Blake Lively Took Charge of Young Lily’s Intimate Scene in ‘It Ends With Us’ — Not Justin Baldoni

Blake Lively’s legal battle with Justin Baldoni just got messier, and new text messages from the editors of It Ends With Us are shining more light on the drama, mostly helping Baldoni’s side.

Here’s the quick rundown: Blake Lively’s team wants to bring in Rob Sullivan, one of the movie’s editors, as part of their case. But Sullivan has been hard to reach.

To explain why he’s so important, Lively’s lawyers shared private text messages between the film’s editors. These texts reveal some surprising details about how much control Lively had over the movie, which might actually support Baldoni’s claims.

According to the messages, Lively personally oversaw even the intimate scenes involving the younger version of Lily, played by Isabela Ferrer. One message says, “When she claimed she was unsafe – she redid the n***** rider to get approval of young Lily too.” This happened because Lively wasn’t involved in writing those scenes and wanted to make sure they were handled carefully.

The texts show that after the editors celebrated earning a PG-13 rating for the film, they discussed whether to keep a particular “thrust” scene.

A participant named Henny Grace said it was ultimately “gonna end up being a Blake call honestly. If you can get her to keep it in and it’s in the movie when I get it back it can stay in. She has ‘approval’ of that scene.” This suggests Lively had final say over some important creative decisions.

Even the more sensitive scenes involving young Lily had to be approved by Lively, with Grace explaining that “she didn’t want a character depicting her to have s** in high school. honestly – it’s all about control so she could get where she will be next week.”

The messages also reveal frustration from the editors. When Grace mentioned Lively’s control over the intimate scenes, editor Rob Sullivan responded with “SMH,” showing his annoyance. It’s clear from the texts that even the crew wasn’t thrilled with how much Lively was pushing for changes.

These messages were originally shared with Lively’s lawyers by Justin Baldoni, according to legal filings reported by Business Insider. Baldoni had handed them over in response to one of Lively’s subpoenas.

What makes this situation interesting is that the texts seem to prove Baldoni’s claims that Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, took a lot of creative control over the movie. Despite Baldoni being the director, Lively was heavily involved in rewrites and decisions on set.

By releasing these messages, Lively’s team hoped to justify why they need editor Rob Sullivan’s testimony. But instead, this new evidence might end up helping Baldoni’s side more, showing that Lively really was calling many of the shots.

𝚕𝚒𝚕𝚢 𝚋𝚕𝚘𝚘𝚖'𝚜 𝚒𝚜 𝚗𝚘𝚠 𝚘𝚙𝚎𝚗. #ItEndsWithUsMovie – exclusively in theaters august 9. ♡ pic.twitter.com/MmfoRMSf1P

— It Ends With Us (@ItEndsWithUs) May 16, 2024

It’s a messy legal fight, and these texts give a rare peek behind the scenes of It Ends With Us. What do you think about Lively’s level of control over the film?