{"id":244327,"date":"2026-01-21T12:31:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T12:31:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/244327\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T12:31:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T12:31:08","slug":"jenny-slate-testifies-that-justin-baldoni-made-inappropriate-comments-to-her-and-blake-lively-on-it-ends-with-us-set","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/244327\/","title":{"rendered":"Jenny Slate Testifies That Justin Baldoni Made Inappropriate Comments to Her and Blake Lively on ‘It Ends With Us’ Set"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jenny Slate testified last year that \u201cIt Ends With Us\u201d director and co-star Justin Baldoni made comments she considered inappropriate and unprofessional during production, describing a work environment she said became uncomfortable for multiple cast members.<\/p>\n

Slate\u2019s testimony, given during a Sept. 26 deposition in Blake Lively\u2019s federal lawsuit against Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and others, paints a detailed firsthand account of alleged on-set behavior at the foundation of the case. The former \u201cSNL\u201d castmember\u2019s account was corroborated by a separate deposition of actress Isabela Ferrer, who played a teenaged version of Lively\u2019s character.<\/p>\n

According to legal documents obtained by TheWrap, Slate said under oath that she witnessed Baldoni comment on Lively\u2019s appearance during a filming setup, using the words \u201chot\u201d and \u201csexy.\u201d Slate said Lively immediately pushed back, responding, \u201cThat\u2019s not what I\u2019m going for.\u201d When Baldoni repeated the comment using a different descriptor, Slate said she intervened.<\/p>\n

\u201cI said something like \u2026 comments about actors\u2019 bodies and their wardrobes range from irrelevant or unnecessary to inappropriate,\u201d Slate testified, adding that such remarks were \u201cnot appropriate anymore\u201d in a workplace. She said Baldoni reacted by walking away \u201cin a huff,\u201d later returning to claim he meant it was physically hot in the room \u2014 an explanation Slate said she did not believe.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understood his comment to be about her appearance,\u201d Slate said, adding that she believed it was about Lively\u2019s body rather than her character. She described the exchange as \u201cunprofessional, inappropriate, and really out of the ordinary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Slate also testified that Baldoni later made a similar comment to her directly, telling her, \u201cI can say this because my wife is here, but you look sexy in what you\u2019re wearing.\u201d She said the comment was unwanted and had \u201cno place\u201d in a professional setting, adding: \u201cIt was about me, not my character.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to her testimony, Slate did not formally complain at the time because it was her first or second day on set and Baldoni was her boss. \u201cI just wanted to do my work and leave,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Blake\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

The deposition includes several text messages exchanged between Slate, Lively and Slate\u2019s representatives, documenting what Slate described as growing concern over Baldoni\u2019s conduct and that of producer Jamey Heath. In one message to her agent, Slate wrote that Baldoni and Heath were \u201ctruly unfit\u201d and that she felt \u201crepulsed and deeply irritated,\u201d adding that Lively was experiencing the situation \u201con a much more serious level.\u201d<\/p>\n

She also messaged her agent that she didn\u2019t want \u201canything to do with Justin \u2026 nothing. And the same goes for Jamey, who is truly unprofessional \u2026 this has been a really gross and disturbing shoot, and I\u2019m one of many who feel [this] way \u2026 Justin 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<\/p>\n

Slate also testified that she later learned from Lively that Baldoni had improvised physical intimacy during kissing scenes, including biting Lively\u2019s lip, which had not been scripted. Slate said she believed unplanned physical contact of that nature was inappropriate.<\/p>\n

Slate said she did not recall receiving workplace harassment training, guidance on reporting concerns, or information about a human resources department. She assumed one existed but did not know how to access it.<\/p>\n

Slate said the cumulative effect of the incidents led her to minimize her involvement in publicity and refuse to do press with Baldoni. She added that she told her team to cut back promotional appearances and later participated only to avoid letting other cast members down.<\/p>\n

Slate\u2019s account aligns in part with testimony from Ferrer, who told attorneys that Baldoni made comments she found inappropriate during her own intimate scenes and that she also received no training or reporting guidance.<\/p>\n

The case also includes testimony from author Colleen Hoover, who described growing unease over creative control and internal conflicts surrounding the adaptation of her novel. Hoover testified that she was initially hesitant to option \u201cIt Ends With Us\u201d because she feared the story would be mischaracterized as a romantic film rather than one centered on domestic violence, and said she had hoped a woman would direct. <\/p>\n

She said tensions escalated in May 2024 during a dinner with Baldoni and producer Heath, where they complained about Lively and accused her of \u201cnarcissistic behavior,\u201d which Hoover said left her feeling as though they were trying to \u201cget me on their side.\u201d Hoover later testified that she strongly preferred Lively\u2019s cut of the film, and said the experience reinforced her concerns.<\/p>\n

The public feud began when Lively filed a sexual harassment complaint against Baldoni in December 2024. Baldoni later sued Lively and Reynolds for $400 million and the New York Times for $250 million, but his lawsuit was dismissed by a New York state court judge<\/a> in June of last year.<\/p>\n

Baldoni has denied wrongdoing and says the disputes stemmed from creative disagreements, editing control and tensions over marketing and messaging. Their case is scheduled to begin in New York federal court later this year.<\/p>\n

\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Timothy\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jenny Slate testified last year that \u201cIt Ends With Us\u201d director and co-star Justin Baldoni made comments she…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244328,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[3780,143057,430,156,73088,143058,3783,111,139,69],"class_list":{"0":"post-244327","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-blake-lively","9":"tag-blake-lively-justin-baldoni","10":"tag-celebrities","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-it-ends-with-us","13":"tag-jenny-slate","14":"tag-justin-baldoni","15":"tag-new-zealand","16":"tag-newzealand","17":"tag-nz"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244327"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244327\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}