Blake Lively Says Having a ‘Lot of Authorship’ Over Her Lily Helped Her Manage Heavy Subject Matter of ‘It Ends With Us’ | Video

“It Ends With Us” may be a love story, but it’s primarily a story about domestic violence. It’s heavy material, especially to inhabit daily for those involved. But, at least for Blake Lively, having “room to play” with her character helped her handle the subject matter a bit better.

Adapted from Colleen Hoover’s 2016 book of the same name, the Sony film tells the story of Lily, a florist who falls in love with neurosurgeon Ryle (Justin Baldoni). But, as their relationship develops, Lily realizes that Ryle is abusive, just like her father was to her mother.

When Lily’s high school sweetheart Atlas (Brandon Sklenar) shows up and recognizes the signs of physical abuse instantly, Lily’s life — and emotions — gets even more complicated, as she tries to convince herself that things aren’t actually that bad.

In taking on the role of Lily, Lively had a “clear” vision of who Lily was, and having full permission to explore this older version of her made it easier to deal with such heavy material for the entirety of the shoot.

“I was fortunate to have a lot of authorship in inhabiting her. So it never felt like I was stepping into this space and I was like, ‘Oh, I have to do this thing that’s very rigid and say these words that didn’t feel like mine,’ or didn’t feel authentic to me,” Lively explained to TheWrap.

The actress added that “there was such room to play,” but not in a way that didn’t respect the seriousness of the topic they were portraying.

“It was so living and breathing. And when I say play, I don’t mean like — there’s obviously heaviness and sadness and pain and trauma, but it wasn’t like every single moment, every single take was the same,” Lively added. “It was very, very alive, and we were all responding to each other.”

She continued, “And that makes your job really easy. Because if you’re having to just go in and go like, ‘OK, I have to just manage this caricature of a person that I think I need to portray,’ that’s very hard.”

“It Ends With Us” is in theaters now.

Reach the domestic violence hotline at 800.799.SAFE (7233) or text START to 88788

The post Blake Lively Says Having a ‘Lot of Authorship’ Over Her Lily Helped Her Manage Heavy Subject Matter of ‘It Ends With Us’ | Video appeared first on TheWrap.