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Justin Baldoni’s body double from It Ends with Us is describing how he felt on the set of the movie six months after the film’s lead, Blake Lively, sued director and costar Baldoni, kicking off a bitter legal battle.
“You could tell that the set was tense. There was some discomfort from everybody,” Thomas Canestraro, 38, said in a recent interview with The Daily Mail, where he opened up about the on-set dynamic while making the 2024 romantic drama.
The actor and boxer told the outlet that shooting took “longer than expected,” leading him to question himself, “ ‘What’s happening here? Why are we taking so much time to film all of this scene? Why are we not on schedule?’ ”
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Canestraro previously worked with Lively, 37, on A Simple Favor (2018), and described having “an extremely easy time” with her on that set.
While filming It Ends with Us, he said she appeared “more closed off.”
A source tells PEOPLE of the former Gossip Girl star, “It makes sense that she would be closed off given her allegations.”
PEOPLE has reached out to attorneys for Lively and Baldoni for comment.
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Lively and Baldoni’s legal battle began in December 2024, when Lively filed a sexual-harassment complaint against Baldoni, and alleged that he engaged in misconduct during the film’s production. The actress also accused Baldoni and his associates of launching a retaliatory smear campaign meant to “destroy” her reputation, which he has denied.
Baldoni countered Lively’s initial claim in January with a $400 million lawsuit against her, her husband Ryan Reynolds and their publicist Leslie Sloane, alleging extortion, defamation and more.
Canestraro told the Daily Mail, that he doesn’t “want to be on any team” when it comes to the legal back-and-forth between Baldoni and Lively, and that he “hope(s) they can find an agreement” between them.
“We don’t need that in the industry,” he added. “At the same time, you can’t discredit anybody’s feeling[s], and anybody’s experience.”
Both cases in Lively v. Wayfarer Studios et al. are scheduled to go to trial in March 2026.
