Blake Lively Appears To React After ‘It Ends With Us’ Interview Backlash

Blake Lively is facing backlash for how she’s promoting her new film about domestic violence—and it seems like she’s responded.

The actor stars in the film adaptation of It Ends With Us, based on the novel by Colleen Hoover of the same name. The story follows Lily Bloom (Lively) coming to terms with the fact that she is in an abusive relationship with neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid (Justin Baldoni).

People online have said the promotional tour hasn’t accurately portrayed the film’s serious theme, as interviews have primarily focused on the romantic elements. Lively in particular has faced the wrath of people online for the way she is promoting the movie. One interview, during which she states “It Ends With Us is in theaters now, so grab your friends, wear your florals and head out to see it,” has received negative attention.

“Grab your friends, wear your florals…. but forget the sole purpose of this film is to raise awareness to domestic violence ? Wth is this press lol only Justin [Baldoni] sharing the message is wild,” one person wrote in the comment section of the video on Instagram.

“Wear your florals? WTF? This isn’t another Barbie movie type film. So damn tone deaf. This is why we need Justin to do the marketing,” said another.

A third person added: “Please remember the original purpose and message of this movie.”

Newsweek emailed a spokesperson for Lively for comment on Wednesday.

Lively has now shared two posts to her Instagram story, addressing the domestic violence aspect of the film.

In the first, posted on Tuesday, Lively shared an interview clip from the London premiere of It Ends With Us, where she described her character as a “survivor.”

“This movie covers domestic violence but what’s important about this film is that she is not just a survivor and she’s not just a victim,” she said of her character Lily Bloom.

“And while those are huge things to be, they’re not her identity. She defines herself and I think that’s deeply empowering to remind people that no one else can define you. No experience can define you, you define you,” she said.

When sharing the clip to her social media account, she wrote: “Thank you to everyone who came out to show that people WANT to see films about women and the multitudes we hold. It Ends With Us is a story of the female experience. All the highest highs, and lowest lows. And we are so proud of it.

“We have been in celebration of this film and of getting a message so important out there to the masses. Thank you all for embracing @itendswithusmovie with the same love, pain and joy we had sharing it with you all.”

Later the same day, Lively posted a link to the National Domestic Violence Hotline along with statistics related to domestic violence in the U.S.

“1 in 4 women aged 18 and older in the US alone have been the victim of severe physical violence by an intimate partner in their lifetime,” her post began. “Intimate partner violence affects all genders, including more than 12 million people every year in the United States. Everyone deserves relationships free from domestic violence. The National Domestic Violence Hotline provides confidential support 24/7/365. To access the hotline or to learn more click the link below.”

She concluded the post by urging people to “text ‘START’ to 88788” if they require “immediate help.”

However, her posts could be a little too late, as the actor has been criticized by multiple people on X (formerly Twitter) for not addressing the domestic violence aspect of the film sooner.

“blake lively posting this on IG after her a** has been getting called out for the press tour for it ends with us just being her and ryan’s [Reynolds] side business hustle……a clown,” one person posted alongside a screenshot of Lively’s Instagram story.

“Not a word about DV [domestic violence] during the press tour and she doesn’t even make a video AND this is just an IG [Instagram] story post so it’ll disappear in 24 hours. I’ve lost so much respect for her,” said another.

“The literal bare minimum & to people in the quotes talking about she mentioned Dv in her interviews no she didn’t she glossed over it there’s a difference. Lastly misogyny narrative is tired, she’s getting rightfully called out,” a different X user wrote.

“I did notice that Justin Baldoni was the only one approaching the It Ends With Us promo seriously, but in comparison this makes Blake Lively look really bad and tone deaf,” someone else wrote, sharing a video that compared how Baldoni and Lively have been discussing the film in interviews. “I don’t think she’s a bad person, however I don’t think she has the emotional depth to understand this fully.”

However, not everyone has been critical of the actor, with some people expressing their frustration over the criticism being leveled at Lively.

“Very tired of the fake moral superiority thing people are doing online where someone doing the right thing is still somehow not enough because it wasn’t when you decided they should’ve done it,” one person wrote online.

“Do yall actually care about dv victims or just waiting for something to be mad about on twitter,” said another.

A third added: “Not even all that partial to blake or anything but how are u all not embarrassed to be this worked up over a colleen hoover movie.”

While people have praised Baldoni for how he has handled the promotional tour for the film, he has faced flak for hiring PR crisis manager Melissa Nathan following reports of conflict between him and Lively, per The Hollywood Reporter.

Nathan grew to prominence when she represented Johnny Depp in his defamation lawsuit against his former wife Amber Heard.