Justin Baldoni Speaks About Working With Blake Lively Amid Drama Rumors

Justin Baldoni is bringing an end to all the It Ends with Us discourse — or at least, he seems to be trying to. As the actor-director has been promoting his complicated new romance flick, social media sleuths have been picking apart telling signs that there may be some deep-seated drama within the cast. Despite all the chatter, Baldoni has been very complimentary of his co-star Blake Lively, recently praising her for how involved she got in their project.

“I don't know if you know how smart and creative she really is,” Baldoni told Today on Aug. 8 when asked about Lively, who was also a producer on It Ends with Us. “I think she's best known as an actress and of course she's a fashion icon, but she is so much more than that. She is a dynamic creative, she had her hands in every part of this production, and everything she touched, she made better.”

Unfortunately, Baldoni’s kind words about Lively probably won’t quell the social media frenzy that’s convinced there’s a rift between the two movie stars. Especially since Baldoni’s remark about Lively having “her hand in every part of this production” falls in line with one of the most popular theories about this supposed drama.

The whole viral saga bubbled up after fans noticed Baldoni and Lively hadn’t been doing press together, something that’s a bit strange but not unheard-of for the two leads of a romantic movie. But it kicked into high gear at the movie’s New York premiere on Aug. 6, when Baldoni and Lively noticeably did not take any photos together. TikTokers then began pointing out some strange behavior from people close to Baldoni at that premiere, and a larger theory soon formed after Lively revealed her husband Ryan Reynolds actually re-wrote a major scene in the movie.

A now-viral investigation into the situation guesses that creative control of the movie is what may have caused Baldoni and Lively’s rift, especially if Reynolds did have more input than was expected.

However, all of this is nothing more than speculation at this point. Taking Baldoni’s words at face value, it sounds like he and Lively got along very well. So maybe we don’t need to worry, darlings.