On the night of Aug. 6, 2024, actress Blake Lively and actor Justin Baldoni hit the red carpet for the premier of their new film, It Ends With Us. The film, based on the book of the same name by Colleen Hoover, is about the abusive relationship between Lily Bloom (Lively) and Ryle Kincaid (Baldoni). As the premier in New York progressed, it quickly became clear that Lively, Hoover and Baldoni had different approaches to how they were choosing to promote the film.
It Ends With Us contains scenes of domestic violence several times throughout the film, with a graphic sexual assault scene and multiple scenes where Ryle is seen hitting, pushing or otherwise harming Lily. The film’s source material, written by Colleen Hoover, also includes these incidents as well, graphically describing to the reader how Lily is abused by Ryle. The book is based on Colleen Hoover’s own experiences as a child watching her mother be abused by her father.
It seems to be intuitive, then, that Hoover’s intention with the novel was to highlight the importance of stopping the cycle of abuse and showcase the immense strength and difficulty it takes for a woman to leave an abusive relationship. This, however, was not the case.
In early 2023, Hoover announced a coloring book based on It Ends With Us, an apparent cash-grab that did not sit well with a majority of her readers. Less than 24 hours after she made the post announcing the book, she deleted it and issued an apology online, calling her announcement “tone-deaf” and letting everyone know that she told her publisher she would “prefer we don’t move forward with it.”
Now that the It Ends With Us movie has come out, it seems history is repeating itself. The movie, much like the book, was developed with the goal of raising awareness about domestic violence. Justin Baldoni, the star and director of the film, spent most of his press tour highlighting the importance of breaking the cycle of abuse and of supporting abuse survivors.
Baldoni seems to be in the minority when it comes to his approach to the press tour, however. Contrary to Baldoni’s marketing tactics, actress Blake Lively (Lily Bloom) seemed to be completely turned off from doing anything to raise awareness about domestic violence. In fact, Lively seemed to refuse to talk about it at all, a strange move on her part, especially considering the fact that the movie is about Lily’s journey through domestic abuse.
During multiple promotional videos made with Hoover, Lively tells her audience to “grab [their] friends, wear [their] florals, and head out to see it!” The movie is about domestic violence, something that is graphically portrayed throughout the film, yet Lively and Hoover promoted it as if it was a romantic comedy perfect for girl’s night. As the press tour continued, Lively and Hoover maintained their purposefully avoidant behavior when it came to the actual content of the film.
As reflected by the thousands of people publicly bashing Lively and Hoover’s approach to promoting the movie, the way that the two conducted themselves during their press tour was unacceptable. As public figures, Lively and Hoover have a responsibility to talk about uncomfortable issues when they star in movies and write books about them.
Hoover and Lively should have done better when it came to raising awareness about domestic violence and when it came to providing resources for those struggling. The way that Hoover and Lively chose to talk about It Ends With Us was not just problematic and wrong, it was harmful to the 35% of women who are victims of domestic violence and who deserved better than two people who marketed a film about abuse like it was a romantic comedy. In the future, it is essential that public figures remain conscious of their responsibility to inform and support those who they represent, something that Lively and Hoover tremendously failed at.
