Justin Baldoni Claims in Unsealed Texts Blake Lively Was ‘Setting Me Up for a Trap’

Justin Baldoni vented that Blake Lively was “setting me up for a trap” during the making of It Ends With Us, according to a newly unsealed private message sent as tensions between the two stars were escalating behind the scenes.

In a Dec. 30, 2023 text to Danny Greenberg, his former agent at William Morris Endeavor Entertainment (WME), Baldoni said he had endured a “really, really bad week” dealing with Lively, 38.

He wrote that she had contacted him directly and suggested a private meeting at her home, before turning to what he described as a growing dispute over how the film’s intimate scenes would be shot.

Baldoni, 41, claimed Lively had “refused” to use a body double for sex scenes, prompting Sony executives and producer Todd Black to step in.

“That’s just setting me up for a trap,” he wrote, adding that she was nevertheless insisting a body double be used in his place.

He also said Lively rejected his storyboards for the scenes and pushed to keep both actors fully clothed during what he viewed as a key romantic moment in the film. “If you know the book, it’s just ridiculous,” Baldoni added.

Calling the situation “a gigantic clusterf—,” Baldoni told Greenberg he was giving Lively “95% of what she wants for peace,” but said the experience of working with “an actress who is rewriting the writer and director” had been “very draining” and “time-consuming” over the holiday break.

Five days later, on Jan. 4, 2024, Baldoni, Lively, Ryan Reynolds and studio representatives took part in an “all-hands” meeting to discuss a list of 17 protections Lively had requested before production resumed following the strikes.

The measures, which had been agreed to in writing in mid-November 2023, were intended to address Lively’s concerns about on-set conduct and safety.

A source close to Lively counters that “these messages were sent only after Blake had laid out in detail the numerous ways that Baldoni and Heath had created a hostile work environment on the set, after they agreed to more than a dozen ‘protections’ for the safety of the cast and crew, and just days ahead of the January 4 meeting at which these protections would be discussed before filming resumed.”

“The text chain underscores Baldoni’s retaliatory intent,” the source continues. “It reflects his private anger over the same safeguards that he had said in public were both ‘reasonable’ and ‘essential,’ and which he later admitted in his deposition were reasonable, including his resentment for having to show up to an ‘all hands’ meeting he had also agreed to.”

The Dec. 30 exchange later surfaced in a motion filed by WME, which asked the court to keep portions of certain summary-judgment exhibits sealed, arguing the materials contain private, non-public internal communications that are not relevant to the court’s legal analysis.

The message was sent months after an alleged April 2023 on-set confrontation in which Ryan Reynolds tearfully confronted Baldoni over what he believed was “fat-shaming” of Lively, a moment witnesses said was seen by Taylor Swift and Hugh Jackman, according to court filings.

Greenberg later described the behind-the-scenes conflict in stark terms. In a July 2024 deposition, the WME agent characterized Lively’s conduct during the film as “extortion,” according to transcripts filed in the case.

The legal dispute between the two stars formally erupted in December 2024, when Lively sued Baldoni and several of his associates, including Jamey Heath, alleging sexual harassment and retaliation and seeking $160 million in damages. Baldoni has denied the claims and filed a $400 million countersuit, which was dismissed in June by U.S. District Judge Lewis J. Liman.

The next hearing is scheduled for Jan. 22, with the trial currently set for May 18.