Justin Baldoni Claims Ryan Reynolds and Taylor Swift Pressured Him to Accept Blake Lively'sIt Ends With UsRewrite: Complaint

Mar. 15, 2025

Justin Baldoni; Blake Lively; Ryan Reynolds; Taylor Swift.Photo:John Nacion/Variety via Getty; Taylor Hill/FilmMagic; Kevin Mazur/Getty; Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty

John Nacion/Variety via Getty; Taylor Hill/FilmMagic; Kevin Mazur/Getty; Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty

Justin BaldoniclaimsTaylor Swiftwas involved in backingBlake Lively’s vision forIt Ends With Uswhen he resisted some rewrites.

Baldoni, who directed and stars in the romantic drama,filed a $400 million lawsuit against Lively, her husband Ryan Reynoldsand their publicist on Thursday, Jan. 16, less than a month after Lively filed a complaint alleging sexual harassment and a retaliatory smear campaign.

Among the claims made in his 179-page complaint, Baldoni, 40, alleges that Swift, 35, and Reynolds, 48, pressured him into accepting one of Lively’s rewrites for the film. Christy Hall is credited as the screenwriter who adapted Colleen Hoover’s blockbuster novel.

In the pre-production phase, Lively allegedlyasked to “take a pass” on the film’s rooftop scene, where her character Lily Bloom meets Baldoni’s Ryle Kincaid for the first time. Baldoni was “reluctant” to let her “rewrite this key scene,” per the complaint, “but “agreed to take a look at what she put together.”

Baldoni claims her version was “dramatically” different from how it was originally written, and after his “exceedingly mild resistance,” Lively “went silent for multiple days” and later said in an alleged text message that his reaction to her rewrite “didn’t feel great for me” — or to Reynolds and what Baldoni characterizes as “another megacelebrity friend.”

A text message included in the filing reveals that “influential and wealthy” celebrity friend to be Swift.

Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds on Aug. 6, 2024.Cindy Ord/Getty

Cindy Ord/Getty

Baldoni claimed he was “summoned” to an earlier meeting with Reynolds at their New York City penthouse where the pop superstar arrived and “began praising Lively’s script. Baldoni understood the subtext: he needed to comply with Lively’s direction for the script.”

Another alleged text from Lively included in the filing shows the actress referring to Reynolds, with whom she shares four kids and married in 2012, and Swift as her “Dance Momslevel stage moms.”

Lively, in the alleged text message, said to Baldoni: “If you ever get around to watchingGame of Thrones, you’ll appreciate that I’m Khaleesi, and like her, I happen to have a few dragons. For better or worse, but usually for better. Because my dragons also protect those I fight for. So really we all benefit from those gorgeous monsters of mine. you will too, I can promise you.”

Blake Lively; Justin Baldoni.Katie Jones/Beauty Inc via Getty; Araya Doheny/Variety via Getty

Katie Jones/Beauty Inc via Getty; Araya Doheny/Variety via Getty

Swift’s song “my tears ricochet” is used in theIt Ends With Usmovie as well as its trailer. At the New York City premiere on Aug. 6, Lively toldE! Newsthat “the iconic rooftop scene, my husband actually wrote it. Nobody knows that but you now.”

In an interview withDigital Spyin August, Lively said she was “proud” to earn her first executive producer credit forIt Ends With Us:“When you work with me, I’m very passionate, so I love getting involved. I used to be insecure about this, and now I’m proud of it…. The work I did as an actor on this film pales in comparison to the work that I did outside of the acting. It was very minimal compared to everything else.”

“I felt so grateful to have that level of authorship and involvement. It makes me that much more proud of the film,” she added at the time.

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Blake Lively in the rooftop scene of “It Ends With Us”.Nicole Rivelli

Nicole Rivelli

Baldoni’s latest lawsuit comes after Lively sued him and his associates. In her initial Dec. 20 filing, she claimed Baldoni exhibited “disturbing” and “unprofessional” behavior on set that led to a “hostile work environment.”

Among the accusations, Lively alleged Baldoni“suddenly” pressured her to “simulate full nudity” in a birth scene and “improvised physical intimacy that had not been rehearsed, choreographed or discussed with Ms. Lively, with no intimacy coordinator involved."

Blake Lively on Aug. 8, 2024.Jeff Spicer/Getty

Jeff Spicer/Getty

Her complaint claims that in the aftermath of the experience and the alleged smear campaign against her, Lively “has suffered from grief, fear, trauma and extreme anxiety.”

Baldoni also filed a $250 million lawsuit againstThe New York Timeson Dec. 31 for libel in response to its article “‘We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Machine.” The lawsuit alleged the newspaper used “‘cherry-picked’ and altered communications stripped of necessary context and deliberately spliced to mislead" in its article about Lively’s complaint.The New York Timesdefended its article as “meticulously and responsibly reported.”

source: people.com