The Blake Lively Backlash Was A Long Time Coming

The actor has made a lot of problematic choices — and too many people are just now noticing.

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The drama surrounding “It Ends With Us” seemed to be some of the biggest entertainment news this week, with Blake Lively catching a lot of heat for her conduct during the press run for the film — and some problematic past actions.

The film, which was adapted from the 2016 bestselling novel of the same name, follows Lively’s character, flower shop owner Lily Bloom. She falls in love with Ryle Kincaid, a seemingly charming neurosurgeon played by director and co-lead Justin Baldoni who lives in her building and pursues her. The couple’s love story takes a volatile turn when Kincaid begins to abuse Lily.

You would think the focal point of the press run would discuss the effects of abuse and how the cast and crew wanted the film to show how complicated narratives of domestic violence can be. (HuffPost senior reporter Elyse Wanshel also covered some of the backlash earlier this week.) Instead, Lively promoted her outside endeavors and seemed pretty flippant or downright avoidant when it came to homing in on how her character navigates abuse. She talked about her newly launched hair care line and tried to have lighthearted conversations with interviewers.

In a viral clip, a reporter asked Lively how someone should go about approaching her to get advice about how to deal with issues of domestic violence. Her answer was pretty distasteful. She easily could have recommended some organizations that help survivors of domestic violence if she personally couldn’t offer help. Instead, she decided to be cheeky and responded by flipping the question with a question to the interviewer.