Key points
Text messages from Rainn Wilson were submitted as evidence in Justin Baldoni’s lawsuit with Blake Lively.
The texts show Wilson supporting the It Ends With Us director a day after Baldoni had a meeting with Lively about his behavior on set.
Wilson told Baldoni, “You were set up and ambushed and personally attacked.”
A familiar name has appeared amid a massive trove of legal documents in the ongoing lawsuit between Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively.
Texts from Rainn Wilson, who portrayed Dwight Schrute on all nine seasons of The Office, have been submitted by Baldoni’s defense team as part of the legal battle between the It Ends With Us costars. Wilson’s texts appeared as part of a larger group chat with Baldoni (who also directed the film), IEWU producer Jamey Heath, The Last Ship actor Travis Van Winkle, singer Andy Grammer, and others, according to court documents reviewed by Entertainment Weekly.
The excerpt of the group chat from January 2024 begins with Wilson asking, “Any update Brothers?”
From there, Baldoni sent two lengthy texts describing “one of the hardest nights of my life,” which he characterized as an “ambush” from Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds.
“My brain was trying to defend itself when they were needing me to apologize for all of the ways I have f—ed up and made her feel unsafe,” Baldoni wrote in his first message. “Ryan was talking to me like a five-year-old and scolding me, They essentially said that Jamey and I are not who we claimed to be and that for us to have a podcast is unsafe because it makes people feel like we are safe.”
James Goulden Photography/Getty
Justin Baldoni and Rainn Wilson at the 2017 SXSW Conference and Festivals in Austin on March 11, 2017
Wilson responded to Baldoni’s update with sympathy. “Oh my God. I can’t believe it,” the Meg star wrote. “You were set up and ambushed and personally attacked. I’m stunned. I completely relate to you being stunned, like a deer in the headlights.”
The actor also responded to Baldoni’s claim that he was “embarrassed that I was unable to even formulate the correct words to apologize,” which led to Heath — the CEO of Baldoni’s production company Wayfarer who is also a defendant in the suit — to apologize on their behalf.
Wilson wrote, “Probably better that you didn’t immediately Just start apologizing. So grateful that Jamey is your partner, and could step in diplomatically as needed.”
The Office star concluded, “Onwards brother. Make a great and important and entertaining piece of storytelling. That’s all you can do now. So sorry for what you went thru.”
Representatives for Baldoni and Heath declined EW’s request for comment. Representatives for Wilson, Lively, Reynolds, Van Winkle, and Grammer did not immediately respond to EW’s requests for comment.
Wilson and Baldoni’s friendship dates back at least a decade, as the Jane the Virgin star appeared on Wilson’s Baháʼí Blogcast podcast in July 2016 for a conversation about their shared Baháʼí Faith. The two actors later appeared together at a 2017 SXSW panel, on a 2020 ep of Wilson’s YouTube show Hey There, Human; a 2021 episode of Baldoni’s podcast Man Enough; and a 2024 ep of Wilson’s podcast Soul Boom.
Baldoni’s messages came a day after the alleged “all-hands” meeting that Lively outlined in her initial complaint. The meeting occurred on Jan. 4, 2024, after production had an extended hiatus due to the 2023 Hollywood strikes, and saw Lively, Reynolds, Baldoni, Heath, and several other producers allegedly agree to a list of 30 terms that laid out clearer boundaries for the remainder of the film’s production.
Lively’s original complaint claimed that the agreement included provisions that Baldoni would not make comments about his past porn addiction, sex life, or Lively’s appearance again, and that the production would always include an intimacy coordinator to avoid improvisation during Lively’s intimate scenes.
In Baldoni’s texts to the group chat, the filmmaker said he “was read from a phone all of the things that I did,” and claimed that “while many of them were based in actual situations the events were wrong and things were taken completely out of context.”
Nicole Rivelli/Sony Pictures Entertainment
Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni in ‘It Ends with Us’
Baldoni continued, “The [words] creepy and abuse were used in reference to me in my behavior I was then given the words of what to say, and had to apologize which I was unable to do because my brain was trying to comprehend what was happening. I was in shock and basically went into feeling like I was a seven-year-old again when I got home last night.”
The filmmaker also said, “My brain was struggling because what I wanted to say, and do was run and blow this whole movie up because I feel this was so unjust and yet the only path forward was to acknowledge her and Ryan’s feelings and apologize and take the wrath of an angry husband- yeah, I couldn’t even do that correctly.”
He later recalled, “We were told this was the worst experience of her life and others have witnessed this behavior, and the behavior on our set was creepy.”
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Lively first filed a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department in December 2024, accusing Baldoni of sexual harassment on the set of It Ends With Us and alleging that he orchestrated a smear campaign against her. She subsequently filed a lawsuit against Baldoni and Wayfarer in New York federal court. Baldoni has denied the allegations against him.
Shortly thereafter, Baldoni filed a $400 million lawsuit against Lively and Reynolds, claiming civil extortion, defamation, breach of contract, and invasion of privacy. His countersuit was ultimately dismissed by Judge Lewis J. Liman in June.
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