Blake Lively has filed a complaint with the California Civil Rights Department alleging sexual harassment by director and co-star Justin Baldoni during the filming of “It Ends With Us,” and a subsequent smear campaign to damage her reputation.
The complaint, obtained by The Associated Press and filed Friday, names Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios, and Baldoni’s publicists as defendants. It precedes a potential lawsuit.
Lively accuses Baldoni and the studio of a coordinated effort to harm her reputation after she and Ryan Reynolds confronted them about Baldoni’s and a producer’s behavior on set.
This alleged plan involved spreading negative information online, orchestrating social media campaigns, and planting critical news stories about Lively.
The complaint alleges Baldoni used publicists and crisis managers in a calculated retaliation to silence Lively, aiming to “bury” and “destroy” her if she went public.
“To prevent Ms. Lively from revealing the truth about Mr. Baldoni, the BaldoniWayfarer team created, planted, amplified, and boosted content designed to destroy Ms. Lively’s credibility,” the complaint states. “They used the same techniques to bolster Mr. Baldoni’s credibility and suppress any negative content about him.”
The complaint also states Baldoni shifted the film’s marketing strategy and used “domestic violence ‘survivor content’ to protect his public image.
Bryan Freedman, Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios, and their representatives’ attorney, dismissed the claims as “completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious.”
He countered Lively’s allegations of a coordinated campaign, stating the studio proactively hired a crisis manager in response to Lively’s “multiple demands and threats” during production.
Freedman also claimed Lively threatened to boycott the film’s set and promotional activities unless her demands were met.
While the statement didn’t specify these demands, Lively’s complaint lists 30, which she said Baldoni and others agreed to after a tense meeting about her hostile work environment concerns.
These included demands to cease showing nude videos or images of women on set, avoid discussions about pornography, sex, or genitalia, and to refrain from discussing her weight, religious beliefs, or deceased father without her consent.
The complaint also stipulated the presence of an intimacy coordinator during scenes with Baldoni, preventing him from entering her trailer or the makeup trailer while she was undressed, and prohibiting unscripted kissing or the addition of unapproved sex scenes.
“I hope that my legal action helps pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak up about misconduct and helps protect others who may be targeted,” Lively stated to the Times. A representative for Lively referred the AP to the Times report, where she denied planting or spreading negative information about Baldoni or the studio.
It Ends With Us, an adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s novel, debuted in August with $50 million in revenue. However, speculation about discord between Lively and Baldoni surrounded its release. Baldoni took a less prominent role in promoting the film, while Lively and Reynolds were actively involved in publicity.
Baldoni, known for his work on “Jane the Virgin,” “Five Feet Apart,” and the book “Man Enough,” responded to criticism that the film romanticized domestic violence, stating that critics were “absolutely entitled to that opinion.”
“If anybody has had that real-life experience, I can imagine how hard it would be to imagine their experience being in a romance novel,” he said. “To them, I would just offer that we were very intentional in the making of this movie.”
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Philip Marcelo in New York contributed to this report.