This article includes material from HuffPost’s weekly culture and entertainment newsletter, The Culture Catchall.
The drama surrounding “It Ends With Us” seemed to be some of the biggest entertainment news this week, with Blake Lively catching a lot of heat for her conduct during the press run for the film — and some problematic past actions.
The film, which was adapted from the 2016 bestselling novel of the same name, follows Lively’s character, flower shop owner Lily Bloom. She falls in love with Ryle Kincaid, a seemingly charming neurosurgeon played by director and co-lead Justin Baldoni who lives in her building and pursues her. The couple’s love story takes a volatile turn when Kincaid begins to abuse Lily.
You would think the focal point of the press run would discuss the effects of abuse and how the cast and crew wanted the film to show how complicated narratives of domestic violence can be. (HuffPost senior reporter Elyse Wanshel also covered some of the backlash earlier this week.) Instead, Lively promoted her outside endeavors and seemed pretty flippant or downright avoidant when it came to homing in on how her character navigates abuse. She talked about her newly launched hair care line and tried to have lighthearted conversations with interviewers.
In a viral clip, a reporter asked Lively how someone should go about approaching her to get advice about how to deal with issues of domestic violence. Her answer was pretty distasteful. She easily could have recommended some organizations that help survivors of domestic violence if she personally couldn’t offer help. Instead, she decided to be cheeky and responded by flipping the question with a question to the interviewer.
“Like, ask for my phone number, or a location share?” she said before continuing and mentioning Virgo traits.
So many people on social media were not on her side.
That moment didn’t sit well with many — with fans digging up past moments where the “Gossip Girl” star made some problematic decisions. In 2012, she and husband Ryan Reynolds got married on a South Carolina plantation. Boone Hall Plantation, located in Mount Pleasant, had nine slave cabins, referred to as “Slave Street.”
In 2020, the couple apologized after many people called them out for glamorizing violence against Black people by holding their wedding at a locale that holds so much traumatizing history.
“What we saw at the time was a wedding venue on Pinterest,” she said. “What we saw after was a place built upon a devastating tragedy.”
Lively has also had other troubling interviews. Norwegian journalist Kjersti Flaa recently uploaded her 2016 interview with Lively during the press run for “Cafe Society,” and it’s very cringey even from the beginning.
After congratulating Lively on her “little bump,” Lively responds by saying the statement back to Flaa, who isn’t pregnant. The first question, where Flaa asked Lively and Parker Posey about the clothes in “Cafe Society,” which is a period piece based in 1930s Hollywood, Lively pivoted and began to have a personal conversation with Posey. Throughout the conversation, Posey and Lively purposely avoid making eye contact or acknowledging the interviewer, who shared she almost quit journalism due to the interaction.
These moments are not a good look. Kindness goes a long way.
It also seems like common sense to be ready to talk about the themes of a movie you’re starring in. Also, as someone who also went through a domestic violence situation with a former beau, it’s disheartening and gross to see a person with the ability to advocate for change and ways to navigate situations like this be so rude. It’s very mean-girl-coded.
