Blake Lively is pulling out all the stops to shake off her ‘Mean Girl’ image as she no longer wants headlines related to her to push her as a “villain” on every movie set. The Gossip Girl star’s name shockingly consumed a major chunk of Hollywood gossip this summer due to her association with the big-screen adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s controversial book It Ends With Us. Her mere involvement with the project invited a ton of backlash even ahead of the film’s premiere for a variety of reasons. However, the actual beast was unleashed when she visibly distanced herself from her co-star and the film’s director, Justin Baldoni, at the It Ends With Us premiere in New York in August. The rumoured feud between the pair set off a chain reaction, and days later, Lively’s history and married life were put under the microscope for numerous other controversial reasons.
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Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick’s alleged feud is dug up again
However, this wasn’t the first time a project starring the Shallows actress gained more eyeballs than expected, thanks to the contentious drama attached to its title. The 37-year-old Hollywood diva, a timeless favourite during the Met Gala season, was reportedly entangled in a clash with her A Simple Favor co-star Anna Kendrick even before the 2018 thriller’s premiere. A years-old InTouch Weekly report alleged that their feud stemmed from the Pitch Perfect star making “snarky” remarks about Lively’s longtime BFF Taylor Swift. Sometime later, more reports emerged claiming that the supposed tension between them was nothing more than a conspiracy theory. Their Simple Favor co-star Henry Golding also said during his Watch What Happens Live appearance, “Definitely no friction that I noticed.”
Ultimately, a sequel to the thriller comedy was announced in 2022. Now that the duo is back at it for A Simple Favor 2, having broken out martinis over the summer in Italy, Lively is doing it all to be on the good side of the headlines. A source recently told Life & Style that she and Kendrick have “managed to put aside their personality differences to work on A Simple Favor 2 – a project some in the press had deemed impossible.”
While Lively appears to have buried the hatchet (if there ever was any tension between her and Anna), the Twilight alum also said it was “lovely” reuniting with her co-star for the Paul Feig directorial. “She lives on the East Coast, I live on the West Coast, so we don’t get to see each other often. But it was lovely, and I think that those characters have such weird chemistry that it’s so fun to just get the gang back together. And it does feel a little bit like riding a bike,” the 39-year-old actress told PEOPLE.
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‘Personality differences’ also impacting It Ends With Us’ future
On the flip side, Life & Style’s source also addressed where It Ends With Us’ future was headed. Baldoni had previously brushed off the idea of returning to direct the sequel based on Hoover’s follow-up novel. “I think there are better people for that one. I think Blake Lively’s ready to direct. That’s what I think,” he told Entertainment Tonight on the day of the NYC premiere.
Despite his take on the issue, the insider claimed, “Sony is holding out hope that Blake and Justin Baldoni can come to some kind of understanding… in the next 18 months.” The person added, “They’re doing everything they can to make that happen, while respecting Justin and Blake for the job they’ve already done.”
In September, another report from the same outlet suggested that Ryan Reynolds was ready to cough up millions to buy out Baldoni from the franchise to secure his wife’s future with it, considering It Ends With Us has been the biggest movie of her career. On that note, the source continued that Blake’s “personality differences with Justin or anybody else” wouldn’t be a “deciding factor” when it comes to her returning for the sequel. “’IEWU’ is all about money, and it always has been,” the insider concluded.
