People Are “Appalled” At Blake Lively’s “Out Of Touch” Response To A Serious Question About Domestic Violence Amid The “It Ends With Us” Press Tour

This post discusses domestic violence, abuse, and sexual assault.
While Blake has touched on the movie’s darker themes occasionally, she has undoubtedly remained lighthearted throughout most of the press tour. For example, she’s focused much of her energy on her floral looks, which reference her character’s name and profession. She even says in the film’s official TikTok account’s promotional clip, “Grab your friends, wear your florals,” as she encourages people to watch the movie.
Blake has also used the film’s press tour to promote her drinks company, Betty Buzz, and her newly launched hair care line. Moreover, she recently posted a video of a “girl talk” at her apartment with some of the other women featured in the movie. “I’m gonna be sad when marketing is over and I don’t have excuses to sit on my couch dressed up with you ladies,” she wrote in the caption.
Additionally, Blake has involved her husband Ryan Reynolds, who is currently starring in Deadpool & Wolverine, in much of her promotion of It Ends with Us. It has been revealed that Ryan worked on parts of the movie — something that Blake drew large attention to — and, earlier this month, he jokingly interviewed Brandon Sklenar, who plays Blake’s other love interest in the film.
Amid the backlash, Blake recently shared a BBC interview clip filmed at a screening of It Ends with Us, in which she says, “This movie covers domestic violence, but what’s important about this film is that she is not just a survivor and she’s not just a victim and while those are huge things to be, they’re not her identity.”
She also wrote over the clip, “Thank you to everyone who came out to show that people WANT to see films about women, and the multitudes we hold. It Ends with Us is a story of the female experience. All the highest highs, and lowest lows. And we are so proud of it. We have been in celebration of this film and of getting a message so important out there to the masses.”
“The message is the most important thing. That’s why [Colleen] wrote the book,” he said last week. “I was always thinking about the outcome and the why, and the one woman I was making this for who would sit in that theater and maybe not go back to her abusive relationship.”
“Most of us, if we’re lucky enough to run into a celebrity in public, we only have a few moments to maybe speak with you guys. But for people who see this movie who relate to the topics on a deeply personal level, they’re really gonna wanna talk to you. This movie is gonna affect people, and they’re gonna wanna tell you about their life,” the interviewer began.
Blake then answered more seriously, “Yeah, what’s been beautiful about this movie is that, like, unfortunately, we all know at least someone, but we normally know a lot more than someones, we know some manys who have experienced this. And the beauty of this has been to see people, and to see this movie alongside women who haven’t experienced this — thank Goodness — go, ‘Woah, I fell in love, too. I saw the red flags, but they didn’t look red; they looked kinda fuchsia and cute. But you know, I ignored them.’”
“The question was kind of serious, and she decided to make it about herself,” one tweet read, while another added, “this is so disrespectful knowing what the movie is about.”
“what was so hard about her taking this question seriously,” one more user wrote. “i’ve been so disappointed at how she’s been acting throughout this whole press run.”
Meanwhile, other users drew attention to Blake’s body language, questioning why she was sitting curled up on the sofa while Brandon sat upright in a more serious manner.
One user compared Blake with actor Jodie Comer, who highlighted statistics around sexual assault while promoting her Broadway show Prima Facie last year. In it, Jodie portrayed a lawyer defending men accused of sexual assault, who is assaulted herself.
“I can’t help but think of the stark contrast with Jodie Comer’s handling of Prima Facie- the respect, appreciation and compassion she showed victims is exactly what this woman should be trying to emulate. It’s not hard to be a decent human being,” they wrote.