Justin Baldoni and New It Ends With Us Controversy: All You Need to Know
Recently, Justin Baldoni hired PR crisis manager Melissa Nathan amid growing controversy regarding him and the cast of his new film, It Ends With Us.
The film adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s bestselling 2016 novel has been a hit at the box office, earning $50 million domestically and $80 million worldwide. Though the film has undoubtedly attracted great success, it has also attracted great controversy. Blake Lively, along with Hoover and the rest of the film’s cast have seemingly estranged themselves from Baldoni, the film’s director, and Lively’s co-star, for unknown reasons.
Didn't know who Justin Baldoni was before last week. I always thought Blake Lively was pretty, but not a celeb I pay attention to. But the last few days, I've gone down a rabbit hole about this It 'Ends With Us drama.' Yikes.
— Erin (@Erin_Giddens) August 14, 2024
Fans and TikTok detectives began noticing trouble due to Baldoni appearing completely separate from the rest of the cast during the film’s press tour. Fans have also noted that there were no pictures of Lively and Baldoni together during the It Ends With Us premiere in New York. Moreover, none of the film’s cast members follow the director on Instagram.
In an interview with ELLE, the co-star described what it was like to work with Lively, who was also a producer on the film. He explained how “friction” is sometimes necessary to create art. “There are all these things that happen every day on set, there’s always friction that happens when you make a movie like this,” he stated. “Then at the end of the day, it’s that friction, I believe, that creates the beautiful art. Everything in life needs friction to grow.”
As The Hollywood Reporter writes, Baldoni has hired Nathan, a crisis PR manager famous for representing Johnny Depp during the Amber Heard trial. Though no one is sure about what exactly caused the rift between the director and the rest of the cast, sources have told the outlet about a disagreement between the two co-stars during the film’s post-production stage.
According to these sources, Lively commissioned a cut of the film from Deadpool & Wolverine editor Shane Reid. However, the cut that appears in the final version of the film is credited to editors Robb Sullivan and Oona Flaherty.
Researching why none of the It Ends With Us cast and the author follow Justin Baldoni on social media and why he didn’t introduce the film at the premiere and why he hasn’t done press with anyone else pic.twitter.com/cwaK5FbZd3
— Maicol (@michaelcollado) August 7, 2024
Justin Baldoni’s It Ends With Us is currently in theaters. Readers can purchase tickets online now and watch the trailer below.
