Colleen Hoover, the author who penned It Ends With Us, is opening up about her recent cancer diagnosis.
The 46-year-old author told her 1.9 million Instagram followers that she has one more day of radiation left at Texas Oncology.
“Second to last day of radiation,” she wrote on Monday on her Instagram stories. “I wish I could blame my hair and facial expressions on @Texas.Oncology, but they’ve been great. Hope you never need them, but highly recommend them.”
A screengrab of Colleen Hoover’s Instagram Stories.
@ColleenHoover / Instagram
It was not immediately clear what kind of cancer Hoover is being treated for or how long she has been undergoing treatment but her health update comes after she shared details about the diagnosis last week.
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In a Facebook post on Friday, Hoover gave some details on her cancer journey, writing, “I got results back today from the geneticist that say my cancer did not come from family genes.”
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“It also didn’t come from the two main causes of the cancer, which are HPV and excessive hormones. This means it was more than likely environmental/lifestyle, which is lack of exercise, poor diet and stress,” she wrote.
The best-selling author said she is “happy and grateful to be alive.”
“But I hate vegetables. I hate when I have to get off the couch. I hate sweating. I hate when science is right,” she continued. “If you see me at the gym, don’t even tell me good job. If you see me at a restaurant eating grilled chicken and drinking water, I’m probably real mad about it.”
Taylor Swift subpoenaed to testify in Blake Lively-Justin Baldoni trial
“I hate to have to announce this, but I will not be moderating the signing for @lukasgage this month, nor will I be able to attend the premiere or any events for @regrettingyoumovie. I’m super bummed, but am having an unavoidable surgery and can’t travel for a while,” she wrote at the time.
“I’ll live vicariously through you guys. So sad to miss this movie release and premiere, but so grateful to all the actors and the team who put this together.”
Halloween weekend at the box office offered a few final scares, including a last-minute resurgence for Black Phone 2 and the reanimated corpse of BookTok powering the Colleen Hoover adaptation Regretting You. Behind them, Bugonia expanded to modest numbers, and One Battle After Another continued its run as the biggest points-earner of the season.
It seemed as if Black Phone 2 would end its run at the top of the box-office charts after only a week when Chainsaw Man cut it down to size last weekend. But in classic horror movie fashion, the Ethan Hawke—fronted horror sequel rose up from the grave for one last scare. Initial estimates put the Grabber’s second outing neck and neck with (and even slightly behind) the rom-dram Regretting You, but when the numbers finally shook out, Black Phone 2 took the weekend’s top spot with $8.3 million, pushing its cumulative total to $61 million. Factoring in bonus points for clearing $50 million and finishing No. 1, Black Phone 2 is now at 126 total points, second to only One Battle After Another (192 points) on the overall leaderboard. Considering that 80 of those OBAA points are from the Gotham Awards nominations last week, Black Phone 2 is the league leader thus far in terms of pure box office. That’s good news for the 1,773 of you who had enough faith in the Grabber to pick the movie up for $5.
Meanwhile, Regretting You held on admirably in its second week. It’s easy to forget now, but the 2024 film It Ends With Us wasn’t just the pretext for an extended media controversy and eventually the basis of a lawsuit involving Blake Lively and director-star Justin Baldoni. It was, in fact, a $350 million worldwide summer box-office smash, and a big factor in its success is that it was based on a hugely popular novel by Colleen Hoover. Regretting You — a romantic drama starring Allison Williams and Dave Franco that, as far as we know, has not generated any lawsuits — did not drum up nearly the kind of fervor as the previous Hoover adaptation. But at a cost of only $3, the 352 people who drafted the film have gotten decent value out of it so far.
One Battle After Another picked up another $1 million and change in its sixth week, inching it ever closer to the $75 million bonus-point threshold. That’s nice, but after last week’s Gotham-nominations haul, box-office performance is about to become a marginal portion of OBAA’s greater points portfolio. The same likely cannot be said for Tron: Ares, which needed to be a $100 million–to–$200 million blockbuster to end up as a worthwhile buy for its 896 teams. At $67 million and with dwindling awards possibilities (maybe it will show up on the Oscars’ Visual Effects shortlist), that outcome seems unlikely.
In terms of movies that are significant awards contenders, Bugonia expanded wide, pushing to $5 million cumulative and fifth place at the weekend box office. For comparison’s sake, Poor Things didn’t expand to 2,000-plus screens until its eighth week, but it still managed to clear $5 million in its third weekend, on only 800 screens, en route to a $34 million domestic take. On the other end of the Yorgos Lanthimos–Emma Stone line is last year’s Kinds of Kindness, which had made only $3.8 million after three weeks and on 900 screens. Bugonia’s box-office performance is closer to the Kinds of Kindness side of things, though the film’s awards prospects seem better.
And now for our weekly banging of the Roofman drum: After four weeks in release, Roofman sits at a respectable $21 million, putting it ahead of the following movies:
• Springsteen: Deliver Me From Nowhere — $16M • The Smashing Machine — $11M • Bugonia — $5M • After the Hunt — $3M
Does this mean anything? Is Roofman just at the top of a list of relatively low-earning movies with prestige elements that 20 years ago would have made five times what they’re making now? Perhaps! I still say let’s put Channing Tatum in the Oscars race.
You can visit the MFL landing page to scope out the full leaderboard with information on mini-leagues — and join us on Discord for expanded stats and discussions.
Predator: Badlands: November 7 Christy: November 7 Die My Love: November 7 In Your Dreams: November 7 Nuremberg: November 7 Peter Hujar’s Day: November 7 Sentimental Value: November 7 Train Dreams: November 7 Now You See Me: Now You Don’t: November 14 The Running Man: November 14 Jay Kelly: November 14 Keeper: November 14 Arco: November 14 Come See Me in the Good Light: November 14 (Apple TV+) Left-Handed Girl: November 14 Sirāt: November 14
Gotham Awards: December 1 New York Film Critics Circle announcement: December 2 Film Independent Spirit Awards nominations: December 3 Critics Choice Awards nominations: December 5 Golden Globe nominations: December 8
The plot of the new Colleen Hoover adaptation “Regretting You” is a little wild. There’s romance, an affair, unrequited love, death and even a baby with questionable paternity.
Dave Franco, whose character has long pined for Allison Williams’ character but ends up having a child with her sister who is having an affair with her brother-in-law, said someone recently exclaimed to him, “What in the Maury Povich was that?”
Tabloid talk show fodder though they might be, Hoover’s novels have hit a nerve with audiences and Hollywood. “It Ends With Us” made over $350 million worldwide against a $25 million budget and “Regretting You,” in theaters Friday, is one of several big-screen adaptations in the works.
“I think Colleen Hoover is incredible when it comes to dealing with these messy family dynamics that feel relatable,” Franco said. “I think anyone who sees this film can attach themselves to at least one of the characters. It’s juicy, it’s dramatic.”
Scott Eastwood plays Franco’s best friend and Williams’ husband (the one having an affair with his sister-in-law). Mason Thames plays the high schooler who starts dating Eastwood and Williams’ teenage daughter, played by Mckenna Grace, after her dad and aunt die in a car crash. Complicated does not even scratch the surface.
The Associated Press gathered the men behind the drama, Franco, Eastwood and Thames, for freewheeling chat about the film, romantic touchstones, shirtless scenes and Eastwood’s Taylor Swift music video. Remarks have been edited for clarity and brevity.
AP: Scott seems to have the most romantic credits to his name, even a Taylor Swift music video.
FRANCO: Scott, I don’t know if you know this, did anyone tell you that we all watched the “Wildest Dreams” video on set?
EASTWOOD: No.
THAMES: I remember that! We all did.
FRANCO: Mckenna didn’t realize that you were the guy. Like this is a video dear to her heart, and she put it together in the moment: Scott’s the guy from the “Wildest Dreams” video. She immediately called her mom. She goes “Scott’s the guy.” And we hear her mom through the phone go, “No!” You have a place in a lot of people’s hearts with that video.
EASTWOOD: I’d never met Taylor Swift before. She called me out of the blue. She said, “Hey this is Taylor.” I’m, like, Taylor who?
THAMES: I told Scott this the first day I met him, that I thought, before I knew him, from years in advance: best-looking man I’ve ever seen.
FRANCO: And what was Scott’s reaction?
EASTWOOD: I’m so sorry, this is your interview.
AP: Romantic dramas, movies that make you cry, seem to be the kind of films that stick with people, like the outpouring of love for “The Way We Were” when Robert Redford died. What are those movies for you?
EASTWOOD: It’s “The Notebook.”
THAMES: “Spider-Man 2.”
EASTWOOD: Didn’t see that one coming.
FRANCO: I’ll go with “Stand By Me.” Classic, timeless, gives you a little bit of everything. You got the drama, you got the laughter, you’ve got the tears. What about “Jerry Maguire”?
EASTWOOD: That’s a tear, like not a cry.
FRANCO: I’m letting those tears fall, Scott. I think our director, Josh Boone, his guiding lights might have been Cameron Crowe: “Jerry Maguire,” “Almost Famous,” “Say Anything.” Those movies that have a little bit of everything and just feel timeless.
AP: Were there any touchstones you used for your characters? Iconic romantic leads?
THAMES: “The Notebook” was mine. Me and Mckenna watched “The Notebook” and “10 Things I Hate About You” and also “The Fault in Our Stars.”
FRANCO: In “Regretting You,” you guys have that really strong passionate pull to each other. It’s almost Romeo and Juliet.
THAMES: That’s kind of what we wanted. That’s what’s so special that we haven’t seen in so long from movies like this, is kind of the magic and the passion between two love interests.
FRANCO: Scott, who were your reference characters?
EASTWOOD: Mostly all of my romantic movies.
FRANCO: Name them! Name them!
EASTWOOD: Guys, this is a long list.
FRANCO: I used the show “Normal People,” just because those characters go through this journey over the years and they have these peaks and valleys and there’s this really strong history between them. Also those actors are just very subtle, very real, very vulnerable.
AP: Mason’s character in particular seems like a healthy role model for teenagers dating.
THAMES: At the end of the day, he’s just a dude. I think this is the character that I’ve played that most resembles me.
FRANCO: I’m going to give him a compliment. When you look back at like James Dean and Montgomery Clift, they were these actors who obviously were very strong and powerful and had a great presence, but they were super vulnerable and just not afraid to show that kind of sensitive side. I think Mason has that in spades.
THAMES: I paid him a lot to say that.
AP: There’s a bit of voyeurism involved being in something like a Colleen Hoover adaptation. What’s your comfort level with being seen as a kind of heartthrob?
FRANCO: Scott should kick this off.
EASTWOOD: It’s a two. But the scale is one to three. So it’s in the middle. I don’t pay attention to that stuff. I just think we made a cool movie. That’s all we can really do. Try to pay tribute to the books.
FRANCO: Scott is shirtless in this movie for a little bit.
EASTWOOD: That’s a lie!
FRANCO: That’s NOT a lie.
EASTWOOD: When am I shirtless in the movie?
FRANCO: On the beach!
EASTWOOD: Oh that’s right.
THAMES: That’s why you should go see “Regretting You.” I’m also shirtless. He’s also shirtless.
Japanese anime feature Chainsaw Man – The Movie: Reze Arc is off to an impressive start at the U.S. box office, where it topped Friday’s chart with $8.5 million from 3,003 theaters. The acclaimed manga pic — now on course to open to a better-than-expected $15 million to $17 million — boasts a 96 percent critics score and a 99 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, a rarely seen combo, in addition to an A CinemaScore.
Friday’s earnings include a stellar $3.4 million in Thursday previews.
Since launching in cinemas last month in Japan, Chainsaw Man— The Movie has already grossed north of $64 million at the global box office. Sony and Crunchyroll are handling the movie domestically and in select overseas markets. Produced by the team at MAPPA, the R-rated pic is based on the hit manga-turned-anime TV series that is available to stream in the U.S. on Disney+, Crunchyroll and other platforms.
Chainsaw Man follows the adventures of Denji (Kikunosuke Toya), a teenager and demon hunter who is killed by his overlords, the yakuza. But when his beloved chainsaw-powered, devil-dog Pochita (Shiori Izawa) makes a deal and sacrifices himself, Benji is reborn with the ability to transform parts of his body into chainsaws. Along with violence, the pic doubles as a teenage romance with the arrival of the mysterious Reze. However, Reze is not quite who she seems, and a series of battles ensues that could destroy Tokyo when their love story takes a twisted turn.
Directed by Tatsuya Yoshihara, the film is based on Tatsuki Fujimoto’s original story, with a screenplay by Hiroshi Seko.“It’s safe to say that manga and anime fans won’t be disappointed, even if they’ll inevitably be nitpicking about one narrative aspect or another,” writes THR in its review.
Heading into its U.S. opening, Chainsaw Man was expected to battle Blumhouse and Universal’s holdover hit Black Phone 2 for No. 1 with a debut in the $11 million to $12 million range. But it quickly pulled ahead of the pack thanks to males, who made up 75 percent of all ticket buyers, and younger moviegoers, with more than 50 percent of ticket buyers under the age of 25. It’s also drawing an ethnically diverse audience, including over-indexing among Asian moviegoers (17 percent), according to PostTrak.
In second surprise twist, Regretting You — the second Colleen Hoover book adaptation to hit the big screen after 2024’s box office blockbuster It Ends With Us — pulled ahead of Black Phone 2 and Disney’s new bio-drama Deliver Me From Nowhere: Springsteen to come in second on Friday with a better-than-expected $5.2 million from 3,593 locations for an estimated opening of $13 million (rival studios aren’t sure it will actually hit that mark).
Many expected Regretting You to be dinged by generally withering reviews, but the female-fueled pic is garnering strong exits on PosTrak and boasts an audience score of 90 percent on Rotten Tomatoes (its CinemaScore, however, was only a B). It’s also clearly benefiting from a glut of male-skewing fare that has dominated the marquee for months, and is also a testament to Hoover’s enduring popularity among younger women and teenagers. (She’s one of many who have been caught up in the ongoing legal battle betweenIt Ends With Us director/producer Justin Baldoni and actress/producer Blake Lively). Females made up nearly 85 percent of Friday’s audience, while 73 percent of all ticket buyers were under the age of 35.
The new film is described as a romantic drama that speaks to the aspirational theme of living life fully and with no regrets. Constantin Films produced and financed the movie, with Paramount acquiring domestic and certain overseas rights. Internationally, the film opens this week in 40 markets, including the U.K., Australia, Brazil and Mexico.
Instead of holding Thursday previews, Paramount hosted a special Regretting You fan event at AMC Lincoln Square in New York City, which was streamed live into 500 theaters across the country. The screening of the pic was accompanied by a Q&A with director Josh Boone and cast members Allison Williams, Dave Franco and Mason Thames.
Saturday will determine whether Regretting You can hold its lead over Blumhouse and Universal’s holdover hit Black Phone 2, which earned $3.8 million on Friday and is projecting a debut in the $12 million-plus range. The pic is holding in remarkably well for a horror title, and should continue to take advantage of being the only major studio horror film opening nationwide over the Halloween corridor this year.
Disney’s bio-drama Springsteen: Deliver Me from Nowhere is now expected to come in fourth with $9 million to $10 million after earning $3.5 million on Friday, including $850,000 in Thursday previews. The movie is skewing notably older, which is no surprise. More than 60 percent of ticket buyers on Friday were 45 and older, including 40 percent over the age of 55. Its Rotten Tomatoes critics score presently rests at 66 percent; the RT audience score is far stronger at 83 percent. And it earned a B+ CinemaScore.
Springsteen, playing in a total of 3,460 cinemas, should see a boost from 250 IMAX runs and an additional 750 in other premium large-format auditoriums. The music-infused pic stars Jeremy Allen White in the titular role, and he is credited in THR‘s review for giving a “raw and internalized performance as The Boss.” Jeremy Strong, Stephen Graham and Odessa Young also star in director Scott Cooper’s examination of a brutal comedown after a blockbuster tour, which yielded the prolific musician’s most personal album.
It remains to be seen how much of an impact the first two games of this year’s World Series — which pits the Los Angeles Dodgers against the Toronto Blue Jays — have on the weekend box office. Generally speaking, NFL games pose far more competition. At the same time, L.A. is the largest moviegoing market alongside New York City (it is also the biggest market for anime). Friday night’s opening game of the World Series, as well as Saturday’s, are both in Toronto.
At the specialty box office, Neon is launching Shelby Oaks in 1,823 locations. Marking YouTube movie critic Chris Stuckmann‘s debut feature, the found-footage pic is eyeing an opening in the $2 million to $2.5 million range. So far, its main claim to fame is that it raised $1.4 million via a Kickstarter campaign, the highest amount ever for a horror title, per the crowd-sourcing platform. Neon later provided some additional funds.
Focus Features’ awards contender Bugonia is also making headlines in its limited debut at the specialty box office, and is on course to post an opening per-location average of $32,765 from 17 cinemas, one of the best platform starts of the year to date (it will also be the top location average of the weekend by a long shot). Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, the acclaimed film stars Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons.
Oct. 25, 9:30 a.m.: Updated with Friday grosses.
This story was originally published Oct. 24 at 6:43 p.m.
Amid Blake Lively’s Public Feud With Justin Baldoni, the details of a proposed contract have been revealed. Us Weekly shared that the actress was supposed to be paid over 1.7 million US Dollars in the said agreement. Moreover, apart from her salary, massive bonuses were proposed for each Box Office level reached by It Ends With Us, as well as payouts for nominations and wins at prestigious award ceremonies.
Apart from her ‘fixed compensation’ of almost 2 million USD, the Gossip Girl actress was expected to be paid 10% of the film’s gross proceeds, and that is not including the other add-ons that would come into play with the film’s theatrical performance. These include a 250K USD payout over their earnings of three times that of the ‘direct cost’ of the film’s production. Similar payments were expected at five times and other milestones reached at the box office.
That wasn’t all; Lily Bloom was expected to be her direct ticket to making bank. 100K USD for an Oscar nomination and 200K USD for a win, with a win guaranteeing only the latter. A Golden Globe nomination would earn her 75,000 USD, with a win bringing in 100,000 USD. It did not end there, as a SAG nomination was priced at 50,000 USD and 75,000 USD for a win.
While the majority of the filming was done in New Jersey, Blake Lively, a private jet, was factored in for Las Vegas shoots. They would also include the flying expenses of her four children with Ryan Reynolds, alongside two nannies, her assistant, and her own security team. The assistance was offered at 1,500 USD, alongside a private driver, not to mention 1000 USD/ week costs for training and meal expenses.
Despite the extremely lucrative contract, it has been reported that the copy obtained was merely a draft and not signed by Blake Lively, after all. It is not known what exact deal the two parties reached and if it was more exuberant than these numbers.
As the first hire for the It Ends With Us film adaption, screenwriter-producer Christy Hall knew she had a long road ahead of her.
After she was asked to pen the script by director Justin Baldoni, who developed the movie via his Wayfarer Studios shingle, and author Colleen Hoover, whose 2016 best-seller inspired the adaptation, Hall jumped right into immersing herself in the book and its beloved story.
“I like to do that first, just fall in love with every word, fall in love with every moment, fall in love with every line,” she tells The Hollywood Reporter. And that’s kind of my marinating piece of it.”
Christy Hall
Cindy Ord/Getty Images
From there, she started creating the screenplay, aiming to stick to the “core story as much as possible,” while also being “extremely strategic and systematic” about what stays in from the book and what doesn’t. In addition, she wanted to make Hoover proud as well.
It Ends With Us follows Lily (Blake Lively) who overcomes a traumatic childhood and embarks on a new life. But after getting romantically involved with neurosurgeon Ryle (Baldoni), she sees sides of him that remind her of her parents’ abusive relationship. And when someone from her past, Atlas (Brandon Sklenar), reenters her life, it complicates things even more and Lily must learn to rely on her own strength to move forward.
Now, years later and with the film finally in theaters, Hall hopes the adaptation “destigmatizes” domestic violence and “sparks a lot of conversation” around the subject.
“I just think it’s art’s job to ignite conversations that can be uncomfortable and hard. But it’s kind of its job to shed light on the darker corners of society,” she says. “And I really believe that art saves lives. I believe this book has saved lives. So I just really hope that the movie can continue the legacy that Colleen Hoover herself started.”
Below, Hall also talks with THR about the pressure “to do this book justice” for Hoover, book fans and everyone involved in the adaptation, her process of writing the screenplay, and why she hopes the movie inspires Hollywood to tell more stories that “society needs.” The conversation took place before reports of a rift between Lively and Baldoni came to light.
Going back to the beginning, how did you first get attached to pen the script?
My film Daddio came out like six weeks ago, [Baldoni], read that as a spec. He also read an adaptation I did for 21 Laps, Shawn Levy’s company. And he reached out to me and said, “I just really feel in my bones that you’re the one to adapt this.” I had not read the book at the time, but he said, “Look, go read it. You’re gonna wanna do this and give me a call.” And that’s exactly what happened. I went away and I read the book and I really, absolutely fell in love with Colleen Hoover as a result. I love that she’s very vocal about that this was inspired by events in her life. I love that I felt like I was just reading a very classic love story and that slowly but surely you realize that Lily was a frog in boiling water. I ultimately called Justin and said it would be my honor and privilege if you guys will have me.
He set up a Zoom with me and Colleen … and we hit it off right away. There was a lot of trust there. I was kind of auditioning for her. I was telling her these are all the things that I feel like we can really preserve in the novel, and then here are things that I think we can continue to explore. Because it’s not a novel, it’s a screenplay, there’s limited real estate. It’s a three-act structure – I was already flagging for her that I maybe want to explore in terms of additions to the narrative. And then here are things that I already instinctively feel like might need to be cut. I basically just laid it out for her. And I like to speak very honestly in meetings, like this is my instinct and if it doesn’t feel like a good fit for you, then no harm, no foul. But I like to be very transparent in meetings like that. And I was thrilled that at the end of that conversation. It was probably an almost two-hour Zoom that we had just really talking about it, really unpacking it. And at the end, she told Wayfarer, “that’s our girl,” so I was thrilled. I felt like I’d won the lottery.
Originally, we thought this was gonna be a small indie movie that maybe Wayfarer would sell on the other side. But I’m a big believer, if you build it, they will come. So it’s been an incredible journey to go from writing a script and then Sony got involved and then Blake got cast and now it’s just swelled into something that is just deeply exciting and humbling.
Knowing the book and story are beloved by so many fans, did you feel any pressure when it came to adapting it into a screenplay?
Not just by the fans, but by everyone involved. Hundreds of people gathered together to create a village to make this movie. And I believe that everyone was there for the right reasons. We all wanted to do this book justice because we were all fans. So, yes, I felt outside pressure because there’s a lot of expectation around this book. But I even felt internal pressure. I love this book. And Colleen chose me and I was damned if I was gonna let her down.
Can you walk viewers through the process of taking an established story in a book and transforming it into a screenplay?
I take a few months to read it and then read it again and then read it again and read it again and just completely immerse myself in the original material to the point that I almost have it memorized. Then from there, you have to start already thinking in a three-act structure, you already have to really be thinking about drive, you have to be thinking about the midpoint, you have to be thinking about the turns. The other complicated thing about this one is it’s a dual timeline, so you have even less real estate if you think about it. There are two stories being told, there’s the past timeline that basically starts when we see Lily wake up and then all the way until she’s seeing – spoiler alert – Atlas being loaded into the ambulance. Then the present timeline. You have to be extremely strategic and systematic about what holds and what doesn’t. And I think a lot of it was just sticking with the core story as much as possible.
No decision was made lightly. We wanted everything to be blessed by Colleen herself because if Colleen isn’t happy, I don’t know what the point [is].
Knowing there is a heavy topic in the story, notably domestic violence, what kind of preparations and research did you do to help make sure its depicted accurately?
I know Wayfair partnered with a company, I believe it’s called NO MORE, to just make sure that we were getting it right and that we were being extremely thoughtful about the decisions we were making. And again, I have a lot of respect for the fact that this is not an autobiographical story, but it is inspired by true events in Colleen’s life specifically. So just really allowing her to be our North Star and then also working with this organization. They read the script, they saw early assemblies of the edit. I think that partnership was a really integral part of it.
Once the film is fully cast, do you go back and make any changes to the script after knowing which actor is playing each character?
I actually try not to write with an actor in my head. Especially for this because in Colleen’s novel, the characters she’s created are very distinctive, very specific. And so [I’m] just trying to honor what Colleen had created in these characters. I absolutely love everyone’s performance. I think Blake’s performance is just absolutely pitch perfect. I have to say Jenny Slate — she is Allysa. I mean, she’s everything you want her to be when you’re reading the book. I feel like it was just cast extremely well and I feel like those performers just really delivered characters that again started with Colleen. I’m just really, really proud of them for that.
I know you couldn’t be on the set due to the writers strike that year, but can you talk about your other role as a producer of the project?
I was able to be deeply involved all the way up until my union [Writers Guild of America] announced the strike. And then as soon as the strike was over, I was able to then be involved and give notes on the edit and I saw very early assemblies, and I was able to then be activated again, which was great. So I’m very proudly a producer on this film, but I’m also very proudly a member of the WGA. I’m sad I couldn’t be on set every day, that was the intention. But also I’m very proud to have stood with my union.
Since you’re been on this journey since the beginning, literally as the first hire, what do you hope audiences walk away with after seeing the film?
I hope that it maybe destigmatizes this subject matter. This can be an uncomfortable subject matter, and I feel like this tends to just kind of be relegated to indie movies talking about domestic abuse. And I’m really proud that… I have to give a shout to Sony to put out a movie that is very glossy and commercial. There’s a lot of wish fulfillment around it. It’s very beautiful. And also it’s tackling a tricky subject matter. So I hope it destigmatizes, I hope it sparks a lot of conversation. I hope that victims who are seeing this movie might seek help. I hope that abusers who see this movie might also seek help. … I hope it inspires friends of victims, you know, you don’t have to force your help but you can offer it and you can render yourself a lifeline and a very safe place to run to if and when a victim is really ready to receive that help. I just think it’s art’s job to ignite conversations that can be uncomfortable and hard. But it’s kind of its job to shed light on the darker corners of society.
Let’s start with something about me: I hate Colleen Hoover books. I despise how TikTok convinced the world that her writing was revolutionary, her plot lines intricate, her style original. It’s a step above airport romance novels in my opinion…so when one of her hit novels, It Ends With Us, was adapted to a movie starring Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, I was disappointed but not surprised.
And to make matters worse, I was constantly reminded of this fact because it was filmed on my street in Hoboken, New Jersey…but enough about me. It Ends With Us finally hit theaters on August 9, and the press tour has been nothing short of catastrophic.
We have the internet up in flames ready to burn Blake Lively at the stake for a multitude of reasons (including, but definitely not limited to) her fashion sense, her “pick me” attitude, or her dismissive commentary on domestic abuse, which is a main focus of the film itself. Not only that, but there’s clear tension between Justin Baldoni and the rest of the cast, who stumble over cute press questions like “What was it like working together?”
It’s all very reminiscent of Olivia Wilde’s Don’t Worry, Darling, which starred Florence Pugh and Harry Styles, and was riddled with obvious cast member drama from the beginning…yet, it’s less hilarious and more annoying. But let’s break down the It Ends With Us press tour drama before you get even more confused.
What’s Going On With The It Ends With Us Cast?
Let’s put it into perspective. Things have gotten so bad that director and actor, Justin Baldoni, has hired the same PR crisis manager (Melissa Nathan) that both Johnny Depp and Logan Paul have used. As the press tour surged on, fans began to notice Baldoni was absent from group press events as reports swirled about disputes between himself and Lively during post-production.
If you see Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni on the same couch together during this press junket, then consider yourself lucky. They’ve split up their press tour with respective outlets: Baldoni gets Access Hollywood, Today, ET!, and GMA; Lively gets Vogue, Capital FM, and CBS Mornings.
Sources told The Hollywood Reporter that disagreements arose during the final cut while filming. Lively, a producer on It Ends With Us, had scenes she wanted and even commissioned her own cut of the film. However, Forbesassures this can happen without indicating a feud.
Fans have been reading in between the lines during press interviews. Lively has made a few interesting comments furthering the creative control rumors. At one point, she even mentions her husband, Ryan Reynolds, wrote a scene in the film, which some believe was the start of their fight. Then, in another interview, Lively shares she got in a fight with an unnamed person about removing a Lana Del Rey song from the film.
However, given the film’s references to domestic violence, this Lana Del Rey song could have been considered controversial. “Cherry” details loving a man despite all of the hard times in an extremely toxic and unhealthy relationship. So, if Baldoni was the one Lively had to fight, he may have had a point.
In his own interview with Elle, Baldoni admits to tensions on set: “There are all these things that happen every day on set, there’s always friction that happens when you make a movie like this. Then at the end of the day, it’s that friction, I believe, that creates the beautiful art,”
Cast member Jenny Slate adds fuel to the fire by dodging questions about Justin Baldoni. Slate told a reporter that it “must be difficult working two jobs” when asked what it was like working with him. When Baldoni was asked about Lively, he claimed it “seems like she’s ready to direct.”
There’s been nothing but shade, and apparently, the movie isn’t even that great. What I think everyone can agree on is this press tour needs to end.
