What went wrong? Breaking down Blake Lively's allegations against 'It Ends With Us' costar Justin Baldoni
Blake Lively sued Justin Baldoni for sexual harassment months after the two co-stars of It Ends With Us reportedly fell out.
Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni.
In the lawsuit, filed on Friday, December 20 and acquired by Us Weekly after being published online by TMZ and The New York Times, Lively accused Baldoni of conducting a "social manipulation" campaign against her in order to "destroy" her reputation.
Jeff Spicer/Getty; Bryan Bedder/Getty
Baldoni's lawyer, Bryan Freedman, branded Lively's charges "completely false, outrageous, and intentionally salacious" in a statement to Us, saying that Lively brought the case to "fix her negative reputation" and "rehash a narrative" about the film's development.
Freedman also alleged that Lively made "multiple demands and threats" while filming It Ends With Us, including "threatening not to show up to set, threatening not to promote the film, ultimately leading to its demise during release, if her demands were not met."
In a statement to The New York Times regarding her lawsuit, Lively said, "I hope that my legal action helps pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak up about misconduct and protect others who may be targeted."
Adding sex scenes
According to the lawsuit, Lively had reservations about Baldoni from the outset. Before they began filming It Ends With Us, she objected to sex sequences he intended to include, which she thought were superfluous.
Additionally, "no more adding of sex scenes, oral sex, or on camera climaxing by BL outside the scope of the script BL approved when signing onto the project" was mandated by the lawsuit.
Lively said that Baldoni invented unwanted kisses and detailed his sex life, including instances when he may not have obtained consent.
"Mr. Baldoni improvised physical intimacy that had not been rehearsed, choreographed, or discussed with Ms. Lively, with no intimacy coordinator involved," according to the paperwork. "For instance, Mr. Baldoni secretly bit and sucked on Ms. Lively's bottom lip during a scene in which he improvised multiple kisses on each take. Mr. Baldoni insisted on filming the whole scenario again, well above what would have been necessary on a typical set, and without prior knowledge or approval."
Another purported effort to add nudity to the screenplay occurs in one of the film's closing moments, when Lively's character delivers birth. "Mr. Baldoni insisted to Ms. Lively that women give birth naked, and that his wife had 'ripped her clothes off' during labor," the documents read. " He argued that it was 'not natural' for women to give birth while wearing hospital gowns. Ms. Lively protested, but felt obliged to accept a compromise in which she would be naked from below the breast down."
Alleged pornography addiction
The lawsuit alleges that a meeting was conducted in January to address some of Lively's concerns regarding It Ends With Us' production.
Lively's husband, Ryan Reynolds, attended the meeting, and some of her demands were addressed, including "no more showing nude videos or images of women to Blake, no more mention of Baldoni's alleged previous 'pornography addiction,' no more discussions about sexual conquests in front of Blake and others, no more mentions of cast and crew's genitalia, no more inquiries about Blake's weight, and no more mention of Blake's deceased father."
Lively claimed that producer Jamey Heath showed her a video of his wife naked and then observed her in her trailer while she was topless and having body makeup removed, despite her request that he not look. Lively alleged that Heath and Baldoni invaded her cosmetics trailer while she was nude, even when she was nursing.
According to the complaint, Wayfarer agreed to the terms she requested and stated that, "Although our perspectives differ in many ways, ensuring a safe environment for all is paramount."
Lively allegedly informed her coworkers that the men's conduct had changed by the Spring thanks to the increased precautions.
Breaking character/acting weird
Lively alleges in the documents that Baldoni was unusual during a rooftop slow dance sequence. "He leaned forward and slowly dragged his lips from her ear down her neck, saying, 'It smells so good.'" None of this was remotely in character or based on any line in the script, and nothing needed to be spoken since, once again, there was no sound — Mr. Baldoni was stroking Mr. Lively with his mouth in a manner unrelated to their roles. When Ms. Lively subsequently complained about this conduct, Ms. Baldoni said, 'I'm not even attracted to you.'"
Body-shaming
Lively accused Baldoni of body shaming her on set. "Mr. Baldoni also routinely degraded Ms. Lively by finding back channel ways of criticizing her body and weight," the docs claim. "A few weeks before filming began, and less than four months after Ms. Lively had given birth to her fourth child, she was mortified to find that Mr. Baldoni had discreetly phoned her fitness trainer, without her knowledge or consent, and hinted that she would lose weight in two weeks. Mr. Baldoni informed the trainer that he had inquired because he was anxious about having to pick up Ms. Lively in a scene for the film, but there was none."
'Social manipulation' campaign to 'ruin' her reputation
Lively accused Baldoni of initiating a "social manipulation" operation to "destroy" her reputation.
In the lawsuit, which includes "thousands of pages of text messages and emails" obtained by Lively via a subpoena, a publicist working for the studio and Baldoni reportedly wrote to a crisis management specialist, "He wants to feel like she can be buried."
"This plan went well beyond standard crisis PR," according to the documents, stating that Baldoni's team specified as "'astroturfing,' which has been defined as 'the practice of publishing opinions or comments on the internet, in the media, etc. that appear to come from ordinary members of the public but actually come from a particular company or political group.'"
Baldoni would "set the narrative for the social media campaign," according to the documents. One example given was an X discussion about Hailey Bieber "that had accused another female celebrity of bullying women." Baldoni wrote in the text, "This is what we would need."
According to the documents, after "nearly all cast members chose to appear in public separately from Mr. Baldoni given his on-set behavior," he was allegedly "became concerned that the public would discover that "something is much bigger under the surface," prompting him to change his own social media strategy.
"After the Film's premiere, Mr. Baldoni changed his Instagram profile, cancelled lighthearted social media posts, and instructed his team to look for survivors reactions and support — all in an effort to quickly shift his own public narrative to focus solely on survivors and domestic violence organizations," according to the docs. When his crew noticed that "this shift might be 'too drastic too soon," which he ignored. According to the documents: "Still, Mr. Baldoni insisted on a 'Tik Tok strategy' and that his promotional activities for the Film should seek to amplify what he described as 'survivor content.'"
