Do Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively Deserve The Hate?

By Allion Bailey

Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds have been under fire since early August for the drama surrounding Lively’s new film, “It Ends with Us”. 

Do they deserve the hate, or has this all been spun out of control?

“It Ends with Us,” released in U.S. theaters on August 9th, is labeled as a romantic drama based on Colleen Hoover’s best-selling novel. It follows protagonist Lily Bloom, played by Lively, and her life as a survivor of domestic abuse. Her husband Ryle is played by Justin Baldoni, who had also directed the movie. Many people online believe that he’s made much more of an effort to discuss the darker themes of the story and speak out against domestic violence than Lively has. This is based on the general lack of promotion of this topic she’s done for the film, and one specific interview clip where she instructed fans to “grab your friends” and “wear your florals” to the theater. Baldoni, on the other hand, has been objectively more vocal on his social media platforms, providing resources and hotlines for abuse survivors.

Rumors that Baldoni and Lively had a falling-out first started to spread when the director wasn’t seen in any photos with the rest of the cast at the movie’s New York premiere on August 6th, whereas Lively was. This led to fans discovering that Lively, her husband Reynolds, and many other cast members had unfollowed Baldoni on social media. 

Although the root of this drama is still very up for speculation, the internet wasted no time jumping to conclusions and picking sides. More articles and interviews began to come out supporting the idea that Lively and Reynolds as a duo had been steamrolling the creation of the movie and pushing Baldoni out, but others thought of this more as a smear campaign against the actress. 

Furthermore, old controversies that the couple had experienced started resurfacing as soon as the week the movie came out. Specifically, one snippet from an interview with Lively and co-star Parker Posey doing press for “Café Society” in 2016 where the interviewer attempted to congratulate Lively on her recently announced pregnancy, and Lively took offense to it. The public was divided, once again, on what they thought of this exchange, but many also think the additions to this drama are ridiculous and unnecessary. 

This now begs the question: Are we beating a dead horse? Are these past dramas resurfacing for a reason, or are they only adding fuel to the fire? This entire situation has grown rapidly in popularity, though it’s still completely unbeknownst to the public the origin of it all.