Justin Baldoni has accused Blake Lively of attempting to ‘set him up for a trap’ during the production of their upcoming 2024 film, It Ends With Us.
The two actors have been embroiled in a legal battle for over a year. In December 2024, Lively filed a lawsuit against Baldoni, her co-star in It Ends With Us, alleging sexual harassment and accusing him of orchestrating a smear campaign.
In response, Baldoni filed a $400,000,000 defamation lawsuit against Lively, the New York Times—which had published an article featuring sexual harassment allegations—and Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds.
The court eventually dismissed Baldoni’s defamation case, but Lively’s sexual harassment lawsuit continues.
Recently, new information has surfaced indicating that Baldoni previously accused Lively of trying to set him ‘up for a trap’, as revealed by newly unsealed messages.
According to legal documents obtained by Us Weekly, a text conversation between Baldoni and his former WME agent, Danny Greenberg, took place in December 2023.
“Hey man, had a really, really bad week,” Baldoni began.
“She [Lively] had the audacity to email me directly and invite me to a meeting at her house alone if I chose. She’s refused a body double which now Sony [the film’s distributor] and Todd [Black, a producer on the film] have to jump in to make sure that happens because that’s just setting me up for a trap.
“Although she’s making me have one.”
They continued: “She’s rejected all my Story Boards for the sex scenes… she’s trying to keep all of… our clothes on for the big love scene, which is just ridiculous if you know the book.
“The whole thing is just a gigantic cluster f**k and yet I’m doing my best to stay positive, although it’s been very draining on me and time-consuming over this break to be dealing with an actress who is rewriting the writer and Director.”
The messages became public as part of a motion filed by WME.
Additionally, Baldoni expressed further concerns: “I’ve gone through the whole script, I’m giving her 95 percent of what she wants for peace but this is just a brutal experience.”
Us Weekly reports that Greenberg suggested potential mediation options, to which Baldoni responded: “I’m doing my best to just stay positive and give her as many wins as possible to just finish this thing but it’s gonna be tough at some point Warren [Zavala, a WME talent agent] needs to know that she is destroying her reputation.
“Where we will need the most help is during the edit because I’m not going to get everything she wants and I foresee that being a big issue.”
Attempts have been made to reach out to Lively’s representative for comments.