The third side of the It Ends With Us love triangle addresses "this stuff swirling online"
Brandon Sklenar took to social media to defend the women of It Ends With Us amid rumors of a feud
Photo: Colleen Hoover, Brandon Sklenar, Isabela Ferrer, and Blake Lively (Eric Charbonneau/Getty Images)
The behind-the-scenes drama on the set of It Ends With Us hasn’t slowed the film down any, recently crossing the $100 million mark at the box office. But inquiring minds are still curious about what exactly happened between director Justin Baldoni and his co-star Blake Lively. After weeks of tabloid rumors, someone actually involved with the film has finally spoken up—to tell all of us to chill out already.
Brandon Sklenar, who plays the third prong in the movie’s love triangle with Baldoni and Lively, took to Instagram to remind the fans what’s really important: the film’s depiction of intimate partner violence. He related the story of someone “very close” to him who credits Colleen Hoover’s book “and subsequently this film with saving her life.” The entire cast and crew were “aware of the responsibility we had in making this. A responsibility to all the women who have experienced generational trauma – Domestic abuse – Or struggle with looking in the mirror and loving who they see,” he wrote. “The movie is a harsh reality check for the men who need to get their shit together and take responsibility for themselves and their actions.”
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Sklenar discouraged fans from spreading hate on the Internet especially if those opinions aren’t “based in any fact.” He specifically championed “Colleen and the women of this cast,” writing, “Vilifying the women who put so much of their heart and soul into making this film because they believe so strongly in its message seems counterproductive and detracts from what this film is about.” He went on to add that the film is meant to inspire and raise awareness, as opposed to “once again [making] the women the ‘bad guy.'”
Notably, Sklenar did not come to the defense of Baldoni, who has also been vilified and turned into the “bad guy” by certain online spectators. Instead, he said, “What may or may not have happened behind the scenes does not and hopefully should not detract from what our intentions were in making this film.” It was already pretty obvious that Sklenar was in the Lively camp, given that he filmed a promo for the movie with her husband Ryan Reynolds and they all posed together happily on the premiere red carpet while Baldoni was left the odd one out. Perhaps Sklenar is right that fans should focus on the movie’s message about domestic violence (the depiction of which has been divisive since Hoover’s book was published). However, conspicuously ignoring the film’s director in this statement is unfortunately likely to spark yet more speculation.