Drama seems to follow the cast of Colleen Hoover’s hit novel turned movie, “It Ends With Us”. The movie stars Blake Lively known for “Gossip Girl” and Justin Baldoni known for “Jane the Virgin”. The movie tackles the subject of domestic abuse, Baldoni playing the abuser, Lively playing the victim. The question everyone has been asking is if their roles have become reality, in some way or form. Recent allegations from both parties have reminded me of a very similar case years ago, between Johnny Deep and actress Amber Heard.
Three years ago actor Johnny Depp sued his ex wife, Amber Heard, for defamation due to a story she wrote for the Washington Post, where she refers to herself as a domestic abuse survivor. The public connected the dots, and placed Depp as the abuser. This brought Depp under public scrutiny. Five years earlier in 2017, Depp and Heard went through a very public divorce, and at the end they released a joint statement that said the claims of abuse from Depp and false accusations for money from Heard were false. So, in 2022 when Amber completely came forward about the abuse, Deep then in return accused her of abuse. This altered the public’s view of Amber, many people believed she was then lying. Deep was a wealthy, known, and liked man in Hollywood. It was easy to believe Amber had tried to take advantage of that, especially because she had Deep’s claims of abuse weighing her down. However, Amber proved to be telling the truth, in the verdict, the judge ruled that 12 out of the 14 alleged incidents Deep had assaulted Heard. I believe this is a clear example of society’s blatant disregard to believe women, especially when there are some skeletons in the closet on the victims ends, similar to the Blake Lively case.
On December 20th, 2024, Blake Lively filed a sexual harassment complaint against co-star Justin Baldoni. Now this came after a slew of scrutiny towards Lively for a variety of reasons. Old interviews of Lively from years ago where she was being rude to several reporters reappeared, her antebellum themed wedding to actor husband Ryan Reynolds on a slave plantation was brought up, but her biggest controversy being mentioned was her promotion of “It Ends with Us”. Critics said that Lively didn’t take the movie seriously due to her avoidance of the movie’s focus on abuse during the promotion. Many said instead of addressing the movie’s subject matter of domestic violence, she was using the movie as a way to promote her new hairline. Constantly bringing her brand up in red carpet interviews and articles. However, during several interviews of the movie’s press tour Baldoni talked about the importance of ending domestic abuse and the awareness the film brought to it. And possibly the biggest surprise from the press tour was that Lively and Baldoni never once appeared together, not even on the red carpet. This sparked rumors on social media that Lively, an executive producer of the film, and her husband Ryan Renyolds (who had a part in screenwriting) pushed Baldoni out of the creative process. As these rumors grew, fans began to rally with Baldoni and despise Blake Lively. So when Lively made her accusations against Baldoni, the media immediately started calling her a liar, largely influenced by her past faults. When I asked Millbrook 10th grader Chanlar Brewington if she believes Lively she said, “I believe a part of it has happened, but she’s had some other problems.” While Blake has made mistakes in her past, the immediate accusations of Blake lying out of an act of desperation to clear her name, especially when there has been such little evidence and no trial is inequitable. On December 24, Baldoni’s ex-publicist sued Baldoni and his PR team, and claimed that Justin Baldoni made a calculated smear campaign against Blake Lively. Baldoni has now hired Bryan Freedman, a lawyer who was heavily connected to Depp in his case with Heard, and Baldoni having the same PR firm as Depp further correlations between the two cases.
Now maybe Blake is lying, or maybe she’s telling the truth. That’s not for me to decide. However, I can give her a fair chance to argue for her side. I understand that it’s easy to resent her for her past, and Millbrook 10th grader Sanaia Spaulding said, “There have been so many rumors, it’s kind of a lot.” In Heard’s case there were rumors, allegations, claims of dishonesty, but in the end Heard was found to be telling the truth. Society puts so much pressure on women in the spotlight, and gives them such little room for fault. I don’t condone Blake Lively’s mistakes, but I do believe someone can be a victim and have done wrong as well. Regardless of the case’s outcome, I encourage people to reflect on how they judge a person because it’s not always black and white.
