Blake Lively Vs Justin Baldoni: Timeline Of It Ends With Co-Stars' Beef That Led To Sexual Harassment Lawsuit

Blake Lively Vs Justin Baldoni: Blake Lively has accused her It Ends With Us director and co-star Justin Baldoni of sexual harassment on the set of the movie and a subsequent effort to “destroy” her reputation in a legal complaint. In defence, Baldoni, through his attorney, denied the claims and shared that Lively threatened to not appear on set and not promote the film “if her demands were not met.”

Lively’s complaint lists 30 demands that she said Baldoni and others agreed to after their tense sit-down over her hostile work environment concerns.

Blake Lively accuses Justin Baldoni of 'disturbing behavior' on set

The legal complaint was filed with the California Civil Rights Department and is preceded by a lawsuit. It names Justin Baldoni, the studio behind the romantic drama It Ends With Us, Wayfarer Studios, and Baldoni’s publicists among the defendants. In the complaint, Lively accused Baldoni and the studio of embarking on a “multi-tiered plan” to damage her reputation following a meeting in which she and her husband Ryan Reynolds addressed “repeated sexual harassment and other disturbing behavior” by Baldoni and a producer on the movie.

The plan, the complaint said, included a proposal to plant theories on online message boards, engineer a social media campaign and place news stories critical of Lively.

Baldoni enlisted publicists and crisis managers in a “sophisticated, coordinated, and well-financed retaliation plan” meant to “bury” and “destroy” Lively if she went public with her on-set concerns, the complaint alleges. The complaint also says Baldoni “abruptly pivoted away from” the movie’s marketing plan and “used domestic violence ‘survivor content’ to protect his public image.”

How on-set drama spiraled into a legal complaint

Reports surfaced ahead of the film's release in August this year about Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni not getting along well right from the production of the movie It Ends With Us to its promotions.

At a press meet and photo call, Lively and Baldoni avoided posing with each other. Initially, netizens suspected that the actors do not want to send out the idea of romanticising one's abuser which is why they seemingly maintained their distance from each other. In the film, their characters are shown to be in a domestic abusive setup.

However, this wishful thinking on behalf of the fans quickly diminished when all cast members of the movie unfollowed Baldoni on social media. This gave rise to speculations of the cast feuding with the actor-director and gave rise to proactive statements from the sources on what transpired on the movie set.

A hostile work environment? Blake Lively details in her complaint

Lively reportedly put forth a set of 30 demands if she were to shoot and promote It Ends With Us with Justin Baldoni. Among them: “no more showing of nude videos or images of women” to Lively and others on set and no more discussions about pornography, sexual experiences or genitalia.

She also said Baldoni should not ask her trainer about her weight without her consent, should not press her about her religious beliefs and should make “no further mention of her dead father.”

An intimacy coordinator was also required to be on set whenever Lively shared a scene with Baldoni and he was barred from entering her trailer or the make-up trailer while she was undressed.

The demands also stipulated that there would be “no more improvising of kissing” scenes or adding of sex scenes to the film outside of the ones in the script Lively approved when she signed on.

Internet picks its sides in the Lively vs Baldoni drama

As the speculation over Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni feuding on set continued, the internet decoded each and every move of the co-stars at public events. Social media users accused Lively of being evasive and "not interested" in the subject matter of the film. The Hollywood star who is known to advocate for women's rights and empowerment, seemed eerily quiet in addressing the seriousness of the crime faced by women in their own homes, something shown in her own movie.

Old videos of Lively resurfaced, which led to a more aggressive stance of social media users against her. In an interview clip, she appeared hostile and unpleasant with reporters. In another clip, she congratulated an interviewer on being pregnant (when she was not) as a response to her congratulating the actress first. In another interview, Lively expressed her appreciation for Woody Allen, who was facing sexual harassment charges at the time.

On the other hand, Baldoni was also criticised by fans for allegedly creating a toxic work environment on set. Interestingly, the "smear campaign" on social media is also a part of Lively's lawsuit against Baldoni.

Director Justin Baldoni's sour response to It Ends With Us sequel

As the film is adapted from an eponymous 2016 novel by Colleen Hoover, questions arose about its sequel - It Starts With Us. When asked if he would return as a director for part 2 of the movie, Justin Baldoni told Entertainment Tonight, “I think Blake Lively’s ready to direct. That’s what I think.” This further highlighted creative differences and sour interpersonal relations between the actor and director.  

Many thought that Lively is "ready to direct" was a subtle hint at how the actress was portraying the controversy and feud between them in the media.