‘It Was A Very Collaborative Process:’ It Ends With Us’ Editor Opens Up About The Debate She Had With Justin Baldoni About One Key Scene
By Riley Utley,
19 hours ago
In both the book It Ends With Us and its adaptation on the 2024 movie schedule , Lily Boom and her perspective are at the heart of the story. We are with her as she falls for Ryle, sees Atlas again for the first time, and when Ryle becomes violent and starts abusing Blake Lively’s character. So, when I spoke with Oona Flaherty, one of the movie’s editors, I asked her about working with director and Ryle actor Justin Baldoni to tell Lily’s tale. And that’s what led to her telling the story behind a key scene and the debate they had over how to cut it.
During our interview, Flaherty and I spoke at length about how abuse is portrayed in the film and how they wanted to depict Lily’s story with Ryle. So, I asked the editor to give an example of conversations she had with Baldoni and the post-production team about cutting together these sensitive moments.
In response, she told me a story about editing the final abuse scene and the debate she had with the director about whether they should cut away from Lily’s reaction to show Ryle or not:
Oona Flaherty was passionate about the scene where Ryle confronts Lily about Atlas’ restaurant’s review that alludes to her past with him. While the way the fight in It Ends With Us is depicted slightly differently from the book , it serves the exact same purpose as the breaking point that causes Lily to leave and find help to get away from her husband. So, both the editor and director knew how important it was to get right.
On that note, Flaherty broke down the conversation she had with Baldoni further, explaining:
Before saying that, the editor told me that Baldoni did a lot of research for the film about “how abusers get away with what they’re doing” as well as the “psychological and emotional” turmoil it causes. Flaherty also candidly explained that she is “not a victim of domestic violence, but [she] was assaulted in New York.” So, she brought her own experience of knowing what it feels like to be “a woman in a situation of violence” into the film.
The Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret editor then broke down the collaboration process that came along with this debate. The film was shown to lots of folks working on it, and it was through constructive feedback and back-and-forth that they landed on the cut we saw in theaters, as she said:
Despite the alleged behind-the-scenes drama, Flaherty spoke highly of collaborating with Baldoni and her co-editor Robb Sullivan, saying she’s “really proud” of the cut they did together. That hard work and collaboration paid off too. Not only did It Ends With Us get pretty good reviews , but it was also a box office hit, showing just how invested fans are in Lily’s story.
Clearly, those behind the film were deeply invested too, as shown by Flaherty’s passion to make sure this pivotal moment in the project stayed on Lively’s Lily instead of jumping back and forth between her and Ryle.
To go back and see the scene Oona Flaherty broke down with CinemaBlend, you can buy or rent It Ends With Us on Amazon .
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