Here’s How Blake Lively Reportedly Feels About the ‘It Ends With Us’ Backlash

It Ends With Us has been a mixed blessing for the movie’s star and co-producer, Blake Lively. Based on the best-selling novel by Colleen Hoover, the movie is a box office hit and the highest earner of Lively’s career. But instead of giving her career a boost, the movie’s press tour has seemingly dinged the actor’s reputation, with rumors of an on-set feud between her and director/co-star Justin Baldoni, as well as poorly received, possibly tone-deaf aspects of the marketing. Now, a source is saying that Lively is “upset” about the way things turned out. Well, no kidding.

“She initially felt very vulnerable and upset,” an unnamed source told People almost exactly a month after the movie’s premiere. “During the promotion of the movie, not one day went by when she was not in the news in an unfavorable light. She’s just not used to this kind of drama.”

The insider added that Lively was “pretty surprised at the backlash and drama” and that the story “felt out of control to her.” Prior to this, the biggest controversy of Lively’s career was arguably her Ryan Reynolds’ decision to hold their wedding on a former plantation, though this went mostly unremarked upon as it is, certainly by Hollywood standards, not a huge thing, and they apologized.

Blake Lively herself has not commented on any of the IEWU-related brouhaha, save for a post about domestic violence that seemed like a response to the discourse, though her co-star Brandon Sklenar did defend her and all the women involved in the movie.

The source also made it clear that Lively, who had been mostly avoiding the spotlight and off social media for the past few weeks, isn’t going quietly into that good night. She’s got A Simple Favor 2 coming up, and she “enjoys working and will continue to push forward projects that she’s excited about.” Honestly, if she’d just saved the hair care brand promo for the ASF2 press tour, it might have been a great success. That movie’s got tie-in promos written all over it.