Blake Lively Has Gotten Plenty of Hate for Her 'It Ends With Us' Promotional Tour

As the world reaffirms its love for Ryan Reynolds after Deadpool & Wolverine soared to critical, commercial, and viral success, it seems to have doubled down on its apparent disdain for his wife and fellow actress, Blake Lively. The former Gossip Girl star has had a long and storied career in both film and television but has also earned something of a negative reputation throughout Hollywood. Several outlets have previously claimed that some of her Gossip Girl co-stars have had beef with her.

Reportedly, Blake and co-star Leighton Meester hated each other between takes. Rumors also circulated that Armie Hammer was fired from the show because of Blake.

Based on these rumors, Blake Lively seems to have given off severe diva energy as she rose to both fame and infamy. But while she was no darling of the press, people have found even more reason to hate Blake Lively thanks to her 2024 film and a highly controversial wedding venue. Let's break it down.

For as unpopular as Blake Lively has been among her co-stars in the past, her latest projects haven't been free from controversy either. In 2024, she starred in It Ends With Us, a film about a woman who overcomes a childhood of domestic abuse to live her own life and find love, all while trying to avoid the pitfalls of her trauma in the process. While the film was released to middling reviews, the reaction to the film was nothing compared to the controversy surrounding Blake.

Throughout the film's promotional run, details of the alleged feud between Blake and director Justin Baldoni came to light. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Blake had commissioned a second cut of the film to be done by Deadpool & Wolverine editor Shane Reid, suggesting stark creative differences between Blake and Justin. On that same note, their individual approaches to promoting the film have also come under scrutiny.

Moviegoers have praised Justin Baldoni for putting focus on the film's serious subject matter, even linking to a nonprofit anti-domestic abuse charity in his Instagram bio and working closely with them while working on the film. On the other hand, Blake Lively has come under fire for using her platform on the film to promote her fashion lines and posting light-hearted content that contrasts the grim nature of the film.

This is far from her only problematic publicity stunt. In August 2020, both Ryan Reynolds and Blake Lively issued a public apology for holding their 2012 wedding ceremony at Boone Hall Plantation, a South Carolina-based plantation that is infamous for its housing of slave labor in the 19th century.

While the two of them share the blame for that one, Blake Lively seems to be the only one who hasn't yet recovered from the controversy. If anything, she's added more on top of it.

In 2016, Blake starred in Cafe Society, a film directed by Woody Allen. While promoting the film, she told Vanity Fair how "cool" and "empowering" she thought it was to work with him on the film.

This statement was made decades after Woody Allen largely fell out of favor in Hollywood over the sexual abuse allegations lobbied against him. While many actors have come out over the years expressing their negative experiences with working with him, Blake Lively seems to be one of the few actors to have recently expressed enthusiasm over working with such a controversial figure.