Even Before Justin Baldoni Reads Colleen Hoover’s Book It all ends with ushe knew it was an important story that needed to be adapted for the big screen.
Baldoni said he was immediately “touched by Lily’s bravery and the difficulties she had to overcome,” and said he wanted to work with Hoover to turn the novel into a movie through his Wayfarer Studios. Baldoni’s hunch was confirmed when he learned about the story’s widespread impact among women and the book’s viral buzz on TikTok.
“In our industry, we’re often told that we can’t cure cancer, we can’t save lives, we’re just making art, we’re just making movies. And to that I say, well, I wonder if we’re making the right ones. movie,” said the director and star hollywood reporter. “That’s what we wanted to do differently at Wayfarer. I thought, well, this could actually make a real difference and save lives.
It all ends with us It tells the story of Lily (played by Blake Lively) who overcomes childhood trauma and starts a new life. But after falling in love with neurosurgeon Lyle (Baldoni), she sees a side to him that reminds her of her parents’ abusive relationship. Things become more complicated when someone from her past, Atlas (Brandon Skrennar), reenters her life and Lily must learn to move forward on her own.
Bardoni also stated that it was Hoover who convinced him to take on the difficult role of Ryle because he was nervous and “didn’t know if anyone would believe” that he could play the role. However, he said the author’s “trust in me inspired my trust in myself.”
Below, Bardoni and THR On the pressure of treading lightly with stories about domestic violence, how he prepared to play a heavy and complex character like Lyle, and the scene he most entertained audiences with.
How did this book first land on your desk?
It was 2019 and I was filming jane the virgin and preparing to release my first film five feet apart. I just started Wayfarer Studios and we’re looking for really commercial films that also have a deep message, that speak to the human experience, as we say at Wayfarer, that can touch and ignite a spark in someone’s heart, maybe Make it a new choice in their life, maybe choose a different path, maybe see things differently. I also started writing [Man Enough: Undefining My Masculinity]. It was a very busy time and my book agent at the time sent me It all ends with us It’s been out for several years. I think it’s sold about a million copies. This is a great book on Goodreads. She didn’t tell me what it was about. She just said, “Read it, trust me. I think you’re going to love it. So a shout out to my dear friend Johanna Castillo. So I read it, and by the end of the book, I even Unable to read the text. I was wiping tears and my nose was running. My wife, who was sitting next to me, just wanted to know what was going on. I was just moved by Lily’s bravery and what she had to overcome as a daughter. As a new father, I too had just gone through this cathartic experience with my daughter who was three years old at the time. Now, five years later, we are stunned by the fact that this book has become a global phenomenon two years later.
At the time, I remember feeling like this might be an incident film aimed at women, but it didn’t sell that many copies [at that point]. But at Wayfarer, we’ve always been led by the idea that if intention and impact are front and center, and you can impact people and you can make people feel something, then the rest will follow. Then the book took on a life of its own, which none of us expected.
Did you feel any pressure while developing the book, knowing it was so beloved by Hoover fans?
I think I felt the pressure before. One of the reasons I picked up this book in the first place was what Colleen writes at the end of the book, which is how the book really pays homage to her mother and her mother’s experiences. But then hearing the stories of all the women and people who had read the book and chosen to end the cycle of violence in their lives and choose a new path, and how many lives this book had saved. See, we can speak in industry terms here. In our industry, we’re often told that we don’t cure cancer, we don’t save lives, we’re just making art, we’re just making movies. To which I say, well, I wonder if we’re making the right movie. That’s what we want to do differently at Wayfarer. I thought, well, this could really make a real difference, could actually save lives. At that point, isn’t it worth it?
The unquantifiable, emotional, mystical energy aspect of what we do is like the butterfly effect if something is done with the right intention and the right person sees it at the right time , then what will happen, for us at Wayfarer, is this anything else. Of course we want to make money, but we think that as long as we have influence, the money will come. So before it became a thing on TikTok, I felt a deep responsibility because these real people saw themselves in Lily’s story and made a difference for themselves like Lily does at the end of the film.
How did you get into the character of Ryall after you were originally signed on to direct?
Initially I chose this director. Colleen and I developed a friendship over email. By the way, I highly recommend finding a romance novelist pen pal. These emails are so beautiful that you can frame them. But just before we finalized our option agreement, she wrote me a very short email, simply saying, “Have you ever considered acting in a movie, maybe playing Lyle? I can see that. I think. There’s a part of me that wants to play Lyle, but I think we all have those distant dreams in our lives that come and go like, “Oh, I wonder if I can do this, and then that part of our brain lets us Shut up, like, no, no, no, you can’t do that. You’re not good enough. I think deep down I want to play Lyle, but I just don’t have the confidence or know if anyone will believe I can. When Colleen gave me that email, it made me believe that I could because her belief in me inspired me to believe in myself, so we ended up developing it together and we asked Kristi Hall to write the script. , two years after that email, I decided I wanted to play Lyle, but it was a big choice, challenge, and commitment because it was a very complex character and I wanted to do it well.
How did you prepare to play a role like this, knowing it was a difficult role to play?
I was lucky enough to be a filmmaker, so I was able to get a bird’s eye view of the project and understand what I needed from Ryle throughout the course of the film. But as an actor, it was a serious task because I was scared. But then again, sometimes the art that scares us is the art we should pursue. So I worked with a few different acting coaches.
I did some very interesting dream work and studied the subconscious mind. I did some Alexander Techniques to try and get inside him. And then I also work with our partners [the organization] Not anymore, because I really want to understand the psychology of an abuser, but I just know what I don’t know. I needed to understand why and how he did the things he did from a real perspective. I want to feel it, because if I can’t feel it, I can’t play it.
Fortunately, our partners eventually introduced me to an organization dedicated to helping abusers reintegrate into society. I had the opportunity to sit in on some closed door meetings with the perpetrators and the court asked them to listen and hear them talk about why they were there, their stories, hear them hold each other accountable, hear them blame the victims, hear all sorts of things I learned from Things I haven’t had the chance to hear. And then talking to someone who really helped understand the psychology of someone like Ryle, it was eye-opening. It really helped me shape who Ryle was and develop the character. The last thing that I think helped me came from my acting coach. I started journaling, like I was Ryle, and I wrote in detail about the things that happened to him but that he never healed from. I had to believe that it was real to me and to him and try to feel the pain that Lyle was feeling in order to figure out how I could portray what he did, which was unconscionable and inexcusable in the movie .
How do you balance everything that comes with portraying Lyle and the sensitive subject of domestic violence while serving as a director?
First, as a human being, I know what I don’t know. First, I had no idea what it was like to be a woman or the experience of having one. So in order for me to be able to take on this project, I needed a lot of support and I needed to surround myself with women. I needed to surround myself with an organization like NO MORE to understand how to make this film without injecting my own biases as a human being into it. … So in some ways, I took a step back and said, “Okay, how can we make this as real and honest as possible?” Because reality is in the hands of different people, and without something like “No More,” People care, this movie may do more harm than good. While on one hand this is not a movie about domestic violence, it’s a movie about love and hope and making different choices, we need to respect the reality of this and not run away from it and make sure we don’t treat it like Romanticize.
They were (no longer) integral, and in addition to hiring an intimacy coordinator early, early, early in pre-production, they also found a female stunt coordinator – Lauren Shaw ), she’s a good friend of mine and a veteran in the industry – and makes sure everything is safe from that perspective. Honestly, there are a lot of situations where I give my vision and then I step back and let the women really take control of the set and the show. black [Lively] He was also very involved and had a lot of ideas on how to make it work. There were a lot of times I didn’t even say a word, I just looked and I was like, yeah, that sounds great. I was actually able to get into Lyle because in those moments, it was the most complicated for Lyle and the most difficult for me as an actor. So they took a load off my shoulders and made sure that every scene was handled with care and that there wasn’t a male gaze, but a female gaze, because that was one of my concerns early on, when I was questioning if I could even directed this movie. I wanted to make sure it preserved and upheld the message of the book through a female perspective.
Is there a specific scene or moment in the film that you’re most excited for audiences to watch?
I think for fans who have read the book, the most satisfying scene in the movie will be the final scene in the hospital. Because I think it’s the most touching scene in the book, and I believe it’s the most touching scene in the movie. … I think for the true fans, I hope they’re going to really enjoy the ending scene in the hospital because we really tried to make it exactly like the book.
Also, is there any talk of adapting Hoover’s 2022 sequel? start with usmade into a movie?
As far as I know. I don’t have a story. But, I want us to see what happens.
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It all ends with us Currently playing in theaters.
