Intimacy Coordinator Shares Opinion On Leaked ‘It Ends With Us’ Clip

Leaked behind-the-scenes footage from the filming of ‘It Ends With Us’ fuels escalating legal battle between the film’s star, Blake Livelyand its director and co-star, Justin Baldoni. The video, depicting a seemingly innocuous slow-dancing scene, has become a focal point of the feud, with both sides using it to support their opposing claims.

After the video went viral, an intimacy coordinator spoke out on the subject, sharing her thoughts on the clip featuring Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni.

The leaked footage, filmed in May 2023, captures three takes of a pivotal scene from “It Ends With Us,” an adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s 2016 novel. The scene shows Lively and Baldoni’s characters, Lily and Ryle, dancing in slow motion in a bar, described in the script as “completely in their own world”. Baldoni’s team says the video demonstrates professionalism on set and disputes the validity of Lively’s allegations.

To give an overview of the leaked video, The Hollywood Reporter consulted Mia Schachter, an experienced intimacy coordinator who has worked on projects including Apple TV+’s “Lessons in Chemistry,” HBO’s “Insecure” and FX’s “American Crime Story.” Schachter reviewed the footage and offered his perspective on the dynamics and protocols displayed during the scene.

One of the first things Schachter noticed was “he’s trying to kiss her, and they clearly haven’t discussed it in advance, and she keeps pulling away and clearly doesn’t want to do that.” .

She also clarified that normally, if two actors were to film a scene where characters kiss, an intimacy coordinator would discuss it beforehand. “But there are two main reasons why people hire an intimacy coordinator,” she added.

“Either simulated sex or nudity. For anything that could be considered intimate, we are not always present or required. In a scene like this, it is very common that you do not involve a intimacy coordinator because there is no sex or simulated nudity, and there is not even a kiss written into the scene We saw it in this excerpt from the script. there were two credited intimacy coordinators on this film, but that doesn’t surprise me at all. There wouldn’t have been an intimacy coordinator present for this scene. An intimacy coordinator would have been very clear: “We don’t kiss. That’s the kind of contact that’s on the table. Nothing else is, we just do it. ‘I’m not going to bring anything into the scene that we haven’t discussed before.'”

Schachter then discussed the power dynamic between the two actors, reminding viewers that “even though she’s Blake Lively and she can say no and she won’t get fired for speaking her mind like someone ‘someone else might fear it’, Lively continues to do so. I have to keep working with him “and keep the peace and play nice.”

“I can just see her trying to keep it light and good-natured about it and not upset him or anyone, and not waste anyone’s time,” she told THR. “But of course she’s stuck between a rock and a hard place. I can see her calming him down and trying to keep a smile on her face.”

She said Baldoni was in charge, “but it can be very murky.”

“Obviously, she’s the star, the household name of the project,” she said. “I didn’t know who he was before this movie, but I’ve known who she is for many years, and so she’s not powerless. I would say she has significant power here. But regardless, he’s the director and she is supposed to follow his instructions I was a little surprised that this was the clip leaked by his team.

While Baldoni’s team sees the leaked clip as justification, Schachter sees “the opposite”, explaining that “when someone has [Lively’s] In terms of fame and recognition, they have a certain power, but there is always the actor-director relationship, and the director is in charge.”

As for reporting the scene, Schachter admits she wouldn’t have done so “based on what this excerpt from the scene description says. They’re just dancing slowly. There’s no mention of any sort of physical intimacy.”

“If I heard what’s in that clip, none of it strikes me as something that would require intervention,” she added. “I even thought it was kind of sweet that they were talking about their own real-life partners. It was kind of awkward, but it wasn’t inappropriate. And it kind of reminded us that we have lives outside of that.”

However, she explained that if she heard someone make comments like those described in Lively’s lawsuit, such as jokes about sensitive topics, she would feel compelled to intervene.

“But that puts even an intimacy coordinator in a very difficult position because he or she is also the director,” she noted. “Who do you go to? If you’re afraid that he has an ego that will lead him to have a reaction that might stall filming, then you become the bad guy. I’d be afraid of getting fired, quite honestly.”

As the legal battle continues, both sides remain steadfast in their respective narratives, but the leaked footage has the potential to significantly influence public opinion and play a key role in determining the outcome of this heated case .