Ryan Reynolds Accused of ‘Scabbing’ During Hollywood Strikes Amid 'It Ends With Us' Controversy
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If the ongoing feud between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni wasn’t enough over their film, It Ends With Us, Ryan Reynolds is apparently entering the chat with a controversy of his own. The 47-year-old actor reportedly wrote a “key scene” that was included in the film, per Variety, and the timing of the rewrite may have conflicted with the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike.
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The media outlet questioned the WGA about any possible “guild violations” and who should be credited for the movie since screenwriter Christy Hall’s name is listed. Variety also noted that the film started shooting on May 5, 2023, three days after the strike began. That means that the script was locked from May 2 through Sept. 27 — not a single word was allowed to be adjusted by a WGA member, including Reynolds. According to a source close to the Deadpool & Wolverine star, he worked on the script in April 2023, so there were no “scabbing” violations.
Lively is the one who set this additional scandal in motion when she told E! News about the “iconic rooftop scene” in It Ends With Us. “My husband actually wrote it,” she praised her husband on Aug. 6 to the entertainment news channel. “Nobody knows that, but you now.” The news took Hall by surprise, and she exclusively shared with SheKnows that she assumed it had been improvised since the movie was filmed during the writers’ strike.
“No one makes a movie by themselves so it takes hundreds of people to create a village to surround this thing and everyone gives it what they can,” she said of Reynolds’ contribution. “We all give our offerings, and we all do it with care, especially for something like this and so I love learning that some of those little improvised lines or what I assumed for improvised actually, potentially came from Ryan. I celebrate that.”
Hall may be taking the news in stride, but the WGA will likely look into the timing of the rewrites since a strike is a strike — and no union member is supposed to cross the picket line. So, the controversy behind It Ends With Us continues, but it’s not stopping people from seeing it at the movie theaters. The film has been a worldwide hit and the studios are sweating about Baldoni and Lively’s feud — they want to see that sequel made.
Before you go, click here to see all the best picks from Reese Witherspoon’s book club.
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