Blake Lively accuses It Ends With Us director Justin Baldoni of sexual harassment, launching smear campaign
She alleges that Baldoni improvised unplanned physicality during sex scenes and orchestrated a retaliation strategy in case allegations against him went public.
By
Wesley Stenzel
Published on December 21, 2024 05:48PM EST
Blake Lively is taking legal action against
Justin Baldoni.
The
Gossip Girl star has submitted
an 80-page complaint against the
Jane the Virgin actor, accusing him of sexual harassment and coordinating an online smear campaign to damage her reputation as they promoted their 2024 film,
It Ends With Us. The document, which
Entertainment Weekly has obtained and reviewed, also names Baldoni's Wayfarer Studios and producer Jamey Heath, among others, as defendants.
Lively's complaint claims, "Mr. Baldoni, Mr. Heath, and Wayfarer engaged in harassing conduct and failed their obligations to investigate complaints of workplace harassment, to prevent inappropriate and harassing behaviors on set, and to provide avenues for cast and crew members to safely raise concerns to neutral parties so that they could be investigated and appropriately addressed."
The document also claims that Baldoni employed a crisis public relations firm shortly before the film's premiere to establish a "sophisticated, coordinated, and well-financed retaliation plan" in the event that allegations about the director's on-set behavior became public.
Blake Lively; Justin Baldoni.
Cindy Ord/Getty; John Nacion/Variety via Getty
Its strategy, the complaint alleges, was designed to plant stories, social media posts, and comments that framed Lively in a negative light while simultaneously reinforcing a favorable image of Baldoni. "Mr. Baldoni was desperate to suppress any suggestion that he engaged [in] inappropriate conduct, much less sexually harassing conduct, because it would entirely undermine his carefully curated public image as a feminist ally," the complaint states. Lively's filing includes excerpts from thousands of pages of text messages and email correspondence that she obtained through a subpoena.
"I hope that my legal action helps pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak up about misconduct and helps protect others who may be targeted," Lively said in a statement to
The New York Times.
Bryan Freedman, the attorney representing Baldoni and Wayfarer, responded to the complaint in a statement to EW.
"It is shameful that Ms. Lively and her representatives would make such serious and categorically false accusations against Mr. Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios, and its representatives as yet another desperate attempt to 'fix' her negative reputation, which was garnered from her own remarks and actions during the campaign for the film — interviews and press activities that were observed publicly, in real time and unedited, which allowed for the internet to generate their own views and opinions," he said. "These claims are completely false, outrageous, and intentionally salacious, with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media."
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Freedman continued, "The representatives of Wayfarer Studios still did nothing proactive nor retaliated, and only responded to incoming media inquiries to ensure balanced and factual reporting and monitored social activity. What is pointedly missing from the cherry-picked correspondence [in Lively's complaint] is the evidence that there were no proactive measures taken with media or otherwise; just internal scenario planning and private correspondence to strategize, which is standard operating procedure with public relations professionals."
Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni in 'It Ends With Us'.
Sony
The complaint claims that Baldoni — who directed the film and played Ryle Kincaid, the abusive husband of Lively's Lily Bloom — "improvised physical intimacy that had not been rehearsed, choreographed, or discussed" with Lively without the use of an intimacy coordinator. His alleged actions included unplanned kissing, caressing her neck with his mouth, and making comments about the way she smelled.
The document also alleges that Baldoni "pressured" Lively to "simulate full nudity" while filming a scene in which her character gives birth. Lively's attorneys claim that Baldoni hired his close friend to play the doctor in the scene, which she found "invasive and humiliating" because "the actor's face and hands were in close proximity to her nearly nude genitalia."
The complaint later accuses Baldoni of making suggestive remarks about Lively's outfit and body at a bar in front of other cast and crew members, telling Lively that he had not always received consent in sexual relationships, discussing his past porn addiction, setting her up with a weight-loss specialist without her approval, sharing unwanted details about his sex life and asking Lively about her own, claiming he communed with Lively's dead father, and "invading her personal space when she was undressed and vulnerable" while breastfeeding her baby.
Lively's complaint also alleges that Baldoni and Heath constantly touched and hugged cast and crew members and would become "irritated, cold, and uncollaborative" when people on set, such as Lively, sought to avoid these interactions.
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Lively says that, as a result of Baldoni's alleged behavior, she attempted to report the director to the human resources department at Sony, the studio that distributed
It Ends With Us. However, the complaint states that Sony told the actress that only Wayfarer was empowered to control Baldoni. The complaint also claims that "Wayfarer, Mr. Baldoni, and Mr. Heath received or were aware of a number of HR grievances regarding their conduct" and that shortly after Lively voiced her concerns to Sony, another unnamed cast member filed a complaint against Baldoni for "'gross' and 'unwanted comment
' towards her and others."
Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively in 'It Ends With Us'.
Nicole Rivelli/Sony
The document claims that after production halted during the 2023 guild strikes, Lively, Baldoni, Heath, Reynolds, and several other producers and executives attended an "all-hands" meeting, wherein all parties allegedly agreed to a list of 30 terms that established clear boundaries and courses of action for the remainder of the shoot. The list included provisions that Baldoni would not make comments about his sex life, porn addiction, or Lively's appearance again, and that an intimacy coordinator would be present to avoid further improvisation during Lively's intimate scenes.
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Once it came time to promote the film, Sony implemented a marketing plan that recommended the cast and crew "focus more on Lily’s strength and resilience as opposed to describing the film as a story about domestic violence," per a planning document attached to the complaint as an exhibit.
Lively and the rest of the cast agreed to those recommendations, and also avoided Baldoni at the film's New York premiere in August, which generated considerable discussion online.
The complaint alleges that Baldoni intentionally "pivoted away from the film's marketing plan to explain his absence from the rest of the cast."
"He shifted his focus away from a message of female triumph to instead capitalize on female trauma," it states. "After the film's premiere, Mr. Baldoni changed his Instagram profile, cancelled lighthearted social media posts, and instructed his team to look for survivors' reactions and support — all in an effort to quickly shift his own public narrative to focus solely on survivors and domestic violence organizations."
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Baldoni and Wayfarer also successfully "manipulated the social conversation to discredit and 'bury' Ms. Lively in retaliation for reporting her concerns about harassing and unsafe conduct during the production of the film, and in the hopes of deterring Ms. Lively from potentially taking those same concerns public," the complaint states. "This campaign has been [devastating] to Ms. Lively, including by causing substantial harm to Ms. Lively, her family, as well as her businesses and all the people who work at each of them."
The complaint also claims that "when it became clear that this media blitz was the result of an intentionally seeded, cultivated, and financed campaign against her, Ms. Lively began to experience mental, physical, professional, and financial harms that continue to this day." This allegedly resulted in her backing out of her plans to host the season premiere of
Saturday Night Live and drastically impacting her business ventures.
"The emotional impact on Ms. Lively has been extreme, not only affecting her, but her family, including her husband and four children," the document claims. "There are days when she has struggled to get out of bed, and she frequently chooses not to venture outside in public. While she has fought to maintain her personal life and business interests, behind closed doors she has suffered from grief, fear, trauma, and extreme anxiety. She also has been experiencing repeated and painful physical symptoms as a result of this experience. Mr. Reynolds, too, has been affected mentally, physically, and professionally by his wife and children's pain. Worst of all, however, has been the impact on their young children, who have been traumatized and emotionally uprooted in ways that have substantially impacted their well-being."
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