Blake Lively seemed visibly uncomfortable during an interview where she faced questions about a personal on-set experience she shared with Justin Baldoni, her co-star in “It Ends with Us.” This comes amid the backdrop of her sexual harassment case against him losing momentum.
The interview, which has resurfaced from August 2024, predates Lively’s lawsuit against Baldoni and took place four months before she took legal action against the actor-director. In it, the 38-year-old actress was asked about her rapport with the 42-year-old Baldoni and her occasional role as an “intimacy coordinator” during their scenes together.
During the interview with Access Hollywood, the journalist inquired, “Can you talk about how you sometimes took on the role of intimacy coordinator in those more romantic scenes?”
Lively promptly clarified, “That’s not something that should be happening, just to be clear. It’s important to hire professional intimacy coordinators, which, thankfully, we did have on set.”
The conversation took a more awkward turn when the interviewer pressed further, saying, “You were guiding Justin on how to pull you in.” At this point, Lively appeared noticeably unsettled.
Lively was then left visibly flustered when the interviewer asked: ‘You were teaching Justin how to pull you in.’
‘Where have you seen that?’ she replied with an awkward laugh as she animatedly played with a strand of her hair and shifted her legs.
It Ends with Us author Colleen Hoover, 46, added: ‘I actually saw that too, that was on Instagram yesterday.’
Blake Lively giggled nervously after she was asked about teaching Justin Baldoni how to be intimate on the set of It Ends with Us
Moving the conversation forward, Lively said: ‘Yeah, I mean, I think romance is really important.’
That same month, Lively called attention to the importance of having intimacy coordinators working with the cast on set to choreograph those on-screen actions ‘safely.’
When asked by Digital Spy about intimacy safety specifically on their movie set, she answered: ‘Oh, that’s a nice question. I think it’s critical to have an intimacy coordinator.’
She pointed out that any other movement sequences are carefully choreographed on the set of a movie before adding that intimacy scenes require the same level of care and guidance.
‘I think that, like, you coordinate stunts, you coordinate dancing. It is choreography,’ she said.
‘So, to be able to say “so this was what happens here, here” and here in a stunt, and “this is what happens here, here and here” in a dance.
‘But now you guys just go put your bodies together and your mouths and whatever. And just like, “action” and “cut”… that’s sort of ridiculous.’
On Thursday, a judge threw out all of Lively’s sexual harassment claims, marking a significant win for Baldoni.
Behind-the-scenes footage showed Lively appearing to pull Baldoni closer towards him on set
Blake and Baldoni starred opposite each other in the 2024 film It Ends With Us
Her fat-shaming allegations against Baldoni were also dismissed and ruled they ‘could not reasonably support a claim,’ significantly weakening her legal battle ahead of trial.
The legal saga between the It Ends with Us co-stars began in December 2024.
As it stands, Lively has just three claims to pursue: breach of contract, retaliation and aiding and abetting retaliation. Baldoni has denied these claims.
The trial is still scheduled to proceed May 18 in New York City – but now, Lively’s case is dramatically thinner.
Baldoni’s attorneys, Alexandra Shapiro and Jonathan Bach, told Daily Mail: ‘We’re very pleased the court dismissed all sexual harassment claims and every claim brought against the individual defendants: Justin Baldoni, Jamey Heath, Steve Sarowitz, Melissa Nathan, and Jennifer Abel.
‘These were very serious allegations, and we are grateful to the court for its careful review of the facts, law and voluminous evidence that was provided.
‘What’s left is a significantly narrowed case, and we look forward to presenting our defense to the remaining claims in court.’
A judge threw out all of Lively’s sexual harassment claims on April 3
Lively and Baldoni’s trial is still scheduled to proceed May 18 in New York City
Sigrid McCawley, a member of Lively’s legal team, told the Daily Mail, ‘This case has always been and will remain focused on the devastating retaliation and the extraordinary steps the defendants took to destroy Blake Lively’s reputation because she stood up for safety on the set and that is the case that is going to trial.
‘For Blake Lively, the greatest measure of justice is that the people and the playbook behind these coordinated digital attacks have been exposed and are already being held accountable by other women they’ve targeted.
‘She looks forward to testifying at trial and continuing to shine a light on this vicious form of online retaliation so that it becomes easier to detect and fight.
‘Sexual harassment isn’t going forward not because the defendants did nothing wrong but because the court determined Blake Lively was an independent contractor, not an employee.’
The court noted that the sexual harassment claim had to be considered in the context of the movie the parties were working on and that they were ‘acting in the scene.’
Some conduct complained of, the judge said, was directed to Lively’s character and not Lively herself.
‘Creative artists, no less than comedy room writers, must have some amount of space to experiment within the bounds of an agreed script without fear of being held liable for sexual harassment,’ the court concluded.
