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Um, Blake Lively Admitted She Basically Takes Over Movies, Years Before Justin Baldoni Drama
Chloe Williams serves as B+C’s Entertainment Editor and resident Taylor Swift expert. Whether she’s writing a movie review or interviewing the stars of the latest hit show, Chloe loves exploring why stories inspire us. You can see her work published in BuzzFeed, Coastal Review, and North Beach Sun. When she’s not writing, Chloe’s probably watching a Marvel movie with a cherry coke or texting her sister about the latest celebrity news. Say hi at @thechloewilliams on Insta and @popculturechlo on Twitter!
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Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively's legal battle, complete with websites, text messages, and voice memos (plus second lawsuits), continues as Justin alleges Blake took It Ends With Us' creative control away from him. But according to Blake herself, the Colleen Hoover adaptation isn't the first time she's enjoyed taking more creative control of a project.
Here's what Blake Lively said about her "need" to have "authorship" in her movies — years before the It Ends With Us drama with Justin Baldoni began.
In 2022, Blake Lively was a part of the Forbes Power Women’s Summit (and surprised the world by confirming her fourth pregnancy). She admitted previous projects had "resented" her desire to be more active behind the scenes because they "just hired [her] to be an actor."
“When I went into meetings, I would just seem like I’m just there to be the actor and ready to get the gig,” she says. “I wouldn’t reveal that I actually need to have authorship in order to feel fulfilled. So I think that for them, sometimes that might have felt like a rug pulled because you’re like, you’re trying to assert yourself into something that we didn’t hire you to do.”
And while sometimes there are moments she'd say, "‘OK, um, I believe in this and that’s why I’m standing up for it and that’s why I’m not being difficult,'” the actress admits "there are other moments she'd go, ‘Am I the a–hole in the room?’”
“It’s about being up front about knowing what you actually need," she continues, "versus just, like, trying to get the job and then once you’re in it, sort of revealing the scope of your needs to be fulfilled."
Naturally, TikTok users had a LOT to say. "Imagine being hired as a nanny but you wanted to be the mom, so you just fired the mom instead," one said, while another asked, "Why didn't her husband [Ryan Reynolds] just buy her a production company and a movie for her to direct and star in."
"The way I need JB's lawyer to play this in court to establish pattern of behaviour," a third commented.
You can see Justin Baldoni's Amended Complaint and a 5-year timeline of events on his website TheLawsuitInfo.com, where he talks, at length, about creative differences between his editing and marketing of It Ends With Us versus Blakes — and how there were "concerns about Lively's undue influence over the film," as well as "a pattern of demands by Lively and acquiescence by Baldoni."
Another clip of Blake Lively resurfaced on the internet this week, and sees the actress admit to bringing an unfinished cut of the movie to fans. "[The] studio begged me not to show” the movie, Blake says, but they “didn’t have the option [to say no], I literally brought the movie with me on the airplane."
Check Brit + Co for the latest updates on Blake Lively & Justin Baldoni's legal battle ahead of their trial in March 2026. Read Um, Is Colleen Hoover Retiring From Writing After All That It Ends With Us Drama? for more.
