Blake Lively, Brandon Sklenar, Isabela Ferrer and Alex Neustaedter are bringing Colleen Hoover's hugely popular book “It Ends with Us" to the big screen!
“Extra’s” Mona Kosar Abdi chatted with Blake, Brandon, Isabela and Alex about the movie, their characters, and one particularly impactful musical moment featuring Taylor Swift’s song “My Tears Ricochet."
As for how that came about, Blake, who is close pals with Taylor, explains, "It was put in the trailer first. You know, we worked really hard on that trailer and it was just so powerful, and it was never something... You know, this is a movie you should see in theaters. You don't see movies like this anymore where you get to see, like, movie stars being born. This is Isabela's first movie, everybody on the screen just pops. And to have a story that's, like, from a book, that's such a big IP, that hasn't been done before, that hasn't been on screen before, it's such a special event and special experience and it has such high production value."
She added, "That said, it was, like, not a big budget. So, it was not something where we were like, 'Oh, you know, let's have the most successful singer of all time in our film.' It was just not something we were considering. But it worked so well in the trailer that I was like, ‘We’ve got to put this in the movie.’”
She went on, “There was a moment that was very important to me for Lily’s journey because there’s something that happens in her life that sort of changes her perspective about what her future is going to be. And as she’s considering what her future is going to be, having that song overscore that time in her life was critical.”
Blake, who was also a producer on the movie, insisted she didn't have any hesitations about taking on such a beloved book or her character Lily Bloom.
She shared, "To me, it was an no-brainer. Colleen just laid out such a beautiful and clear road map for Lily's journey. I completely understood why she made the decisions that she made. And it was really important to me to be able to bring to life a character who was both strong and vulnerable, who was both passionate and passive, who was masculine and feminine, who was fabulous and grounded. I just really wanted to show that she wasn't any one thing. She was a person who had lived a lot of life, who had a lot of life experience, and was still susceptible to not seeing something she should see, given her past and her history."
Blake continued, "I just fell in love with Lily, and I really wanted to tell her story, and to be able to tell it in a way where I had such authorship was really important to me and I'm really, really grateful for that."
Blake and Isabela, who plays the younger Lily, also dished on their uncanny similarities.
While Lily nailed all the mannerisms to play a younger version, they didn’t have “a whole lot of time” together. She said, “We are just such similar people already that I actually didn’t feel like I had to do that much to tap into those mannerisms.”
Blake joked, "I'm moving to Capri and Isabel is going to take over my whole life, 'cause I realized I can just, like, peace and no one will notice. It's amazing. She's inherited four children, an amazing husband. This is gonna be great."
The two had “a couple of conversations” and “met twice” before shooting.
Lily raved, “Even in those conversations, it just felt so buoyant and alive… It was so exciting to relate so quickly to somebody, but to also just be so excited to like share this role with such an amazing person.”
Brandon, who plays Atlas, bonded with his younger counterpart Alex, who even taught him how to fly fish!
Another important person for Brandon was author Colleen, who was his "north star" throughout the project.
"You want to make it your own, obviously," he said. "I didn't want to think about what people wanted too much, to be honest, because for me, it can trip you out to be considering too much what you think you should be doing rather than your own honest interpretation of what you see in the book on the page."
Brandon said that as long as Colleen liked what he was doing then he knew, "I don't have to think about anything, because this is you, this is your story."
Blake also spoke about Lily's wardrobe and how essential it was to accessing the character.
She commented, “I felt like Lily’s wardrobe was really, really important to me that it was both utility and then fabulous-glam, it was masculine and feminine, it was old and new, and it was all the things that she is. She’s contradictions, but also you see how they make sense together and she’s trying to reconcile her past while, you know, making way for her future. I think you see all of that storytelling in her wardrobe."
She added, "And also, you've gotta really be in your skin to dress like that. You've gotta know who you are and have a strong sense of self. So, I think that’s probably the most critical thing, is to see somebody who’s not flailing or trying to figure out who they are or grasping, someone who really has both feet on their ground and has a strong sense of self also lose themselves and not realize that they're losing themselves, I think is really powerful."
“It Ends with Us” is in theaters August 9.
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