It Ends With Us actor Brandon Sklenar has spoken out in support of Blake Lively amid her lawsuit against director and co-star Justin Baldoni.
The Gossip Girl star sued Baldoni and his production company Wayfarer Studios for sexual harassment and a ‘smear campaign’ to destroy her reputation in a lawsuit filed December 21. Baldoni and his team have since denied all allegations.
The pair starred in the movie adaptation of the controversial 2016 Colleen Hoover book of the same title.
It follows aspiring florist Lily Bloom, who navigates an abusive relationship with Ryle Kincaid (Baldoni) as she reconnects with old flame Atlas Corrigan (Sklenar). Both the novel and the movie had come under fire for appearing to glamorise domestic abuse.
And as the movie’s August 9 release date approached, speculation began mounting around Lively and Baldoni’s alleged ‘friction’ , while Lively also found herself being slammed online during the film’s press tour.
Lively’s 80-page lawsuit alleges various misconduct of a sexual nature and a toxic work environment shadowed over the set, which resulted in her suffering ‘severe emotional distress’.
Lively’s attorneys said the star had made certain requests during filming, which included no more adding of sex scenes, oral sex or on-camera climaxing outside the scope of the script she had approved when signing onto the project.
Meanwhile she alleges Baldoni launched a ‘smear campaign’ against her which she claims impacted her husband, Ryan Reynolds, and their four children.
It emerged Baldoni had hired high-profile PR crisis manger, Melissa Nathan, in August – who Johnny Depp enlisted for his 2022 defamation trial against ex-wife Amber Heard.
In fact, actress Heard as well as author Hoover are among the celebrities who have voiced their support for Lively in the days that have followed.
Now, Atlas actor Sklenar has become the latest Hollywood star to publicly support Lively.
Taking to Instagram on Monday (December 23), he reposted a link to the lawsuit in full, as obtained by the New York Times.
‘FOR THE LOVE OF GOD READ THIS’ he wrote, tagging Blake Lively and adding a red heart emoji.
Back in August, Sklenar addressed the controversy surrounding the movie by calling out who were ‘spreading hate on the internet’ and ‘vilifying’ those involved in the film.
In another Instagram post, he said: “Vilifying the women who put so much of their heart and their soul into making this film because they believe so strongly in its message seems counterproductive and detracts from what this film is about.”
He added: “What may or may not have happened behind the scenes the scenes does not and hopefully should not detract from what our intentions were in making this film. It’s been disheartening to see the amount of negativity being projected online.”
Bryan Freedman, who is representing Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and all its representatives, has responded to Lively’s allegations to describe them as ‘categorically false’.
“These claims are completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media,” he said, while also accusing Lively of using the complaint as an attempt to ‘fix’ a ‘negative reputation’.
