Justin Baldoni Claims Ryan Reynolds and Taylor Swift Pressured Him to Accept Blake Lively's “It Ends With Us” Rewrite: Complaint

Justin Baldoni claims Taylor Swift was involved in backing Blake Lively's vision for It Ends With Us when he resisted some rewrites.

Baldoni, who directed and stars in the romantic drama, filed a $400 million lawsuit against Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds and 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 allegedly asked 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.

Related: Taylor Swift and Blake Lively's Friendship Timeline

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."

Per the complaint, when Baldoni later texted Lively that he didn't need "Reynolds and her megacelebrity friend to pressure him," Lively responded by comparing herself to the Game of Thrones character Khaleesi and that Reynolds and Swift are her two "dragons."

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 Moms level stage moms."

"They are embarrassingly effusive," she added per the alleged text messages, calling herself the "luckiest m-----f---er on the planet" to have them as her supporters and "most trusted partners." She allegedly added, "I think they wanted you and me to see how they felt about [the rewrites] because they've been by my side for far too many experiences where I've been overlooked."

Lively, in the alleged text message, said to Baldoni: "If you ever get around to watching Game 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."

Related: How Did Justin Baldoni's Version of It Ends With Us Differ from Blake Lively's Cut That Fans Saw in Theaters?

Swift's song "my tears ricochet" is used in the It Ends With Us movie as well as its trailer. At the New York City premiere on Aug. 6, Lively told E! News that "the iconic rooftop scene, my husband actually wrote it. Nobody knows that but you now."

In an interview with Digital Spy in August, Lively said she was "proud" to earn her first executive producer credit for It 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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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."

Related: Justin Baldoni Accuses Ryan Reynolds of 'Berating' Him in 'Traumatic Encounter' Over Comments He Made About Blake Lively

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 against The New York Times on 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 Times defended its article as "meticulously and responsibly reported."

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