Blake Lively Sues ‘It Ends With Us’ Co-Star and Director Justin Baldoni for Sexual Harassment
After publicizing misconduct allegations over the filming of It Ends With Us, Blake Lively has sued Justin Baldoni for sexual harassment and orchestrating a campaign to smear her.
Lively, in a lawsuit filed on Tuesday in New York federal court, accuses Baldoni and his public relations team of marshaling a sophisticated, multi-tiered plan to undermine her reputation in retaliation for speaking up about sexual misconduct on the set of the film. The complaint names Baldoni; his film studio, Wayfarer and the public relations representatives, Melissa Nathan and Jennifer Abel, both of whom are alleged to have helped lead the effort to undermine the actress.
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In a statement, Lively’s attorneys said she was subjected to “further retaliation and attacks” after she went public with misconduct allegations against Baldoni and his public relations team in a New York Times report. “Wayfarer and its associates have violated federal and California state law by retaliating against her for reporting sexual harassment and workplace safety concerns,” she added. “Now, the defendants will answer for their conduct in federal court. Ms. Lively has brought this litigation in New York, where much of the relevant activities described in the Complaint took place, but we reserve the right to pursue further action in other venues and jurisdictions as appropriate under the law.”
In the lawsuit, Lively says she had already expressed concerns before It Ends With Us filming began regarding Baldoni allegedly improvising “physical intimacy that had not been rehearsed, choreographed, or discussed with Ms. Lively, with no intimacy coordinator involved.”
Lively also claims that Baldoni tried to add in a graphic sex scene, without her consent, which saw her character orgasm on-camera. According to the suit, he defended the scene, saying, it wanted the characters “to orgasm together on their wedding night, which he said was important to him because he and his partner climax simultaneously during intercourse.” Lively claims Baldoni proceeded to ask personal details about her and her husband Ryan Reynolds’ relationship.
Also in Tuesday’s suit, Lively accuses Baldoni and producer Jamey Heath of pressuring her to perform certain acts for scenes that weren’t originally in the script. For example, Lively alleges that on the day of filming the birth scene, they pressured her to simulate full nudity for the scene, “despite no mention of nudity for this scene in the script, her contract, or in previous creative discussions.” Baldoni defended his reasoning, saying it’s “not normal” for women to keep their hospital gowns on while giving birth, Lively claims. At one point, Lively recalls Heath just coming up to her and showing her and her assistant a video of his fully nude wife giving birth.
Lively’s suit claims there were multiple inappropriate interactions she had with Baldoni and Heath, including Baldoni suggesting to her during a car ride that he had previously engaged in sexual conduct without consent. On the first day of filming, she alleges that Baldoni and Heath also described their past sexual relationships to her, as well as discussed their “previous porn addictions.”
Additionally, the suit alleges that Baldoni would often refer to women on-set as “sexy,” including Lively. The complaint states that another castmember also filed a sexual harassment complaint in May 2023 about Baldoni’s “gross” and “unwanted comment[s]” towards her and others.
Lively alleges that Heath and Baldoni also entered her hair and makeup trailer unannounced on multiple occasions, while she was getting dressed. On one occasion, Heath walked into her trailer “while she was topless and having body makeup removed by makeup artists” to discuss a matter. Though Lively asked him to keep his back turned, she noticed that he kept staring at her directly. When she called him out, Lively claims he just brushed her off.
“Mr. Baldoni and Mr. Heath were also constantly hugging and touching cast and crew,” the complaint reads. “When Ms. Lively or others avoided this touching, Mr. Baldoni and Mr. Heath would retaliate by becoming irritated, cold, and uncollaborative. The result was an unwelcoming and mercurial environment for Ms. Lively, her employees, and others on set.”
According to the suit, Lively made several attempts to raise concerns regarding Baldoni and Heath’s alleged misconduct, however, the reports often went uninvestigated. Once filming was set to resume in November 2023 following the writers and actors strikes, Lively went to Wayfarer Studios with a letter, seeking safeguard on set prior to returning. They ended up holding an “all-hands, in-person” meeting with Lively, Baldoni, Heath and other producers, where Lively was able to express her concerns and resulted in a list of provisions to protect cast and crew members, including having an intimacy coordinator present at all times when Lively as on set.
The lawsuit claims that Wayfarer Studios agreed to the terms, writing, “Wayfarer, Sony and Production respectfully acknowledge that [Ms. Lively] has concerns regarding safety, professionalism and workplace culture. Although our perspective differs in many aspects, ensuring a safe environment for all is paramount.”
When it came to the promotion of It Ends With Us, the lawsuit says that’s when things took another turn. The cast and crew were also under a contractual obligation to promote the film as previously determined in the demands, which they decided would focus “more on Lily’s [Lively’s character] strength and resilience as opposed to describing the film as a story about domestic violence.” They were also supposed to “avoid talking about this film that makes it feel sad or heavy [sic]—it’s a story of hope.”
However, in the days leading up to the film’s release in August, the suit accuses Baldoni of pivoting and starting to focus on more serious aspects of the story. It alleges that Baldoni and his team did so in an effort to explain why many of the film’s cast and crew unfollowed him on social media and refused to appear with him in public. “To that end, he and his team used domestic violence ‘survivor content’ to protect his public image,” the lawsuit states.
Lively alleged that this was also the start of a “social manipulation” campaign launched by Baldoni and company to allegedly “destroy” her reputation. The lawsuit also includes numerous text exchanges between Baldoni, Nathan and Abel, including about how the actor-director “wants to feel like [Ms. Lively] can be buried,” to which Nathan replied, “We can’t write we will destroy her.”
Bryan Freedman, who represents Baldoni and his public relations team, previously denied all of Lively’s allegations in her initial complaint filed on Dec. 20. On Tuesday, Freedman didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Lively’s legal action was filed around the same time Baldoni sued the Times for allegedly conspiring with Lively’s public relations team to advance an “unverified and self-serving narrative” while ignoring evidence that contradicted her claims.
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