TV & Movies
Blake Lively Showed Fans Her Version Of It Ends With Us In June
She’s allegedly clashed with her director and co-star Justin Baldoni over creative differences.
The rumored rift between Blake Lively and her It Ends With Us co-star and director Justin Baldoni still has fans talking, especially as more details trickle out. On Aug. 19, The Hollywood Reporter revealed that Lively showed fans her preferred cut of It Ends With Us a couple of months before the movie premiered in theaters.
In mid-June, the actor, who also serves as an executive producer on the film, traveled to Dallas to attend It Ends With Us author Colleen Hoover’s Book Bonanza event. She did one of her first Q&As about the film, marking Hoover’s first novel to be adapted for the big screen. Afterward, Lively announced that the attendees could screen a “rough cut” of It Ends With Us the following night. The differences between Lively’s edit and the theatrical cut are currently unknown.
Lively’s co-stars Brandon Sklenar and Isabela Ferrer were also in attendance at the screening. However, Baldoni didn’t attend, in what would end up being the first evidence of the reported rift.
This pattern continued throughout the film’s press tour, with Baldoni doing solo interviews and never posing with anyone else at the New York premiere. In turn, Lively’s co-stars and Hoover have made several appearances with her, seemingly taking her side in the reported rift.
A Tale Of Two Cuts
Just a few days after the film hit theaters on Aug. 9, sources told THR that Lively and Baldoni clashed while the film was in post-production, which led to Lively commissioning her own cut of the movie from editor Shane Reid. It’s not known whose preferred edit ended up being the film’s final cut, with one source stating that the whole team approved of the cut sent to theaters.
However, film distributor Sony praised Lively’s move to screen the movie to Hoover’s fans in advance. “Colleen Hoover’s Book Bonanza and her fans sparked the fire that was the beginning of the cultural movement,” Sony Pictures Entertainment President Josh Greenstein said.
If creative control is what Lively was after, then she could receive much more if Hoover’s follow-up It Starts With Us is also adapted into a film. At the premiere, Baldoni told Entertainment Tonight that Lively should direct the potential sequel, and Hoover agreed. “I think whoever decides to take charge of the next one would do it justice,” she said.
