The battle over claims of what happened on the set of It Ends With Us continues as Blake Lively’s legal team responded to Justin Baldoni’s team releasing raw, unedited footage from the film following Lively’s sexual harassment claims.
The 10-minute video, shared by Baldoni’s lawyer Bryan Freedman on Tuesday, includes one scene where the actors’ characters Lily Bloom (Lively) and Ryle Kincaid (Baldoni) are slow dancing. (The scene was referenced in Lively’s lawsuit against her co-star, accusing him of “behaving inappropriately” and claiming he “ignored well-established industry protocols in filming intimate scenes.”)
The footage shows Baldoni, 40, and Lively, 37, filming a scene with no dialogue, speaking about their spouses and joking about his nose and her spray tan.
In a statement following the release of the footage, Lively’s team says that “every frame of the released footage corroborates, to the letter,” what Lively included in her lawsuit, filed on Dec. 20, 2024, about the specific scene.
“Justin Baldoni and his lawyer may hope that this latest stunt will get ahead of the damaging evidence against him, but the video itself is damning,” Lively’s legal team said in their statement.
“The video shows Mr. Baldoni repeatedly leaning in toward Ms. Lively, attempting to kiss her, kissing her forehead, rubbing his face and mouth against her neck, flicking her lip with his thumb, caressing her, telling her how good she smells, and talking with her out of character. Every moment of this was improvised by Mr. Baldoni with no discussion or consent in advance, and no intimacy coordinator present.”
They also mention that Baldoni was in a position of power as the film’s director and Lively’s boss.
“The video shows Ms. Lively leaning away and repeatedly asking for the characters to just talk. Any woman who has been inappropriately touched in the workplace will recognize Ms. Lively’s discomfort,” her legal team said. “They will recognize her attempts at levity to try to deflect the unwanted touching.
“No woman should have to take defensive measures to avoid being touched by their employer without their consent,” her lawyers said. “This matter is in active litigation in federal court. Releasing this video to the media, rather than presenting it as evidence in court, is another example of an unethical attempt to manipulate the public. It is also a continuation of their harassment and retaliatory campaign.”
Get breaking National news
For news impacting Canada and around the world, sign up for breaking news alerts delivered directly to you when they happen.
The recently released footage opens with a statement from Baldoni’s legal team: “The following videos captured on May 23, 2023, clearly refute Ms. Lively’s characterization of his behaviour.”
“The scene in question was designed to show the two characters falling in love and longing to be close to one another. Both actors are clearly behaving well within the scope of the scene and with mutual respect and professionalism. These are all three takes filmed in sequence,” the statement read.
Both actors were engaging in small talk, picked up by their mics. At one point, Lively suggested that it would be “more romantic” if their characters spoke to each other while they danced.
When they put their heads closer together while dancing, Lively made a joke about how it felt “so nosey,” in reference to their noses touching. Baldoni replied, saying, “I know. And my nose is so big.”
“Yes. I was hoping we could address this. It’s not too late,” Lively responded.
Later, Baldoni said that he was probably “getting beard” on Lively while they danced so closely. She responded by saying she was probably getting spray tan on him.
“It smells good,” Baldoni replied.
Lively’s lawsuit claimed Baldoni sexually harassed her on the set of It Ends With Us and mentioned a “slow dance scene” with the actor. She alleged that during the filming of the scene Baldoni “leaned forward and slowly dragged his lips from her ear and down her neck as he said, ‘It smells so good.’”
“When Ms. Lively later objected to this behaviour, Mr. Baldoni’s response was, ‘I’m not even attracted to you,’” the complaint read.
Lively claimed that a meeting was held to address Baldoni’s behaviour, where she alleges that he mentioned his past “porn addiction” and showed her “nude videos or images of women.”
His legal team responded to the claims on behalf of Baldoni, calling them “completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious.”
On Jan. 21, the same day Baldoni’s legal team released the footage, Lively and husband Ryan Reynolds lawyers issued a letter to judge Lewis J. Liman seeking a gag order for Baldoni’s lawyer Freedman.
According to documents obtained by multiple entertainment publications, Lively’s legal team alleges that “virtually every day” since she filed her lawsuit against Baldoni, “Mr. Freedman has given television interviews, appeared on podcasts, issued inflammatory written statements, and leaked information (including, remarkably, documents as banal as document preservation demands to third parties) to the Hollywood press and tabloid media.”
The couple’s lawyers also allege that many of the public statements made by Freedman, “not only continue the campaign of retaliation that was the subject of Ms. Lively’s First Cease and Desist, but they contain numerous new false statements about Ms. Lively and others.”
(Global News has not independently viewed the legal documents.)
Last week, Baldoni sued his co-star Lively and her husband, Deadpool actor Reynolds, for defamation. Baldoni’s suit seeks at least $400 million for damages that include lost future income.
That lawsuit came the same day that Baldoni sued the New York Times for libel, alleging the paper worked with Lively to smear him.
The lawsuit filed in federal court in New York says the plaintiffs did not want to file the suit, but that Lively “has unequivocally left them with no choice, not only to set the record straight in response to Lively’s accusations, but also to put the spotlight on the parts of Hollywood that they have dedicated their careers to being the antithesis of.”
In response to the $400-million defamation and extortion lawsuit, the Gossip Girl star’s legal team said, “This latest lawsuit from Justin Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios, and its associates is another chapter in the abuser playbook.”
“This is an age-old story: A woman speaks up with concrete evidence of sexual harassment and retaliation and the abuser attempts to turn the tables on the victim,” the statement continued. “This is what experts call DARVO. Deny. Attack. Reverse Victim Offender.
“Wayfarer has opted to use the resources of its billionaire co-founder to issue media statements, launch meritless lawsuits, and threaten litigation to overwhelm the public’s ability to understand that what they are doing is retaliation against sexual harassment allegations.”
It Ends With Us, based on the bestselling 2016 novel by Colleen Hoover, was released in August 2024 and exceeded box office expectations with a $50-million debut. It begins as a standard romantic drama before taking a dark turn into domestic violence. The fallout in its aftermath has made major waves in Hollywood and led to discussions of the treatment of female actors both on sets and in media.
—With files from The Associated Press
