It has just been announced that Blake Lively will be taking on a lead role in the film adaptation of the Colleen Hoover book, It Ends With Us. The actress is set to play the lead role of Lily Bloom as the story covers the themes of domestic abuse and the cycles we can find ourselves in. However, it would seem that not everyone is happy with this casting, with many taking to social media to ask “Why god, why?!”
Before you get confused, it would appear that the backlash isn’t aimed at Lively, but more at the author and her, as some may view it, problematic way of writing about relationships. Basically, many want the actress to stay far far away from the whole thing. Hoover is one of the most discussed individuals on BookTok, the TikTok community that discusses all things literature, where many have recently started pointing out the toxic relationship tropes that appear in her novels.
Hoover first gained fame back in 2012 when she became the first self-published author to land her book, Hopeless, in the number one spot on the New York Times Bestseller list. Since then she has published 20 more books, and in Oct. 2022, the New York Times Best Seller list included six of her novels in its top ten. While It Ends With Us is her first movie adaptation, she did have another one of her books, Confess, adapted for a television series now available to watch on Amazon Prime.
Hoover has said that It Ends With Us was one of the hardest books for her to write given that it is based on her own parent’s relationship. In the book, Lily resents her deceased father for physically and sexually abusing her mother and her mother for keeping the abuse a secret. Despite the fact this book is based on Hoover’s own experiences, many have started to raise concerns about the tropes that arise in, not just this, but many of her books in that they romanticize toxic masculine behavior.
Back in 2016, one Twitter user posted a section of Hoover’s book to illustrate this point.
Due to the problematic nature of romanticizing abuse, many don’t want Lively anywhere near this project, and have take to social media to share their concern and confusion.
Some are going a little dramatic with it, but they make their point.
Some want to break the laws of time and space to stop Lively from getting on board the project.
Others imagine that extremely coercive methods were used.
This user is just plain confused and feels the need to give Lively a pep talk.
This fan is just begging Lively not to do this.
And others are hoping she will pull a Serena van der Woodson and just leave after arriving on set.
For many, it isn’t just about the problematic story and has more to do with the fact that Lively is just too old to be playing a recently graduated college student, given that the actress is 35 years old.
Many actually want to see Fate: The Winx Saga star Abigail Cowen as Lily, given she is the right age and already has the fiery red hair that comes with the character.
When it comes to telling stories about abusive behavior, it can always be a fine line to walk. In some cases people do stay with their abusers because that behavior is seen as romantic in books and movies and by society in general. It can be difficult to tell the difference between stories that are “pushing” the romantic notion of these toxic behaviors out into the world, and stories that are simply reflecting what already exists.
It has to be said though, many women are getting tired of seeing abusive, controlling, and dominating behaviors displayed on screen as romantic. Edward Cullen, your time is over. As for fans of Lively, it is understandable to see why they wouldn’t want her associating with this kind of project, but that is exactly what she is doing, not just as an actress but also as an executive producer, and she will likely have her reasons for it.
