Justin Baldoni Talks Casting Blake Lively in 'It Ends with Us,' Praises Her Portrayal of Lily & Reveals How He Handled Playing Ryle

Justin Baldoni is speaking out about working with Blake Lively on their new film It Ends with Us.

If you don’t know, Justin directed the movie and also portrays Ryle, love interest to Blake Lively‘s Lily. The film deals with some dark and triggering material, including Ryle’s domestic abuse.

Keep reading to find out more…

About casting Blake for the role, Justin told People, “The way [Colleen Hoover] wrote the book, outside of the [character’s red] hair color, the actress could have been played by anybody, so long as she was a woman that was extremely charming, likable, and that everybody would root for. The only box [Blake] didn’t check was that she didn’t have red hair, which is a very easy fix in the film business!

He also praised her as being “involved in every area of production.”

He shared, “She’s a creative force, she’s an executive producer on the film, and she is so brilliant. And I believe that her performance is going to help so many women feel seen and showcase this unique experience in a way that I don’t believe I’ve seen in another film.”

He continued, “So the first time I had ever heard Blake play Lily, there was a moment where I completely forgot what we were doing… I was so just mesmerized by what she was doing and who Lily was going to be, that I had to snap out of it.”

About playing the abusive Ryle, Justin told THR, “There were a lot of times where I would have to go privately into a room and just cry or shake it out and try to get him out of me and that energy out of me, because it’s too real. There are too many people that are the real-life Lily Blooms of the world that have to deal with that every single day, and I wanted it to be as real as possible and yet it was very hard to shoot those scenes.”

He continued, “The only way it was possible was I had an incredible intimacy coordinator, an incredible stunt coordinator — both of them were women — and then there was Blake, and honestly between those three women, they really were the ones choreographing and navigating all of those scenes because I needed to play Ryle. In those moments, to be perfectly frank, I really wasn’t the director, it was those women who were in charge. From the beginning I wanted all the intimate scenes to be from a female gaze and I never wanted my bias to potentially interject and go into the film. So I kind of stepped back and felt all the things and allowed myself to do the work and shook it off as best I could.”

It Ends With Us hits theaters on Friday. Watch the trailer for the film!