As Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively’s he-said, she-said legal battle rages on, his lawyer has released footage from the set of It Ends With Us that Baldoni’s team believes proves his side of the story.
The footage obtained by Us Weekly on Tuesday, January 21, began with a statement that read, “Ms. Lively’s complaint alleges that during a scene Mr. Baldoni and Ms. Lively were filming for a slow dance montage, Mr. Baldoni was behaving inappropriately. The following videos captured on May 23, 2023, clearly refute Ms. Lively’s characterization of his behavior. The scene in question was designed to show the two characters falling in love and longing to be close to one another. Both actors are clearly behaving well within the scope of the scene and with mutual respect and professionalism. These are all three takes filmed of the sequence.”
In the clip, Baldoni, 40, and Lively, 37, smiled and laughed as they filmed a dancing scene with no dialogue.
As the twosome began to dance in the clip, Lively said that she thinks it would be “more romantic” if she and Baldoni were talking in the scene.
“I know you and Ryan [Reynolds] talk all the time,” Baldoni said to Lively, referring to her husband. “Oh, my Gosh, we don’t shut up,” she replied.
Baldoni then shared that he and his wife, Emily, have moments where they stare at each other for five minutes. Lively laughed at the remark as Baldoni added, “I think you would find it terrifying.” Baldoni replied, “I’d be like, ‘Oh no, I found a sociopath.’”
When Baldoni said that he thinks Lively and Reynolds are “cute,” she replied, “I think it’s more than cute.” He added, “I think it’s amazing.”
As Lively and Baldoni kissed in the scene, she began to laugh. “I feel so nosey. I mean it’s like just noses,” she said, to which Baldoni replied, “I know. And my nose is so big.” Lively added, “Yes, I was hoping that we could address this. It’s not too late. Just gotta shut down. Gotta call an insurance month, and just deal with that. Just kidding.”
Justin Baldoni’s legal battle with It Ends With Us costar Blake Lively continues with a brand-new explosive lawsuit. According to the filing obtained by Us Weekly on Thursday, January 16, Baldoni, 40, is accusing Lively, 37, her publicist, Leslie Sloane, and Ryan Reynolds of civil extortion, defamation, false light invasion of privacy and other claims. […]
Baldoni responded, “No it’s true. That’s why we hired Jenny Slate, too, our noses match.” (Baldoni and Slate portrayed siblings in the movie, which was based on Colleen Hoover’s novel of the same name.)
Before the end of the nearly 10-minute video, the twosome began the scene again. In this take, Baldoni nuzzled Lively on the neck and asked if he was “getting beard” on Lively. She replied with a laugh, “I’m probably getting spray tan on you,” to which he said, “It smells good.” Lively added, “Well, it’s not that. It’s my body makeup.”
After the video was first published by the Daily Mail on Tuesday, Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, said in a statement to Us: “Us received this video from legal counsel, Bryan Freedman who has gone on record numerous times and told the public that Justin Baldoni and team has nothing to hide and this video, once more proves this. Justin and team have the right to defend themselves with the truth and this is what we will be continuing to show with the upcoming website containing all correspondence as well as relevant videos that directly quash her claims.”
Following the release of the video, Lively slammed Baldoni and his team for choosing to drop it publicly.
“Justin Baldoni and his lawyer may hope that this latest stunt will get ahead of the damaging evidence against him, but the video itself is damning. Every frame of the released footage corroborates, to the letter, what Ms. Lively described in Paragraph 48 of her Complaint,” Lively’s legal team said in a statement to Us on Tuesday. “The video shows Mr. Baldoni repeatedly leaning in toward Ms. Lively, attempting to kiss her, kissing her forehead, rubbing his face and mouth against her neck, flicking her lip with his thumb, caressing her, telling her how good she smells, and talking with her out of character.”
The statement continued: “Every moment of this was improvised by Mr. Baldoni with no discussion or consent in advance and no intimacy coordinator present. Mr. Baldoni was not only Ms. Lively’s costar, but the director, the head of [the] studio and Ms. Lively’s boss.”
“The video shows Ms. Lively leaning away and repeatedly asking for the characters to just talk. Any woman who has been inappropriately touched in the workplace will recognize Ms. Lively’s discomfort,” the statement read. “They will recognize her attempts at levity to try to deflect the unwanted touching. No woman should have to take defensive measures to avoid being touched by their employer without their consent.”
“This matter is in active litigation in federal court. Releasing this video to the media, rather than presenting it as evidence in court, is another example of an unethical attempt to manipulate the public. It is also a continuation of their harassment and retaliatory campaign. While they are focused on misleading media narratives, we are focused on the legal process. We are continuing our efforts to require Mr. Baldoni and his associates to answer in court, under oath, rather than through manufactured media stunts,” the message concluded.
Months after rumors swirled of a rift between Lively and Baldoni on the set of It Ends With Us, she filed a lawsuit accusing him of sexual harassment. He has denied all allegations.
The aforementioned dance scene is one of the many encounters between the costars that is debated in the docs. In Lively’s December 2024 lawsuit against Baldoni, she claimed of the same scene, “At one point, he leaned forward and slowly dragged his lips from her ear and down her neck as he said, ‘It smells so good.’ None of this was remotely in character, or based on any dialogue in the script, and nothing needed to be said because, again, there was no sound — Mr. Baldoni was caressing Mr. Lively with his mouth in a way that had nothing to do with their roles. When Ms. Lively later objected to this behavior, Ms. Baldoni’s response was, ‘I’m not even attracted to you.’”
In Baldoni’s filing earlier this month against Lively, Reynolds and her publicist, Leslie Sloane, Baldoni referenced the same scene — but had a different takeaway.
“Lively apologized for the smell of her spray tan and body makeup. Baldoni responded, ‘It smells good,’ and continued acting, slow dancing as he believed his character would with his partner, which requires some amount of physical touching,” the filing read.
Months after a reported rift between It Ends With Us costars Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, she sued him for sexual harassment. In the lawsuit, which was filed on Friday, December 20, and obtained by Us Weekly after it was reported on by TMZ and The New York Times, Lively accused Baldoni of launching a […]
According to Baldoni, “Lively took them out of character again and began to joke about Baldoni’s nose, which he laughed off and joked in turn, even as Lively joked that he should get plastic surgery,” his lawsuit stated.
In the same lawsuit, a footnote referred to Lively’s December 2024 lawsuit where she alleged that he body-shamed her on set. The footnote read, “Lively alleges Baldoni inappropriately commented on her physical appearance. It was the other way around.”
While Lively stated in her filing that the “slow dance scene” for the montage had “no sound” recorded, Baldoni claimed in his filing that he was wearing a microphone during the scene and noted that the exchange was captured on camera.
Justin Baldoni initially appeared to have nothing but positive things to say about his It Ends with Us costar, Blake Lively, as reports of an on set feud continue circulating online. The drama officially hit theaters in August 2024, and Baldoni, who both directed and starred opposite Lively, has heaped praise on his onscreen partner. […]
“Any suggestion that this scene was filmed in any manner other than pure professionalism by Baldoni is unequivocally countered with actual evidence,” Baldoni’s filing read. “Her allegation of sexual harassment is a documented and knowingly fabricated lie.”
While referencing Lively’s alleged “derogatory comments” about his appearance, Baldoni claimed in the lawsuit that he “has publicly expressed insecurities about and has discussed on an episode of his podcast, ‘Man Enough,’ exploring the topic of body dysmorphia.”
“Lively’s comment about Baldoni’s nose is also captured on camera,” the lawsuit read. “Baldoni, rather than write down a list of grievances against Lively, brushed it off and moved on with the scene.”
