“It Ends With Us,” the film adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s best selling novel with the same name, follows the life of Lily Bloom and her struggle with domestic violence. Throughout the story, Lily meets and falls in love with Ryle Kincaid, who is physically abusive towards her.
Soon she runs into her childhood love, Atlas Corrigan, and he attempts to support Lily and encourages her to leave Ryle. Lily’s mother also experienced an abusive relationship with Lily’s father, and Lily hopes to end the cycle of domestic violence she experienced, hence the overall theme and title, “It Ends With Us.”
Many fans loved the book and it took home the title for Best Romance in 2016 on Goodreads. The movie trailer has over one million views with excited comments from fans stating they have “absolute chills” and “can’t wait” to see the film in theaters. Many were also ready to see Blake Lively in the role of Lily Bloom.
However, Lively has garnered a lot of negative attention promoting this highly anticipated film. Many have questioned her motives for working on the film and how she avoids talking about domestic violence in interviews.
Fans were first tipped off to the possible issues surrounding the promotion when Justin Baldoni, the director and actor who portrays Ryle, was suspiciously absent from press opportunities with Lively and Brandon Sklenar, who plays Atlas. It called into question the nature of Baldoni and Lively’s on-set relationship, with many suggesting his creative decisions were taken over by Lively throughout the editing process.
Videos began popping up on TikTok showcasing the difference between the nature of Baldoni’s interviews compared to Lively’s. Fans suggested in this video and others that Baldoni is speaking out about domestic violence honestly and knowledgeably, whereas Lively is avoiding the subject and trying to make promotion funny rather than serious. Some even believe Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds are attempting to recreate the Barbenheimer press with his recently released film, “Deadpool and Wolverine” after cheeky comments about his film being sold out when hers was not.
After criticisms were swirling around about Lively and her interviews, past situations and controversies were dredged up, casting her in an even more negative light. One of these interviews featured Kjersti Flaa congratulating Lively on her “little bump” during Lively’s public pregnancy. The actress fired back saying, “congrats on your little bump” when Flaa was not pregnant herself. Flaa has spoken out about feeling “so uncomfortable” throughout the rest of the interview and only meant the comment as a “nice conversation starter.”
Overall, Lively has suffered many negative comments and videos following her recent press tour and interviews for “It Ends With Us.” There is reason to believe that Lively is being treated harshly because she is in the public eye and is representing a story with many intricacies that should be treated carefully and with grace. However, fans do not seem to be relenting any time soon.
Lively has not reached out to the public to reflect on her actions, and that could be another reason most fans are not giving her the benefit of the doubt. Either way, this controversy could follow Lively through her career and may resurface when she is put front and center in the limelight once again.
