance novel,” he said. “To them I would just offer that we were very intentional in the making of this movie.”
This statement comes amid rampant online speculation that there is discord behind the scenes of the film adaptation of Colleen Hoover's best-selling novel, It Ends With Us, which has also faced criticism for mishandling the sensitive subject matter. The book and movie follow Lily Bloom's journey towards ending the generational cycle of domestic violence while also tracking another love story between Bloom and her childhood love, Atlas Corrigan (played in the film by Brandon Sklenar).
Fans first began to suspect there was an issue between Baldoni and the rest of the cast when he didn't pose with anyone from the production at the film's premiere on August 6. After doing some digging, fans noticed Baldoni had been largely absent from previous press events and had seemingly been unfollowed by a majority of the cast and Hoover on social media. Both Lively and Jenny Slate (who plays Ryle's sister Allysa) also appeared to dodge direct questions about the director during interviews.
While some social media users have theorized that Baldoni acted poorly on set, others believe this tension was the result of a power struggle between the director and Lively, who served as co-executive producer on the project and has been vocal about her creative contributions to the film alongside her husband, Ryan Reynolds. Despite the speculative nature of the discourse, fans have begun choosing sides—with the conversation largely favoring Justin Baldoni based on the way both parties have chosen to speak about the project.
Like Hoover, who faced backlash for attempting to release a coloring book based on the novel, Lively is being criticized for marketing the film as a light-hearted romance and promoting her haircare line during the press tour. One particular interview in which Lively told viewers to “grab your friends, wear your florals” to see the film is rubbing many fans the wrong way. Meanwhile, fans have noted that Baldoni's interviews are largely centered around the film's depiction of abuse.
