Blake Lively and her \u201cIt Ends With Us\u201d castmates documented numerous concerns with director and co-star Justin Baldoni, alleging that boundaries were repeatedly crossed during production, according to court records unsealed on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The documents also detail profound creative differences between Lively and Baldoni, which led to Lively creating her own cut of the film. In a court declaration, Lively stated that Baldoni\u2019s cut \u201cmarginalized the female characters\u201d and \u201cglorified the abuser\u201d and would upset female audiences.<\/p>\n
More from Variety<\/p>\n
Lively also refused to promote the movie with Baldoni or producer Jamey Heath, whom she alleges had vilified her in retaliation for her complaints<\/p>\n
\u201cThey painted themselves as the victims and me as a bully,\u201d she stated. \u201cI was not willing to endorse Baldoni or Heath personally by appearing alongside or promoting the Film with them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lively has sued Baldoni, as well as the film\u2019s producers and his publicists, for harassment and retaliation. A trial is scheduled for May 18. Baldoni\u2019s side filed<\/a> a motion to throw the case out last fall, arguing that Lively\u2019s claims amount to little more than \u201cminor grievances.\u201d<\/p>\n A hearing on that motion will take place on Thursday. Judge Lewis Liman has ordered the release of mountains of evidence accumulated by both sides ahead of the hearing. Baldoni\u2019s documents have yet to be released.<\/p>\n Lively\u2019s documents \u2014 unsealed on Tuesday morning \u2014 include deposition excerpts and text messages from herself and her co-stars, Jenny Slate and Isabela Ferrer, among others.<\/p>\n \u201cThe newly unsealed, damning documents show the consistent reaction numerous women, cast, crew, executives, partners, co-host and even his own PR team had working with Justin Baldoni,\u201d said Sigrid McCawley, a member of Lively\u2019s legal team. \u201cThe evidence includes Ms. Lively\u2019s own testimony describing the harassment she faced, as well as new evidence from numerous women describing their own disturbing experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n Slate, who plays Lively\u2019s best friend in the film, testified that Baldoni called Lively \u201chot\u201d and \u201csexy.\u201d Slate said that she flagged the inappropriate comments, which Baldoni did not appreciate. On another occasion, Baldoni told Slate that she looked \u201csexy\u201d in what she was wearing.<\/p>\n \u201cI assumed there was an understanding of \u2014 \u2018We\u2019re not doing this anymore,’\u201d Slate testified. \u201cIt\u2019s not appropriate anymore. It never was appropriate, but it\u2019s not appropriate in a workplace.\u201d<\/p>\n Slate also sent text messages stating that Baldoni was a \u201cnarcissist\u201d and a \u201cfraud\u201d for cultivating a feminist persona.<\/p>\n \u201cJustin is truly a false ally and I\u2019m unwilling to do anything that promotes the image that he\u2019s crafting as a \u2018male feminist\u2019 \u2026 like \u2026 honestly i have no words to describe what a fraud he is,\u201d she wrote. \u201cI honestly have never ever encountered anything like this dude. He\u2019s the biggest clown and the most intense narcissist.\u201d<\/p>\n Ferrer, who played the 16-year-old version of Lively\u2019s character, testified that Baldoni made an inappropriate remark while directing the scene in which her character loses her virginity.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not supposed to say this, but that was hot,\u201d Baldoni said, according to her testimony.<\/p>\n Ferrer testified that the remark was out of place.<\/p>\n \u201cIt didn\u2019t feel appropriate in a work environment, and given that it was not necessarily like a note of any kind to do with my acting,\u201d she said. \u201cIt felt out of place and strange to hear about a scene, especially a scene that is meant to be a PG scene about two young teenagers having a very like innocent experience intimately.\u201d<\/p>\n In her own testimony, Lively said she was concerned that Baldoni had added several \u201cgratuitous\u201d sexual scenes to the film.<\/p>\n During a conversation with Baldoni about whether or not to circumcise an infant, Baldoni mentioned that he is circumcised \u2014 which she found disturbing. In another instance, Baldoni said that he liked her outfit with an inflection that made it seem like a leer.<\/p>\n \u201cIt wasn\u2019t the moment he saw the outfit,\u201d Lively said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t until I bent down and the coat opened that I got the compliment on my outfit\u2026 I felt uncomfortable. I felt exposed. I felt humiliated. I felt ashamed.\u201d<\/p>\n Lively also raised concerns with the filming of a birth scene, during which she was in stirrups for several hours and nearly nude. She stated she learned that day that the actor playing the OB\/GYN was one of Baldoni\u2019s friends.<\/p>\n \u201cI was extremely uncomfortable with the degree to which I was exposed during the Birth Scene, which felt violative and humiliating,\u201d she stated. \u201cI had to request a blanket to be given to me for privacy between takes, which was not always provided.\u201d<\/p>\n Baldoni\u2019s lawyers have previously argued that Lively knew she would be appearing in a \u201csexually charged film with adult themes,\u201d and that her complaints do not rise to the level of harassment.<\/p>\n Colleen Hoover, the author of the book on which the movie was based, testified that she feared the adaptation would be overly sexualized \u2014 and that the message about female empowerment in the face of domestic violence would be lost.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s fun sitting alone and reading detailed sex scenes to some people, but not many want to be in a theater watching them,\u201d she wrote to Baldoni. \u201cSome of these movies that focus on romance think women want to watch sex, but they couldn\u2019t be more wrong. We want to watch love and emotions and angst and buildup, and then using our imagination from there is fine.\u201d<\/p>\n Best of Variety<\/p>\n Sign up for Variety’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Blake Lively and her \u201cIt Ends With Us\u201d castmates documented numerous concerns with director and co-star Justin Baldoni,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255450,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[526,321,93,61,60,127341,96885,529],"class_list":{"0":"post-255449","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-blake-lively","9":"tag-celebrities","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-jamey-heath","14":"tag-jenny-slate","15":"tag-justin-baldoni"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=255449"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255449\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255450"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255449"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255449"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}