‘I saw this firsthand and up close’
Amber Heard has issued a statement following the news of Blake Lively’s legal complaint against her co-star Justin Baldoni.
Lively starred alongside Baldoni in romantic drama film It Ends With Us, which came out earlier this year and was also directed by Baldoni.
However, over the weekend Lively filed a legal complaint against the 40-year-old, accusing the actor of sexual harassment and carrying out a social media ‘smear campaign’ against her.
Baldoni denies all the allegations.
The complaint mentions a meeting in January 2024 between the two actors, members of the movie’s production team and Lively’s husband Ryan Reynolds.
The meeting was intended to address the “hostile work environment” on set, and saw Lively gave a list of 30 demands to ensure she would continue working on the film.
The legal complaint, which is one step before a lawsuit, claims that both Baldoni and Jamey Heath – the CEO of the film production company Wayfarer Studios – engaged in “inappropriate and unwelcome behavior towards Ms Lively and others on the set of It Ends With Us”.
Now, Amber Heard has spoken about the complaint in an exclusive statement given to NBC News.
The Aquaman star issued the statement after it was revealed that Baldoni had retained Melissa Nathan, a prominent PR crisis manager who Johnny Depp hired during his defamation trial against Heard.
Heard said in her statement: “Social media is the absolute personification of the classic saying ‘A lie travels halfway around the world before truth can get its boots on.’
“I saw this firsthand and up close. It’s as horrifying as it is destructive.”
Lively’s legal complaint alleges that Baldoni hired a PR team to carry out a “retaliatory social manipulation campaign” against her during production of It Ends With Us.
She claims Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios lead a “multi-tiered plan” to wreck her reputation.
Lively alleges this was the “intended result of a carefully crafted, coordinated, and resourced retaliatory scheme to silence her, and others from speaking out about the hostile environment that Mr Baldoni and Mr Heath created”.
Nathan was hired by Baldoni during production of It Ends With Us. During the film’s release in August and press tour, there was speculation of a fall out between Lively and Baldoni, who didn’t appear together on the red carpet.
Responding to the legal complaint, Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, said on Saturday: “It is shameful that Ms Lively and her representatives would make such serious and categorically false accusations against Mr Baldoni, Wayfarer Studios and its representatives.”
Freedman said the crisis communications team was hired because Lively allegedly threatened not to show up to set during filming and threatened not to promote the film.
It Ends With Us was the film adaptation of the book of the same name by Colleen Hoover. The story follows Boston florist Lily Bloom, played by Lively, as she navigates a love triangle between her charming but abusive boyfriend, Ryle Kincaid, played by Mr Baldoni, and her compassionate first love, Atlas Corrigan, played by Brandon Sklenar.
It was a box office success on its release, but some accused the film of romanticising domestic violence.
