Blake Lively filed a complaint alleging sexual harassment against “It Ends With Us” costar and director Justin Baldoni and the movie’s producer, Jamey Heath, on Friday. On Saturday, Baldoni was dropped by WME, the agency that also represents Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds.
The complaint also names businessman Steve Sarowitz, crisis manager Melissa Nathan, Jennifer Abel, RWA Communications, Street Relations Inc., and Jed Wallace.
The complaint also alleges retaliation; failure to investigate, prevent, and/or remedy harassment; aiding and abetting harassment and retaliation; breach of contract; intentional infliction of emotional distress; negligence; false light invasion of privacy; and interference with prospective economic advantage.
Lively’s complaint also insists “the emotional impact on Ms. Lively has been extreme, not only affecting her, but her family, including her husband and four children. There are days when she has struggled to get out of bed, and she frequently chooses not to venture outside in public.” Lively has “been experiencing repeated and painful physical symptoms as a result of
this experience.”
Wayfarer Studios allegedly ignored industry safeguards
The complaint insists that Baldoni’s Wayfarer Studios failed to give the actors and actresses “appropriate notice of nudity and simulated sex” and failed to ensure that consent was given without any outside pressure, that nudity riders were in place that explained how comfortable performers were with nudity or simulated sex scenes, that “safe and secure” conditions for work were in place that were “not detrimental to [a performer’s] health, safety, morals and career,” and did not make sure intimacy coordinators were on set to observe intimate scenes.
In addition, Lively and her then-infant were both exposed to COVID-19 without Lively’s knowledge. Both she and her baby came down with the disease.
Baldoni is accused of “improvised physical intimacy” that was not approved
Baldoni is accused of improvising “physical intimacy that had not been rehearsed, choreographed, or discussed with Ms. Lively,” and without the involvement of an intimacy coordinator. In one example, Baldoni “discreetly bit and sucked on Ms. Lively’s lower lip during a scene in which he improvised numerous kisses on each take.” He then “insisted on shooting the full scene over and over again, well beyond what would have been required on an ordinary set.”
In a separate violation, Baldoni and Lively were filming a slow dance scene that was part of a montage. No sound was recorded during filming. Baldoni is accused of having chosen “to let the camera roll and have them perform the scene, but did not act in character as Ryle; instead, he spoke to Ms. Lively out of character as himself.” Baldoni “leaned forward and slowly dragged his lips from her ear and down her neck as he said, ‘It smells so good.’” The complaint adds that this behavior was not based on the script or in character, and also reiterated that because sound was not being recorded, Baldoni did not need to say anything.
Baldoni is accused of coercing Lively into an unplanned nude scene and allowing his best friend to play the doctor during the movie’s birth scene
Lively’s character gives birth in the film. On the day of shooting, both Baldoni and Heath are accused of having “suddenly pressured Ms. Lively to simulate full nudity, despite no mention of nudity for this scene in the script, her contract, or in previous creative discussions.” Baldoni told Lively — a mother of four — women “give birth naked” and that his own wife “ripped her clothes off during labor.” He also said “it was ‘not normal’ for women to remain in their hospital gowns while giving birth.” Lively disagreed, but ultimately said she would be naked from below her chest.
The day the birth scene was filmed was allegedly “chaotic, crowded and utterly lacking in standard industry protections for filming nude scenes — such as choreographing the scene with an intimacy coordinator, having a signed nudity rider, or simply turning off the monitors so the scene was not broadcast to all crew on set (and on their personal phones and iPad).”
Baldoni and Heath allegedly did not close the set, which meant nonessential members of the crew were allowed to pass through freely while “Ms. Lively was mostly nude with her legs spread wide in stirrups and only a small piece of fabric covering her genitalia.”
That group also allegedly included Wayfarer co-chairman Mr. Sarowitz, who flew in for one of his few set visits. “Ms. Lively was not provided with anything to cover herself with between takes until after she had made multiple requests,” the complaint reads. “Ms. Lively became even more alarmed when Mr. Baldoni introduced his ‘best friend’ to play the role of the OBGYN when ordinarily, a small role of this nature would be filled by a local actor. Ms. Lively felt that the selection of Mr. Baldoni’s friend for this intimate role, in which the actor’s face and hands were in close proximity to her nearly nude genitalia for a birth scene, was invasive and humiliating.”
Jamey Heath allegedly showed Blake Lively a graphic video of his wife giving birth
At some point, Heath is accused of having “approached Ms. Lively and her assistant on set” and showing them a video “of a fully nude woman with her legs spread apart.” Lively thought he was showing her pornography and told him to stop. He then explained the video was of his wife giving birth. After Lively asked if his wife knew he was sharing the video, he reportedly said, “She isn’t weird about this stuff.”
Heath is accused of insisting on facing Lively while she was topless
Lively claims she attempted to have a meeting with Heath and other producers on the film about Baldoni’s behavior, but Heath showed up unannounced at her hair and makeup trailer while she was “topless and having body makeup removed by makeup artists.”
After Lively asked if she could meet when she was wearing her clothes, Heath “insisted that if she didn’t allow him into her trailer to speak to him at that moment, then there would be no meeting with the other producers.” She agreed, but asked Heath to face away from her.
“A few minutes into the conversation, Ms. Lively noticed that Mr. Heath was staring directly at her while she was topless,” the documents claim. “When she called him out, Mr. Heath brushed it off as a habit of wanting to look at a person while speaking to them. Ms. Lively and her hair and makeup artists were all deeply disturbed by this interaction on just the second day of filming.”
Baldoni and Heath are accused of openly discussing their porn consumption
The complaint also accuses Baldoni and Heath of speaking about “their previous pornography addiction.” Baldoni “would often reference pornography to Ms. Lively. Hoping to shut the subject down, she said to him privately that she had never seen it.” Baldoni again allegedly referenced “his experiences with pornography, he revealed in front of other cast and crew that Ms. Lively had never ‘seen porn,’” a moment Lively cites as “an incredible invasion of her privacy.”
Baldoni allegedly said he could speak to Lively’s late father
Baldoni also allegedly “claimed he could speak to the dead, and on several occasions told her that he had spoken to her dead father.” Lively’s father died in 2021.
Baldoni allegedly insulted Lively’s age and weight
The documents also claim Baldoni “went out of his way to message criticisms of her age and weight, neither of which she could change during filming.” In one example, “Mr. Baldoni made the rest of the cast and crew wait for hours while he cried in Ms. Lively’s dressing room, claiming social media commentators were saying that Ms. Lively looked old and unattractive based on paparazzi photos from the set.”
Though Lively “tried to reassure him that she should look authentic in the scenes depicted in the photos, which were just after her character had been abused by her fictional husband, rather than ‘hot’ —Mr. Baldoni, however, appeared focused on Ms. Lively’s sexual appeal above all else.”
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