The ‘It Ends With Us’ cast drama and Blake Lively feud explained

“It Ends With Us” came out Friday, but drama behind the scenes is just beginning.
The film marks Blake Lively’s return to the big screen. The “Gossip Girl” actress stars in her first leading role in four years in It Ends with Us, the hotly anticipated adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s 2016 novel.
As the bestselling book does, the movie follows a flower shop owner named Lily Blossom Bloom (Lively), who falls in love with a dashing neurosurgeon named Ryle Kincaid (Justin Baldoni), and reconnects with her stoic childhood sweetheart, Atlas Corrigan (Brandon Sklenar). The romantic drama also features a star-studded supporting cast including Jenny Slate and Hasan Minhaj.
But it also marks a return to rumors surrounding on-set drama for Lively, who is married to fellow A-list actor Ryan Reynolds who has a slew of celebrity close friends from Taylor Swift and Gigi Hadid to Hugh Jackman. Internet sleuths have been digging into Lively’s seemingly rocky relationship with “Us” director Baldoni.
Here’s why the film’s promotional tour has dropped hints that the star and director don’t see eye to eye.
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Hoover’s controversial New York Times bestselling book is a romance novel, but behind the scenes, eagle-eyed fans are seeing between the lines of co-stars Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni’s rumored feud.
During the film’s New York premiere on Tuesday, Lively was photographed with other A-listers including Reynolds and Jackman. She also posed alongside breakout star Sklenar and Slate. But fans have noticed that Baldoni only appeared on the red-carpet solo and side-by-side with his wife, actress Emily Baldoni.
Hoover and Lively also do not follow Baldoni on Instagram although they follow each other. In fact, none of the main cast members of “Us” follow Baldoni on the social media sharing platform.
While the film’s press tour has fanned the flames of the rumored feud, the “It Ends With Us” drama seemingly ends there.
Who plays Lily, Ryle and Atlasin ‘It Ends with Us’ movie? See full cast
Things caused even more of a stir when Slate appeared during an interview with Deadline and directly avoided a question about working with Baldoni, saying that directing and acting at the same time is an “intense job.” She added that she “was looking around just being like, ‘I’m good with just acting, I love it.'”
Baldoni told Sheinelle Jones on the TODAY show on Thursday that Blake is “best known as an actress, and of course she’s a fashion icon, but she’s so much more than that. She’s dynamic, creative. She had her hands in every part of this production and everything she touched, she made better.”
But then, when asked about directing a sequel, Baldoni had a surprising answer for “Entertainment Tonight.”
“I think that there are better people for that one,” Baldoni told ET. “I think Blake Lively’s ready to direct, that’s what I think.”
Contributing: Patrick Ryan