Blake Lively appears to have asked Ben Affleck for assistance in her feud with her director and co-star Justin Baldoni during the making of It Ends with Us.
Amid the protracted legal battle between Baldoni and Lively, new court documents have been released including an email the actress wrote to a recipient who seems to be Affleck, although his name has been redacted.
The message was sent in May 2024 during post-production, at which stage Lively and Baldoni – both of whom also had producing credits – allegedly clashed over the project’s creative direction to the point of putting together competing edits of the film.
In her supposed email to Affleck, who directed her in the 2010 film The Town, Lively him to ‘watch the movie and give me any ideas or notes’ on her cut.
She also hinted at ‘wild HR issues’ related to Baldoni, who has staunchly denied her allegations of sexual harassment in the complaint that began their war in the courts.
The newly released court documents also contain messages Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds allegedly sent Affleck’s best friend Matt Damon and his wife Luciana Barroso, lambasting Baldoni for his ‘enormous ego,’ via Us Weekly.
The Daily Mail has contacted Affleck and Damon’s representatives for comment.
Blake Lively appears to have asked Ben Affleck for assistance in her feud with her director and co-star Justin Baldoni during the making of It Ends with Us
New court documents have been released including an email the actress wrote to a recipient who seems to be Affleck, although his name has been redacted
In the email Lively is said to have sent Affleck, she wrote: ‘I’ve just come out the other side (well almost) of the most upsetting experience I’ve ever had on a movie.’
The message continued: ‘The making of doc of this film would be more interesting than the movie could ever be. It’s like if Wild Wild Country, Fyre Festival and Going Clear had a baby with The Room…Room also works though.’
Lively claimed she ‘ended up rewriting and restructuring the entire script,’ then added apparently in reference to Baldoni that she also had ‘to direct the movie via the chaotic clown “director”/actor/producer/financier/studio head at the center. Yes, that’s all the same person.’
She described ‘everyone’ among Baldoni’s hires as being ‘in a cult,’ while intimating she had undergone ‘wild HR issues’ on the ‘difficult’ set.
Lively apparently requested that the Argo director offer her his guidance on the film in ‘a voice memo’ before she was left to ‘duke it out’ with Baldoni over the edit.
In the supposed email, she also solicited feedback from his then-wife Jennifer Lopez as well as his children Violet, 20, Fin, 17, and Samuel, 13, by Jennifer Garner.
‘I’m such a fan of Jennifer’s, I’ve told her as much every time I’ve met her, and it would be an honor to have her take,’ said Lively, evidently referring to Lopez.
‘Again, zero pressure. I just really want this to work after all I’ve put into it. This movie nearly killed me. And I can think of very few people who would be as prescriptive and insightful as I know you would be,’ she added.
Meanwhile, Lively allegedly claimed the ‘movie nearly killed me,’ in one of the messages that she sent to Matt Damon and his wife Luciana Barroso.
‘The director/costar/producer/financier/head of the studio (yes all one person) had zero experience, but the good news is he also has no taste, and an enormous ego, but only because he’s in a cult and believes he’s our century’s prophet. I wish even one of these things was hyperbole,’ the Café Society actress added.
Barroso apparently offered her condolences on Lively’s ‘awful’ alleged ordeal, while Damon evidently said he and his wife would ‘give you any help we can.’
Plugging his own production company, he is said to have added: ‘And if this experience hasn’t totally destroyed your soul, Blake, you should come direct your next movie at Artists Equity. We’re kind of like a cult but a really nice one.’
