Blake Lively Captivates as Lily Bloom in "It Ends with Us"

Blake Lively as Lily Bloom in It Ends With Us

“I saw a window display of her books—Colleen Hoover, Colleen Hoover, Colleen Hoover,” recalls Blake Lively, who knew that she was working with something special with It Ends With Us, the film adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s #1 New York Times bestseller. “Her name was everywhere. She speaks to an audience—her voice resonates with people. The stories she tells and how she tells them reaches out and grabs so many people.”

Lively plays the main role of Lily Bloom, a young woman who’s determined to break free from her past, but as she falls in love, finds herself falling into the same patterns she grew up with. Lively is also a producer for It Ends With Us, captivated by its story. “I just fell in love with Lily,” Lively says. “I wanted to tell her story because her emotional roadmap was so clear to me, yet there are so many ways she could be portrayed. I knew if I took her on, I would make sure she wasn’t a delicate flower, but a woman with both feet firmly on the ground. Someone in her skin. I thought it was important to see someone you think is settled in themselves get lost. It makes you realize you never really know what people are going through.”

Author Colleen Hoover thinks Lively embodies the best of Lily Bloom, confident in the actress’s portrayal of one of the most important characters she’s ever created, as It Ends With Us is a story intertwined with Hoover’s own experience with her mother and father. “Blake has many of the same qualities I admire in both Lily and my mother,” Hoover says. “To have her playing Lily demonstrates that each situation is unique. There’s no mold to fit.”
Lively shares her interpretation of Lily Bloom, and the strength that resonates within her character. “Lily is not a wilting lily,” says Lively. “She has both feet on the ground and her head screwed on tight—she has real spice and agency. But you can be a woman with confidence and agency and know better, and still not see all of the red flags that you should. When she meets Ryle, she sweeps him off his feet as much as he sweeps her off hers. It was important to create that level playing field, so that when the relationship goes off-kilter, it’s more confusing for her, because she believes in the equality of their partnership and their strength, as individuals and together.”

There was something rewarding in portraying a character that’s going through a healing journey, Lively shares as she explains why she took on the role. “Lily's at a turning point in her life," Lively says. "She's just moved to Boston from her hometown in New England. She’s finally actualizing her dream of opening a flower shop. A major life event happens for her at the start of the movie, which brings up her past in significant ways. While coping with that, she meets someone she falls for almost instantly. She meets two ‘someones’ actually: a man and a new best female friend. Her shop is as wonderful as she imagined it to be, and her whole life is falling into place. Despite having a painful past, her future looks bright. And then, event after event, her life is upended in both beautiful and tragic ways. Her past enters her present in more ways than one, and she has to confront the entirety of her life’s most wonderful and awful experiences, all within the course of this film. It was mammoth to take on but deeply rewarding to tell a story so rich in the full spectrum of emotion.”

Watch the emotional journey of Lily Bloom as It Ends With Us arrives in Philippine cinemas on August 7.

Read More

“IT ENDS WITH US,” the Movie Adaptation to the #1 New York Times Bestselling Novel

#1 New York Times bestselling author Colleen Hoover is excited to share with her fans in the Philippines the big screen adaptation of her romance novel It Ends With Us. The film follows the journey of Lily Bloom (Blake Lively) as she chases her lifelong dream of opening her own business, while she wrestles with childhood trauma and a former flame, and a chance meeting with a charming neurosurgeon that sets off immediate sparks.

Hoover’s It Ends With Us, published in 2016, but it experienced a surge in popularity as it became viral on TikTok from the BookTok community. The book sold over a million copies worldwide, and became the best-selling novel of 2023. “It Ends With Us,” has also been translated into over twenty languages.

Describing the writing process for It Ends With Us, Hoover says that it is the hardest book she’s ever written, as it is based on the relationship between her mother and father. Critics have praised the novel for its handling of difficult topics such as domestic abuse, with The Slate writing, “‘It Ends with Us’ has probably left the most impact on me more than any other book I have read. Reading through this book was an emotional rollercoaster. There were times where I felt angry, sad, happy and giddy. Prior to reading it, I never considered how difficult it is to leave a domestic abuse relationship.”

Watch Lily Bloom’s story unfold on the big screen as It Ends With Us opens in Philippine cinemas on August 7. Directed by Justin Baldoni and produced by Alex Saks, Jamey Heath, Blake Lively and Christy Hall. The film stars Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni, Jenny Slate, Hasan Minhaj, Amy Morton and Brandon Sklenar, from a screenplay by Christy Hall, based on the book by Colleen Hoover.

In cinemas August 7, It Ends with Us is distributed in the Philippines by Columbia Pictures, local office of Sony Pictures Releasing International.

Read More

BLAKE LIVELY in THE TOWN

From playing the socialite Serena in the hit series Gossip Girl, Blake Lively does a turnaround as she portrays the blue-collar working girl Krista, in Warner Bros.’ new U.S. No. 1 hit thriller The Town.

Indeed, Lively is interested in lives that are worlds apart from hers. "I love this character because of the challenge," she says. "She was written to be a 37-year-old, OxyContin-addicted, drug-muling mother from Boston. It was a character that they didn't want to read me for because I was 21 and had been acting for a few years but hadn't proven myself much."

In the film, Krista is the ex-childhood sweetheart of Ben Affleck’s character, Doug -- the de facto leader of a group of ruthless bank robbers who wants to leave town and turn a new leaf. “All Krista wants is for Doug to love her and take her away from there,” Lively says. “She’s grown up around these tough guys who are doing everything wrong, but they were her only role models. Now she’s a single mom who does what she has to do to get by.”

Lively adds that Krista’s mix of street smarts and fragility was what drew her to the role. “She has layers of darkness and vulnerability and toughness and desperation. Krista could easily appear to be not very redeemable, but I was chomping at the bit to play her because I knew she could be portrayed in a way that made her a sympathetic character, and you could understand her behavior.”

Producer Basil Iwanyk says, “Blake brought a perfect combination of pathos, sexiness, sadness and aggression to Krista.”

“When I met Blake,” Affleck recalls, “I said, ‘Here’s something you don’t hear much in Hollywood: we’re really looking for someone older and less attractive,’” smiles the actor who also directs the film. “But she was incredible. She spent time with people in Charlestown and really invested herself in understanding the character and the depths to which Krista goes to survive.”

“In many ways, Krista is her own worst enemy,” Lively confirms. “And she’s pretty good at dragging Doug down, too, without realizing that’s what she’s doing. When another woman comes into the picture, Krista isn’t even aware of her, but she feels Doug pulling away and she’s fighting against the waves so hard.”

Blake Lively also spent time in Charlestown, picking up both the accent and the attitude of the Townie women. Contrary to the popular stereotype, it’s not just about dropping your Rs. “It’s fairly nuanced, so the accent can be pretty hard to get,” Affleck says. Nevertheless, he recommended that his cast to do more listening than learning, so to speak.

“I spent some time hanging out with them,” Lively relates, “but instead of asking questions or trying to imitate their accent, I ended up just being silent and taking it in. I realized that if I was talking, I wouldn’t be listening. I also watched how they connect with one another and how their speech changes, depending on who they’re talking to. It was interesting to watch how some of them balanced their sexuality with being tough, like, ‘Don’t mess with me.’”

Lively will next be seen in the much-anticipated action adventure Green Lantern, in which she stars opposite Ryan Reynolds under the direction of Martin Campbell. The film is slated to open in June 2011.

Opening across the Philippines on Oct. 6, The Town is distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.

Want to receive more stuff from me? Enter your email address and click the button:

Read More