Okay, Let’s Talk About It Ends With Us, That Press Tour, and the Endless Tedium of Self-Promotion

On a bad movie, a bad promo campaign, and a bad excuse to shill shampoo.

I wrote a tweet a couple of weeks back about Blake Lively’s very tonally questionable approach to the promotion of her latest film, It Ends With Us. Based on the wildly popular novel by Colleen Hoover, queen of BookTok, the film is about a florist named Lily Blossom Bloom (yes, really) who enters a fiery and ultimately abusive relationship with a man named Ryle. I wrote, "Whatever is going on with the It Ends With Us drama, it is extremely weird for Blake Lively to turn the promotional tour of a domestic violence drama into a platform for her to strengthen her fashion plate status & her and Ryan Reynolds' power couple clout." That tweet went viral and has ended up on a bunch of sites talking about the drama surrounding the promo of this terrible film (going viral sucks. Don't do it, kids.)

To sum it up as quickly as I can: the cast and Hoover all seemed to unfollow director and leading man Justin Baldoni on social media, and notably avoided him on the red carpet. While he talked about Lively and his team very graciously, Lively seemed to blank him altogether. Stories started emerging that behind-the-scenes drama had led to a rift, largely over final cut of the film and Lively’s apparent demand for more creative control. While Baldoni talked about the domestic violence issues of the story, Lively seemed curiously silent on the topic until forced to make a couple of Instagram stories (not posts, stories) on the matter. She spent a lot more time selling her new beauty line and cocktails brand.

Then, it was reported that Baldoni had hired a publicist to help him navigate this strange part in his career. We saw stories claiming that Baldoni made Lively uncomfortable on set by asking for her weight, which were explained by him needing to check it was okay for him to be able to lift her up and not aggravate a back injury. Sony released a statement claiming that Lively was a hero for promoting the issue of violence against women. Deadline published a hilariously fawning article claiming that Lively as "a creative tour de force" in making the film into a "motion picture event" (and not, you know, the fact that it's one of the biggest selling books of the decade.) Pretty much everyone involved made it clear that they were Team Blake.

Fans started to question what was going on. Why was People seemingly pushing so many pro-Blake stories at once? Why was nobody talking about the actual director? Hell, why was nobody talking about the domestic abuse themes? Even Colleen Hoover had to lock her TikTok page down after the comments became too numerous. Some started crying sexism, claiming people were out to get Lively. People have taken sides. It Ends With Us has made a lot of money. The war continues.

It’s taken me a while to put together my thoughts on this, partly because it’s an ongoing story and I didn’t want to prematurely come to a conclusion. This movie is still making a lot of money and we’re watching the warring PR spin happen in real time in a way that, while not new, is being watched with fevered intensity by outsiders. Some think it’s all a set-up to capture the buzz of something like Don’t Worry Darling, forgetting that, in that case, the film didn’t make any money and a lot of the drama was detailed before anyone ever saw it. With It Ends With Us, the strange tension and industry warring didn’t come to light until it was mere days from premiering. The film succeeded in spite of this drama (and in spite of middling reviews because an adaptation of a book that beloved was always going to be a commercial smash.) All of this furore has done more to dent Lively’s image than a box office hit has done to bolster it.

I must admit that I find it hard to look at Blake Lively’s machinations objectively. Subscribers may have already read my piece on her doomed attempt to replicate the success of Goop, an overwritten and hazily defined blog called Preserve that included lavish praises on the “allure of Antebellum.” The woman who got married on a plantation eagerly selling a racist fantasy as an excuse to shill artisanal mustard is not someone who I’m able to view as an earnest figure with business savvy. Sure, she’s grown but I’m forever unable to see past the intense cynicism of her later endeavours. Launching an alcohol line when you admit that you don’t drink because you don’t like how it makes you feel cannot help but feel particularly conniving.

So, when Lively seemed to spend most of her promotional cycle shilling her various brands, including the Blake-Ryan power couple one, I wasn’t even surprised. The whole thing felt like an excuse to position herself as a serious multi-hyphenate figure of Hollywood clout, from her fashion plate reputation to bragging about how Reynolds helped work on the script of the film (something that surprised the actual screenwriter of It Ends With Us and had many wondering if he broke WGA strike rules in the process.) Reynolds did all of this mere weeks before with Deadpool & Wolverine. He’s basically the Sham-Wow guy now, a brand man rather than an actor. But it’s one thing to use a goofy superhero movie as a platform to sell gin; it’s quite another to sell shampoo and drinks off the back of a domestic abuse drama.

Also, at the risk of being a b*tch, I think Lively is all wrong for a haircare line. Her own hair is clearly quite dry and damaged, and isn’t a great advert for her own product. Plus, it’s all rather poorly designed from an accessibility perspective. At least it’s reasonably affordable? Oh, your secret is that you don’t use conditioner? We can tell.

I don’t say any of this to position myself as some sort of Justin Baldoni fangirl. I truly had no idea who he was until this film (sorry, Jane the Virgin fans.) I doubt he made It Ends With Us for wholly altruistic reasons. Nobody in this business does it all for the art. I’m always hesitant to side with the man in the entertainment industry anyway. We’ve seen how often that gets you burned. The publicist he’s hired worked for some real sh*tbags, like accused abuser Johnny Depp, so it’s natural to be cynical about his intentions in that regard. The common PR response to this sort of fight is to be super sexist and throw the woman under the bus. I’ve seen accusations Baldoni’s team are hiring anti-Blake bots but no verifiable evidence to back it up. Largely, the response has been reasonably dignified. He hasn’t attacked Blake or Hoover, or at least hasn’t in any overt ways. The straight white guy has to do a lot less heavy lifting in this field (but I do think people claiming that Baldoni is trying to do to Lively what Depp did to Amber Heard are being wilfully stupid. Heard’s ex-husband ruined her life, career, and credibility by successfully smearing her as the “real abuser” despite him losing a libel case on the matter in an English court. People being kind of mean and sceptical of Lively is not the same thing. Keep Amber’s name out of your mouths.)

Lively and Baldoni’s teams are working overtime, but it’s also clear that the former is packing more heat. She is Mrs. Reynolds, after all, and the far more recognizable star. Her bone-headed attempts at “clapping back” on interviewers show that this isn’t her strongest field, and some of those went horribly viral in recent days, but the more well-paid side tends to win by sheer brute force. If you’re a studio head, would you want to piss off Lady Deadpool? And yes, always connecting her to her husband is an issue, but the Lively-Reynolds household has been working overtime to sell themselves as an almighty unit of power and influence. They want to be the biggest power couple in the business. If they didn’t want to reinforce that image at every turn, why would they be collaborating on one another’s films in ways that no other actor would get away with?

Brandon Sklenar, who plays Atlas in the film, dropped a baffling statement on Instagram defending the women of the film, but never mentioning Baldoni. "Vilifying the women who put so much of their heart and soul into making this film because they believe so strongly in its message seems counterproductive and detracts from what the film is about," he wrote. He closed the comments. Frankly, I found his words to be both calculating and messy. Trying to implicitly connect criticism of Lively and company’s tone-deafness to condemnation of the film’s domestic abuse themes is amateur hour sh*t. And again, not mentioning the director and co-star is the elephant in the room of this whole issue. You can call cynicism on Baldoni for many reasons, but when he was the only one regularly talking about domestic violence in interviews and on the red carpet, you can’t push him to the margins to big up those who did nothing. If Lively and the women of the film were so responsible for the making of it (which is a whole other mess), then surely they’re also responsible for how it’s sold?

But as I said in my review over on Pajiba, It Ends With Us is a bad film because it’s based on a bad book. Both are tonally confused messes that cannot decide what they really want to be, and in trying to be everything, they dilute the serious topics at the heart of the narrative. It’s weird that a film about an abusive relationship is shot like a perfume ad, with Taylor Swift songs in there to remind you of Blake’s BFF. It’s misguided to see Reynolds shtick banter share the screen with rape, or the token wacky best friend supporting characters mugging in the same story where a woman is traumatized by generational abuse. Maybe a more skilled author and director could juggle these disparate moods. After all, domestic abuse often happens at the hands of charming, funny, and loving people who seem like dreamboats to the outside world. Here, however, it lands with a dull thud, the symptom of pure hack-work by people who aren’t adept in portraying the prickly nuances of human nature.

Maybe that’s why the marketing has been so tone deaf, with posters and trailers that suggest a rom-com rather than a domestic drama. The book frequently reads like it wants to be a rom-com or a classic spicy romantic drama with dark moments. It’s frequently shelved as a romance despite categorically not being one, and Hoover herself has delved into branding opportunities that rely on this deceit. She originally planned to release an It Ends With Us colouring book, but pulled that after fan backlash. She did get a nail polish line out, though, because nothing says cutesy day at the salon like a reminder of rape and beatings. It’s no wonder Lively thought she could sell shampoo with this film. I’m sure if, given the opportunity, Hoover would as well.

(Jesus f*cking Christ…)

Bridgette Stumpf, founder and executive director of Network for Victim Recovery of DC., wrote an op-ed for The Hollywood Reporter wherein she noted, "While I applaud Ms. Lively for her statement on her Instagram story which acknowledged how prevalent this issue is in the U.S., many people will not see this. Instead of a statement after the fact, the film could have made a powerful statement, true to its intentions, by partnering with the National Domestic Violence Hotline or even offering hyper-local resources based on the theater the film is screened in. More communication is better, and these same sentiments should have been shown in the theater immediately following the film." She also commended Baldoni for working with NO MORE, a foundation dedicated to ending domestic and sexual violence, but added that, "with just a couple of additions, he could've stuck the landing."

That’s what really makes me queasy at the end of the day. For pretty much everyone involved, domestic violence was a piece of content, a selling point to be obscured or a platform to shill personal brands. I know a lot of people found solace in It Ends With Us and I do not begrudge them that. Sometimes bad art is a necessary salve, and I’ve never been in the position of Lily Bloom or others like her so I cannot judge anyone for their tastes or choices. But I can judge Sony for selling a domestic violence story as a cutesy rom-com, judge Colleen Hoover for not sticking her own landing, judge Blake Lively for her wilful ignorance and self-interest, and a system that puts profit over people. If anyone comes out of this mess relatively clean, it is Baldoni, but he’s been forced into the mud-pile with everyone else because ego and clout matter more than the story.

And ultimately, what will happen is that Blake Lively will sell shampoo, Colleen Hoover will sell books, Sony will sell tickets, and the cycle will continue. The real winners here are the ones who want to make money by any means necessary. There is a sequel to It Ends With Us. If it’s commissioned, don’t be surprised if Lively is in the director’s chair and there are lots of close-ups of her shampoo.

Also, f*cking apologize for getting married on a plantation, you weirdo.

If you or anyone you know has been impacted by domestic violence, visit a site like Refuge in the UK. Check out this list of local charities and organizations in the USA.