Amid Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni’s ongoing legal battle, a past interview with their It Ends With Us costar Isabella Ferrer seemingly revealed how Taylor Swift was involved in the casting.
It looks like Taylor Swift had the electric touch when it came to casting.
Last month, the “Cruel Summer” singer’s name was brought into the fold of Blake Lively and her It Ends With Us costar and director Justin Baldoni‘s ongoing legal battle when Baldoni accused Lively of using her “megacelebrity friend” and her husband Ryan Reynolds‘ star power to pressure him into granting her more creative freedoms in the making of the Colleen Hoover movie adaptation. And now, resurfaced interviews from members of the cast revealed another way Swift allegedly played a part in the It Ends With Us production process.
In one interview, Isabella Ferrer—who played the younger version of Lively’s Lily Bloom character in the 2024 film—said that the Grammy winner had a hand in helping her secure her role.
“Yes, she did,” the 25-year-old told Extra at the Aug. 6 premiere of It Ends With Us. “I don’t even know if I’m supposed to be saying it, but I’m saying it!”
Noting that she “found out later after she got it” that Swift was a “helpful part of the process of the audition,” Ferrer added, “That rocked my world. I have no words.”
And Baldoni echoed Ferrer’s comments about Swift helping to cast her part in a separate interview.
“I had actually brought in and showed her casting tape to Blake and Taylor and they were both, like, ‘Yes! Her,’” he told Access Hollywood in a Aug. 7 interview. “And that’s a true story.”
Photo by Gareth Cattermole/TAS24/Getty Images for TAS Rights Management / Photo by Eric Charbonneau/Getty Images for Sony Pictures
But Baldoni doesn’t only allege that Swift was involved in casting. In his Jan. 16 lawsuit, obtained by E! News, the Jane the Virgin alum also accused Lively of making a “veiled threat” through a studio executive “implying she might ‘change her mind’ about reaching out to Swift to secure the use of ‘My Tears Ricochet’ for the trailer if her demands are not met.”
E! News has reached out to Swift’s rep for comment on the interviews and the suit’s allegations but hasn’t heard back.
And while Swift has never publicly addressed the accusations, Lively—who filed her own lawsuit against Baldoni in December accusing him of sexual harassment and retaliation—denied Baldoni’s allegations, describing his filing as “another chapter in the abuser playbook.”
“This is an age-old story: A woman speaks up with concrete evidence of sexual harassment and retaliation and the abuser attempts to turn the tables on the victim,” Lively’s lawyers said in a statement to E! News. “This is what experts call DARVO. Deny. Attack. Reverse Victim Offender.”
Her attorneys added that the lawsuit was an attempt to “overwhelm the public’s ability to understand that what they are doing is retaliation against sexual harassment allegations.”
As for Baldoni, he likewise denies Lively’s accusations, calling them “falsified stories.”
“These claims are completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious,” his lawyer Bryan Freedman said in a statement to E! News, “with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media.”
For a deeper dive into Lively and Baldoni’s ongoing legal battle, keep reading.
In the complaint obtained by E! News, Baldoni, his production company Wayfarer Studios (Wayfarer), its CEO Jamey Heath, its cofounder Steve Sarowitz, Baldoni’s publicist Jennifer Abel, her company RWA Communications, crisis communications specialist Melissa Nathan, her company The Agency Group PR LLC (TAG), contractor Jed Wallace and his company Street Relations Inc. were listed as defendants.
Lively alleged in her complaint that Baldoni and his Wayfarer associates “embarked on a sophisticated press and digital plan in retaliation” for her voicing her concerns about purported misconduct on set—with her saying she and other cast and crew members “experienced invasive, unwelcome, unprofessional and sexually inappropriate behavior” by Baldoni and Heath.
The actress added the alleged campaign against her caused “substantial harm” to her personally and professionally.
The accusations listed in the complaint include sexual harassment; retaliation; failure to investigate, prevent and/or remedy harassment; aiding and abetting harassment and retaliation; breach of contract; intentional infliction of emotional distress; negligence; false light invasion of privacy and interference with prospective economic advantage.
“I hope that my legal action helps pull back the curtain on these sinister retaliatory tactics to harm people who speak up about misconduct,” Lively told the outlet, “and helps protect others who may be targeted.”
“It is shameful that Ms. Lively and her representatives would make such serious and categorically false accusations against Mr. Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and its representatives, as yet another desperate attempt to ‘fix’ her negative reputation which was garnered from her own remarks and actions during the campaign for the film; interviews and press activities that were observed publicly, in real time and unedited, which allowed for the internet to generate their own views and opinions,” he said in a statement on The New York Times website. “These claims are completely false, outrageous and intentionally salacious with an intent to publicly hurt and rehash a narrative in the media.”
Freedman also defended Wayfarer’s decision to hire a crisis manager, saying this was done before the marketing campaign of the movie.
“The representatives of Wayfarer Studios still did nothing proactive nor retaliated, and only responded to incoming media inquiries to ensure balanced and factual reporting and monitored social activity,” he later added. “What is pointedly missing from the cherry-picked correspondence is the evidence that there were no proactive measures taken with media or otherwise; just internal scenario planning and private correspondence to strategize which is standard operating procedure with public relations professionals.”
However, WME denied that Lively’s husband Ryan Reynolds was to blame for the agency’s parting of ways with Baldoni, which the It Ends With Us director later allege in his lawsuit filed against The New York Times (more on that below).
“In Baldoni’s filing there is a claim that Reynolds pressured Baldoni’s agent at the Deadpool & Wolverine premiere. This is not true,” WME—which also represents Reynolds and Lively—said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter Jan. 1. “Baldoni’s former representative was not at the Deadpool & Wolverine premiere nor was there any pressure from Reynolds or Lively at any time to drop Baldoni as a client.”
In the days following Lively’s CRD filing and The New York Times article, several famous figures shared their reactions to her allegations against Baldoni—including It Ends With Us author Hoover.
“@blakelively, you have been nothing but honest, kind, supportive and patient since the day we met,” she wrote on Instagram Stories Dec. 21, linking out to The New York Times. “Thank you for being exactly the human that you are. Never change. Never wilt.”
Jenny Slate, who played the sister of Baldoni’s character Ryle, also noted she stood with Lively.
“As Blake Lively’s castmate and friend, I voice my support as she takes action against those reported to have planned and carried out an attack on her reputation,” Slate said in a Dec. 23 statement to Today. “Blake is a leader, loyal friend and a trusted source of emotional support for me and so many who know and love her.”
“What has been revealed about the attack on Blake is terribly dark, disturbing, and wholly threatening,” she added. “I commend my friend, I admire her bravery, and I stand by her side.”
In addition, Brandon Sklenar—a love interest for Lively’s character Lily Bloom—shared a screenshot of the complaint published to The New York Times‘ website and linked out to the outlet writing, “For the love of God read this.”
Plus, Lively’s Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants costars America Ferrera, Alexis Bledel and Amber Tamblyn wrote they “stand with her in solidarity.”
“I’m writing to you today to let you know that I have had my representatives inform Wayfarer that I will no longer be co-hosting The Man Enough podcast,” she wrote on Instagram at the time. “Thank you for trusting me with your hearts and stories, for holding space for mine, and for making this show what it was. I will miss you, the listeners, so much. I love what this community created together with every fiber of my being, and that’s because of you.”
While Plank did not give a reason for her exit from the podcast, it came days after Lively’s complaint against Baldoni and his Wayfarer associates.
“As this chapter closed for me, I remain committed to the values we’ve built together,” the author continued in her message to her followers. “Thank you for being here, for trusting me, and for being by my side for the last four years. We all deserve better, and I know that together, we can create it.”
She added, “I will have more to share soon as I continue to process everything that has happened. In the meantime, I will continue to support everyone who calls out injustice and holds the people standing in their way accountable.”
“Defendants Abel and Nathan secretly conspired for months to publicly and privately attack Jones and Jonesworks, to breach multiple contracts and induce contractual breaches, and to steal clients and business prospects,” the lawsuit obtained by NBC New reads. “Behind Jones’s back, they secretly coordinated with Baldoni and Wayfarer to implement an aggressive media smear campaign against Baldoni’s film co-star, and then used the crisis as an opportunity to drive a wedge between Jones and Baldoni, and to publicly pin blame for this smear campaign on Jones—when Jones had no knowledge or involvement in it.”
Per Abel’s LinkedIn profile, she worked at Jonesworks until last summer. The lawsuit alleges Abel and Nathan “continue to point the finger falsely at Jones now that their own misconduct is coming to light,” and “defame and attack” her in the industry.
As for Baldoni and Wayfarer, who are no longer Jonesworks clients, the suit alleges they “repudiated their contractual obligations with Jonesworks and rebuffed Jones’s efforts to settle this dispute privately in arbitration.”
E! News reached out to the defendants for comment.
In the lawsuit obtained by E! News, The New York Times is accused of libel, false light invasion of privacy, promissory fraud and breach of implied-in-fact contract for its article about a retaliatory smear campaign the plaintiffs allegedly conducted against Lively after she voiced concerns about purported misconduct on set.
Saying the report was “false” and based on Lively’s CRD complaint, the plaintiffs denied the accusations and alleged messages cited in the article and complaint were taken out of context.
“Despite its claim to have ‘reviewed these along with other documents[,]’ the Times relied almost entirely on Lively’s unverified and self-serving narrative,” the lawsuit says, “lifting it nearly verbatim while disregarding an abundance of evidence that contradicted her claims and exposed her true motives.”
They also allege “it was Lively, not Plaintiffs, who engaged in a calculated smear campaign.” She has denied this.
The New York Times said it plans to “vigorously defend against the lawsuit.”
“The role of an independent news organization is to follow the facts where they lead,” it stated to E!. “Our story was meticulously and responsibly reported. It was based on a review of thousands of pages of original documents, including the text messages and emails that we quote accurately and at length in the article.”
According to the court documents obtained by E! News, she is suing the defendants for sexual harassment; retaliation; failure to investigate, prevent and/or remedy harassment; aiding and abetting harassment and retaliation; breach of contract, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence infliction of emotional distress and false light invasion of privacy.
The allegations in the lawsuit were first detailed in the CRD complaint Lively filed earlier that month.
In response to the lawsuit Baldoni and his associates filed against The New York Times—which does not list Lively as a defendant—her attorneys noted in a statement to E! that “nothing in this lawsuit changes anything about the claims” in her CRD and federal complaints.
“This lawsuit is based on the obviously false premise that Ms. Lively’s administrative complaint against Wayfarer and others was a ruse based on a choice ‘not to file a lawsuit against Baldoni, Wayfarer,’ and that ‘litigation was never her ultimate goal,'” they continued. “As demonstrated by the federal complaint filed by Ms. Lively earlier today, that frame of reference for the Wayfarer lawsuit is false.”
“There are other bad actors involved,” the court documents state, “and make no mistake—this will not be the last lawsuit.”
In a Jan. 2 interview with NBC News, Baldoni and Wayfarer’s attorney Freedman said they “absolutely” plan to sue Lively.
For instance, social media users have speculated that her husband Reynolds trolled Baldoni in his movie Deadpool & Wolverine through the character Nicepool.
Reynolds has not publicly commented on the rumors; however, Baldoni’s lawyer Freedman shared his reaction.
“What I make of that is that if your wife is sexually harassed, you don’t make fun of Justin Baldoni,” Freedman said during an interview on The Megyn Kelly Show posted to YouTube Jan 7. “You don’t make fun of the situation. You take it very seriously. You file HR complaints. You raise the issue and you follow a legal process. What you don’t do is mock the person and turn it into a joke.”
“Ms. Lively’s federal litigation before the Southern District of New York involves serious claims of sexual harassment and retaliation, backed by concrete facts,” her lawyers said in a Jan. 7 statement to E! News. “This is not a ‘feud’ arising from ‘creative differences’ or a ‘he said/she said’ situation. As alleged in Ms. Lively’s complaint, and as we will prove in litigation, Wayfarer and its associates engaged in unlawful, retaliatory astroturfing against Ms. Lively for simply trying to protect herself and others on a film set. And their response to the lawsuit has been to launch more attacks against Ms. Lively since her filing.”
“While we go through the legal process, we urge everyone to remember that sexual harassment and retaliation are illegal in every workplace and in every industry,” they added. “A classic tactic to distract from allegations of this type of misconduct is to ‘blame the victim’ by suggesting that they invited the conduct, brought it on themselves, misunderstood the intentions, or even lied. Another classic tactic is to reverse the victim and offender, and suggest that the offender is actually the victim.”
Lively’s lawyers said “these concepts normalize and trivialize allegations of serious misconduct.” They also noted “media statements are not a defense” to her claims and that they’ll prosecute her claims in court.
“We are releasing all of the evidence which will show a pattern of bullying and threats to take over the movie,” he added. “None of this will come as a surprise because consistent with her past behavior Blake Lively used other people to communicate those threats and bully her way to get whatever she wanted. We have all the receipts and more.”
(E! and NBC News are both part of the NBCUniversal family).
According to the suit obtained by E! News, the plaintiffs accused all the defendants of civil extortion, defamation and false light invasion of privacy. As for Lively and Reynolds specifically, she is accused of breach of implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing, and they’re both accused of intentional interference with contractual relations and economic advantage as well as negligent interference with prospective economic advantage.
In the suit, the plaintiffs denied Lively’s allegations of sexual harassment and a retaliatory smear campaign against her. They also accused her of seizing control of It Ends With Us and working with Reynolds, Sloane, Jones and others to “tar and feather Plaintiffs in the press” after she received backlash for her marketing of the film. (Lively said in her filings she promoted the movie in accordance with Sony’s marketing plan.)Plaintiffs allege in the lawsuit the defendants worked with The New York Times “to put out a blockbuster news report as devastating as it was false.” The outlet stands by its report.
In part of a statement to E!, Freedman said, “Blake Lively was either severely misled by her team or intentionally and knowingly misrepresented the truth.”
