Blake Lively, star of the breakout summer hit “It Ends With Us,” took to Instagram Tuesday morning to discuss the film’s domestic violence narrative.
Accompanied by a video of a BBC red carpet interview, Lively wrote in a story post, “Thank you to everyone who came to show that people WANT to see films about women, and the multitudes we hold. ‘It Ends With Us‘ is a story of the female experience. All the highest highs, and the lowest lows. And we are so proud of it. We have been in celebration of this film and of getting a message so important out there to the masses.”
In a follow-up post, Lively shared a link to the National Domestic Violence Hotline resource page, adding that, “1 in 4 women aged 18 and older in the U.S. alone have been the victim of severe physical violence by an intimate partner in their lifetime. Intimate partner violence affects all genders, including more than 12 million people every year in the United States. Everyone deserves relationships free from domestic violence.”
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This post comes after a handful of vocal internet critics expressed concern surrounding the film’s “grab your friends and wear your florals” marketing. While on the press tour for “It Ends With Us,” Lively and other members of the production encouraged fans to “wear your florals” while seeing the film, in reference to her character Bloom, who is a florist. Social media critics have chastised the campaign, saying that the focus on the fun, lighthearted flower motif is completely inappropriate for a film about domestic violence.
“It Ends With Us” is based on Colleen Hoover’s 2016 bestseller of the same name. The story is centered around Lily Bloom(Lively) who falls in love with Ryle Kincaid (Justin Baldoni) and gets married. Over time, their relationship evolves into something more and more violent, and Ryle eventually assaults her. Hoover wrote the book based on her own experiences growing up and witnessing the challenges her mother faced with in her relationship with her father.
This online conversation about “It Ends With Us” was bolstered by earlier whispers of discord between the cast and the film’s director Justin Baldoni, which began to circulate when internet sleuths pointed out that many members of the cast had unfollowed Baldoni’s social media channels including Lively, Jenny Slate, Brandon Sklenar and the book’s author Hoover.
Rumors kicked up when Baldoni arrived to the film’s premiere with his wife Emily Baldoni, who appears in the film. While the director posted pictures in a pink suit solo, Lively posted with the film’s secondary love interest Sklenar, Slate and Hoover.
Regardless of the conversation surrounding the film, “It Ends With Us” has been an unexpected box office sensation, opening to the tune of $50 million in a traditionally sluggish late summer release window.
Plus, there have been many positive reviews about the film, including PvNew’s Owen Gleiberman, who praised Lively’s acting writing, “She fills the screen with her acutely aware and slightly tremulous radiance.”
