Blake Lively’s It Ends With Us co-star Brandon Sklenar has spoken out over the Hollywood actor’s bombshell claims against their director, Justin Baldoni.
In a new lawsuit, Lively has alleged that Baldoni, who directed and starred alongside her in the hit 2024 film, sexually harrassed her during filming.
The 40-year-old, who has been dropped by his agents of five years, is also accused of organising a “smear campaign” against Lively in the months that followed, which has been backed up by a series of messages that were acquired by the Gossip Girl star’s lawyers.
Baldoni’s lawyer has called all claims against him “categorically false”.
Now, Sklenar, who plays the teenage love interest of Lively’s character in the adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s novel, shared a photo of Lively’s lawsuit as well as a link to the 80-page document.
He captioned the Instagram post: “FOR THE LOVE OF GOD READ THIS,” and added a red heart emoji while also tagging Lively.
In Lively’s lawsuit, the actor called being zoned out by the media “a coordinated effort to destroy” her reputation”, noting that the “emotional impact” fallout on her was “extreme”.
Lively said the negative press also affected her husband Ryan Reynolds and their four children.
Another of Lively’s co-stars to support her is Italian actor Michele Morrone, who features in Paul Feig’s forthcoming sequel A Simple Favor 2.
He said on Instagram on Monday (23 December): “So it’s usually not my thing to make these types of videos, but I think it’s time to stand up for a person I really love and this person is Blake Lively.
“I personally met Blake during A Simple Favor 2. We shot this incredible film together, and I felt something was wrong, and I felt the pain and then we had the opportunity to talk, me and her.
‘Blake was in pain. And I’m really tired to see those kind of cruel and bad comments about her without knowing the situation.”
Morrone then linked to the same article as Sklenar, adding: “So that’s why I want to link right here the article [from] The New York Times so that you can understand before commenting, what happened.”
This week, it was announced that Baldoni’s award for being an “ally to women” had been rescinded after the allegations against him emerged.
Baldoni received the Voices of Solidarity Award from Vital Voices, which celebrates “remarkable men who have shown courage and compassion in advocating on behalf of women and girls”.
