A newly unsealed private message shows Justin Baldoni complained that Blake Lively was “setting me up for a trap” during the making of “It Ends With Us,” as behind-the-scenes tensions between the co-stars were reportedly escalating.
In a December 30, 2023 text message to Danny Greenberg, his former agent at William Morris Endeavor Entertainment (WME), Baldoni said he had endured a “really, really bad week” dealing with Lively, 38.
According to the message, Baldoni wrote that Lively had contacted him directly and proposed meeting privately at her home, before the conversation shifted toward what he described as a dispute over how the film’s intimate scenes should be shot.
Baldoni, 41, claimed in the exchange that Lively had “refused” to use a body double for sex scenes, prompting Sony executives and producer Todd Black to get involved in the discussion.
“That’s just setting me up for a trap,” he wrote, adding that despite her position, she was still insisting that a body double be used in his place instead.
He also said that Lively rejected his storyboards for the scenes and pushed to keep both actors fully clothed during what he believed was a key romantic moment. “If you know the book, it’s just ridiculous,” Baldoni added.
Describing the situation as “a gigantic clusterf—,” Baldoni told Greenberg he was giving Lively “95% of what she wants for peace,” but said that working with “an actress who is rewriting the writer and director” had been “very draining” and “time-consuming” over the holiday period.
Five days later, on January 4, 2024, Baldoni, Lively, Ryan Reynolds, and studio representatives participated in what was described as an “all-hands” meeting to address a list of 17 protections Lively had requested before production resumed following the industry strikes.
Those measures, which had been agreed to in writing in mid-November 2023, were reportedly intended to address concerns Lively raised regarding on-set conduct and safety.
A source close to Lively counters that “these messages were sent only after Blake had laid out in detail the numerous ways that Baldoni and Heath had created a hostile work environment on the set, after they agreed to more than a dozen ‘protections’ for the safety of the cast and crew.”
The source adds that they were sent “just days ahead of the January 4 meeting at which these protections would be discussed before filming resumed.”
“The text chain underscores Baldoni’s retaliatory intent,” the source continues.
“It reflects his private anger over the same safeguards that he had said in public were both ‘reasonable’ and ‘essential,’ and which he later admitted in his deposition were reasonable, including his resentment for having to show up to an ‘all hands’ meeting he had also agreed to.”
The December 30 exchange surfaced publicly as part of a motion filed by WME, which requested that portions of certain summary-judgment exhibits remain sealed on the grounds that they contained private, non-public internal communications not relevant to the court’s legal findings.
According to court filings, the message was sent months after an alleged April 2023 on-set confrontation in which Ryan Reynolds tearfully confronted Baldoni over what he believed was “fat-shaming” of Lively — an incident witnesses said occurred in view of Taylor Swift and Hugh Jackman.
Greenberg later characterized the internal conflict in stark terms. In a July 2024 deposition, the WME agent described Lively’s conduct during the film as “extortion,” according to transcripts submitted in the case.
The dispute between the two stars escalated into litigation in December 2024, when Lively filed suit against Baldoni and several associates, including Jamey Heath, alleging sexual harassment and retaliation and seeking $160 million in damages.
Baldoni denied the allegations and filed a $400 million countersuit, which was dismissed in June by U.S. District Judge Lewis J. Liman.
