All About the 'It Ends With Us' Drama Between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni

Baldoni called the project an "extreme challenge."

The cast of It Ends With Us has been in the spotlight lately in more ways than one. Fashion-wise, of course, there's Blake Lively's press tour wardrobe, which has been floral-themed as a sartorial nod to her character Lily Bloom. Then, there's the box office: where the film grossed a whopping $80 million on opening weekend. And finally, there's the supposed drama between Lively and her director-slash-co-star, Justin Baldoni.

It all started with a series of press tour stops in which Baldoni appeared solo and the rest of the cast, in turn, appeared without him. Things got even stranger when a few comments were made on the red carpet at the film's New York City premiere. But is the feud fact or fiction? Ahead, here's what we know so far about the drama between Baldoni and Lively in the wake of It Ends With Us.

There was a noticeable rift at the premiere.

On August 6, Lively's method dressing in honor of her It Ends With Us character Lily Bloom culminated at the film's New York City premiere, where the actress donned an archival Versace dress worn by none other than pop icon Britney Spears. This wasn't the only newsworthy event of the night, however: later on, fans noticed that Baldoni was not photographed with any of the cast members on the red carpet. Meanwhile, Lively smiled for the camera alongside her husband Reynolds, and her co-stars including Jenny Slate, Hugh Jackman, and Brandon Sklenar. Once inside, Baldoni did not introduce the film, despite the fact that he both directed it and starred in it opposite Lively as Ryle Kincaid.

The New York City premiere wasn't the only time Baldoni skipped a group photo.

Baldoni's energy on the red carpet wasn't the only instance of him apparently avoiding his fellow co-stars. On the contrary, the director has missed out on multiple stops of the press tour for It Ends With Us, including a surprise screening of the film in Texas in June. Fans, of course, have no way of knowing why he declined to join some of the press events, and matters were complicated even further after it was revealed that Baldoni was hospitalized for an infection. Baldoni shared the news of his recovery at St. John's Hospital on Instagram.

"Nothing like an infection and a week at the hospital to put everything into perspective," he wrote. "God is so good. On the mend and feeling grateful."

Baldoni said Lively should direct the sequel.

When asked on Entertainment Tonight whether or not he would be interested in directing the It Ends With Us sequel, It Starts With Us, Baldoni redirected the question: "I think Blake Lively is ready to direct. That's what I think."

While there's no word yet on whether a sequel is actually coming, it seems that Baldoni won't be doing "double duty" again. In apparent confirmation of her heavy involvement, Lively told an E! News reporter that same night that her husband changed the script for one of the most important scenes of the movie: "The iconic rooftop scene, my husband actually wrote it. Nobody knows that but you now."

Meanwhile, screenwriter Christy Hall apparently had no idea that Reynolds was behind the changes: "There were a couple of little things that I thought had been improvised," she told People. "Like when he says, 'Pretty please with a cherry on top,' and she talks about the maraschino cherries. When I saw a cut I was like, 'Oh, that's cute. That must have been a cute improvised thing.' So if I'm being told that Ryan wrote that, then great, how wonderful."

Baldoni was apparently snubbed on Instagram.

After the drama at the film's premiere, some low-grade snooping by fans quickly revealed that neither Lively nor It Ends With Us author Colleen Hoover follows Baldoni on Instagram. It's unclear whether the two women unfollowed Baldoni to make a statement or had never followed him in the first place. Lively, however, does follow her other co-stars, none of whom follow Baldoni.

Baldoni said he had to work with "complex personalities."

“Every movie is a miracle,” Baldoni told the Today show. “And then, of course, you’re navigating complex personalities and trying to get everybody on the same page with the same vision. And mistakes are always made, and then you figure out how to move past them.”

Baldoni didn't elaborate on who those personalities might be, but he said that the project in general was an "extreme challenge."

“I’m a ‘best idea wins’ person, and I always have been, to a fault," he continued. "Sometimes to a point where, at times, I think I’ve had people wonder if I know what I’m doing or if I have a point of view because I’m so willing to have my vision changed. I don’t believe that inspiration or creativity comes through one person. The last thing I wanted to do was have a male gaze penetrate these very important moments that need to be told in a truthful way, to represent all of the women that experience them every day,”

Baldoni wasn't done talking about the film's difficulties, however; a few days later, the director reiterated his point that the film was "very challenging" in an interview with Elle UK.

"There was a lot of pressure playing such a complex role like Ryle and, of course, as a filmmaker, you're always navigating personalities," he said, echoing his earlier statement about his co-stars. "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."

Baldoni hired a crisis PR manager.

In the days following the film's box office premiere, Baldoni brought on Melissa Nathan, a publicist specializing in "communications, crisis, reputation management, personal publicity, and digital team services across the entertainment industry," according to People. The news came just a few days after The Hollywood Reporter revealed that Lively had commissioned a separate cut of the movie from Deadpool & Wolverine editor Shane Reid. It's unknown whose cut—that is, Baldoni's or Lively's—made it to the movie theater, but clearly these two had their fair share of creative differences.

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