"It Ends With Us" Director And Star Justin Baldoni Responded To The Argument That The Movie "Glamorizes" Domestic Violence

This story deals with the topic of domestic violence and abuse.  

It Ends with Us debuted in theaters this past weekend, and a significant topic of discussion has been whether the film's promotion glosses over the fact that it's quite literally a movie about domestic violence.

Sony Pictures Releasing /Courtesy Everett Collection

The movie is based on the Colleen Hoover book of the same name. It focuses on a florist named Lily Bloom (Blake Lively) as she navigates an abusive relationship with Ryle Kincaid (Justin Baldoni). The main theme of the movie is the generational cycle of domestic violence, flashing back to Lily's youth when her father abused her mother.

Nicole Rivelli /© Sony Pictures Releasing /Courtesy Everett Collection

Justin Baldoni, who also directed It Ends with Us, recently spoke out about the argument that the film "glorifies" domestic violence in an interview with the Associated Press.

"I think that they are absolutely entitled to that opinion. And it makes perfect sense as to why they would feel that way," Justin said.

"I mean, look, we live in a culture where, unfortunately, too many things are glorified," he continued. "And we are fighting for attention — we are an attention economy, and we're in a clickbait world and everybody is trying to figure out how to gather attention. Look at the news cycle, it's everywhere around us."

"So, it makes perfect sense people would feel that way," he said. "Also, if anybody has had that real-life experience, I can imagine how hard it would be to imagine their experience being in a romance novel."

"To them I would just offer that we were very intentional in the making of this movie," he finished.

It should also be noted that Justin has continued to bring awareness to the film's heavy subject matter throughout this promotion cycle.

His Instagram bio includes a link to No More, an anti-domestic abuse nonprofit that was a "charitable partner" of the movie, among other links. Lively's links to her brands, Betty Booze and Betty Buzz, and Hoover's links primarily include places to buy her books or other elements of her career as an author.

Justin also spoke to Deadline about working with the nonprofit and how interviews with survivors helped with his depiction of the story saying, "And then doing work with No More and hearing from survivors and understanding the psychology of abuse and learning ‘Oh, there is real love.’ They all had to say, in order for the movie to work, the choice she makes at the end has to be one we might expect, but we don’t know what choice she’s really gonna make. And the only way that can happen is if we believe that there is deep, deep, deep love there."

And in another interview, he said, "The message is the most important thing. That’s why [Colleen] wrote the book," he told Today. "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."

As of Aug. 13, Blake has also shared an Instagram story linking out to resources for those affected by domestic violence. "1 in 4 women aged 18 or older in the US alone have been the victim of severe physical violence by an intimate partner in their lifetime. Intimate partner violence affects all genders, including more than 12 million people every year in the United States," she wrote.

Watch Justin's full AP interview here.