Blake Lively Is Getting Backlash for This One Interview Moment But It Might Not Be the Full Story
Since the beginning, Blake Lively‘s press tour for It Ends With Us has been riddled with drama. From the distance she had from her co-star, Justin Baldoni, to her saying that her husband Ryan Reynolds wrote a key scene of the movie, Lively’s promo tour has been anything but smooth.
Most recently, another one of Lively’s responses has been getting some hate online, and a quick listen to the viral clip shows us why.
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In the clip, journalist Jake Hamilton from Jake’s Takes asked Lively and her co-star Brandon Sklenar a thoughtful question about how the movie might impact its viewers.
“Most of us, if we’re lucky enough to run into a celebrity in public, we only have a few moments to maybe speak with you guys,” Hamilton said. “But for people who see this movie who relate to the topics on a deeply personal level, they’re really gonna wanna talk to you. This movie is gonna affect people, and they’re gonna wanna tell you about their life.”
As a reminder, It Ends With Us follows main character Lily (Lively) as she meets and falls for successful neurosurgeon Ryle (Baldoni) before he becomes abusive and violent.
“If someone understands the themes of this movie, comes across you in public, and they wanna really talk to you, what’s the best way for them to be able to talk to you about this? How would you recommend they go about it?” Hamilton asked.
Lively, for her part, took the question a tad too lightly, and made a joke out of it instead. “Like, asking for my address, or my phone number, or, like, location share?” Lively joked. “I could just location-share you… I’m a Virgo, so like, are we talking logistics, are we talking emotionally?”
Unsurprisingly, some internet users criticized how she dealt with the question. “A major ick,” wrote one X user. “Finally seeing who Blake Lively is [as] an individual and it’s ugly. She might as well have said not to go up to her or talk to her.” “Appalled at how she turned a deep, personal, serious question into a joke,” echoed another.
But while we don’t want to play devil’s advocate, listening to the full interview with Hamilton shows that Lively did in fact answer the question more directly.
“Yeah, what’s been beautiful about this movie is that unfortunately, we all know at least someone, but we normally know a lot more than someones, we know some manys who have experienced this,” Lively said. “And the beauty of this has been to see people, and to see this movie alongside women who haven’t experienced this — thank Goodness — go, ‘Woah, I fell in love too. I saw the red flags, but they didn’t look red; they looked kinda fuchsia and cute. But you know, I ignored them.’”
“This story is told with such empathy that I feel like this movie can be healing, can be a cautionary tale and can be inspiring,” she reflected. “I think that the movie itself, Colleen [Hoover]’s work itself does that work and if anyone ever comes up to you and says that your work meant something to them outside of having that collective experience in the theater where you laugh and cry and feel together, like, what blessing the fact that we get to do this,” she said. “It’s really significant.”
So while Lively perhaps didn’t address how she’d like for someone to approach her in public, she did show her appreciation how this movie might have a greater impact.
Unfortunately, this isn’t the first of Lively’s remarks on the press tour that has gotten some backlash. At the London premiere, Lively shared what she wants viewers to take away from the movie.
“This movie covers domestic violence but what’s important about this film is that she is not just a survivor and not just a victim,” Lively told BBC in a clip shared on Instagram. “While those are huge things to be, they’re not her identity. She’s not defined by what someone else did to her or an event that happened to her.”
In the comments, users are just as critical. “‘Movie covers domestic violence BUT’ there’s no but Blake ??,” wrote one commenter. “No matter how much fun and flowers you put on it the elephant in the room is DV.” “You say that, yet the entire promotion isn’t promoting the heart of the film, it just giving the opposite and tone deaf… just a bit disappointing,” echoed another. Looks like Lively is continuing to miss the mark on this one.
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