New court documents have pulled back the curtain on one of Hollywood’s most contentious legal battles, revealing private conversations that paint a disturbing picture of what allegedly happened behind the scenes of It Ends With Us.
Text messages between Blake Lively and Taylor Swift, emails to Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, and depositions from co-stars Jenny Slate and Isabela Ferrer were unsealed this week.
The revelations offer unprecedented insight into allegations of sexual harassment and workplace misconduct against director and co-star Justin Baldoni.
With a trial scheduled for May 18, these documents could reshape public perception of a case that has divided Hollywood.
Jenny Slate’s Damning On-Set Accounts
Slate, who portrayed Baldoni’s onscreen sister Allysa, didn’t mince words when describing her experience working on the film.
In text messages read during her September 2025 deposition, she characterized the production as deeply troubling.
Filming the movie has been a really gross and disturbing shoot, and I’m one of many who feel [this] way.
Slate alleged that both she and Lively complained directly to the studio about conditions on set. Her texts reveal escalating concerns about Baldoni and producer Jamey Heath throughout production.
Justin is truly a false ally and I’m unwilling to do anything that promotes the image that he’s crafting as a ‘male feminist.’ Honestly I have no words to describe what a fraud he is.
Warnings About Escalating Behavior
During May 2023 production, Slate messaged her former agent expressing serious concerns about what Lively was experiencing.
I feel like it’s about to get really bad and I’m not sure what Blake’s limit is but she’s really taken a lot of crap from them, like crazy shit, and I’m not kidding when I tell you that Justin and Jamey me freak me out. Like they tell really weird lies and Justin is astoundingly wrongheaded.
Particularly striking was Slate’s reference to Baldoni’s 2018 TED Talk about empowering women and redefining masculinity—a talk that now appears deeply ironic given the allegations.
I really don’t get how he did a TED Talk. He is worse than the bros I’ve encountered, not because he’s predatory but because of his general fragility and misogyny, like not seeming to be aware of any of the obvious no-nos.
Taylor Swift Enters the Picture
Swift’s involvement in the case has been a source of intense speculation, with Baldoni’s legal team attempting to subpoena the superstar in May 2025.
Unsealed messages show Swift offering support to her longtime friend as allegations against Baldoni came to light publicly.
When Lively shared a People magazine story about Baldoni shortly before The New York Times exposé was published, Swift’s response was pointed.
I think this bitch knows something is coming because he’s gotten out his tiny violin.
Lively noted the contrast between Baldoni’s public statements and what she allegedly experienced on set, particularly regarding a detail she claimed he omitted from his public narrative.
Awards and Optics
Messages reveal both women discussing Baldoni being honored at a Vital Voices event celebrating men who elevate women—an irony not lost on them.
This is so disgusting, and I hate that he’s clever about this shit.
Swift’s message captured what many observers felt about the situation.
Lively attributed Baldoni’s public positioning to strategic crisis management, mentioning his publicist Jennifer Abel and communications staff at his studio.
He needs to be beaten by his OWN words.
Swift’s statement proved particularly prescient as Baldoni’s previous statements about feminism and supporting women have now become central to the case against him.
Script Revisions and Celebrity Intervention
Messages from a year earlier show Lively referring to Baldoni as the “doofus director of my movie” and describing him as a “clown” who “thinks he’s a writer now.”
In what Baldoni’s team has characterized as pressure tactics, Lively asked Swift—who was allegedly already en route to visit while Baldoni was at Lively’s home—to endorse script revisions Lively was proposing.
Swift’s enthusiastic response and subsequent involvement became a point of contention in Baldoni’s lawsuit, which alleged that Swift and Ryan Reynolds helped Lively pressure him into script changes.
Friendship Strain Revealed
Perhaps most surprisingly, December 2024 messages reveal tension in Lively and Swift’s friendship during the legal battle.
Lively reached out expressing concern she’d been a “sad sack who only talked about my own shit for months.”
Swift’s candid response acknowledged feeling distance from her friend, noting Lively’s recent communication style felt impersonal—”like I was reading a mass corporate email sent to 200 employees.”
I just kinda miss my funny, dark, normal-speaking friend who talks to me as herself, not like. A plural unit.
Hollywood Heavyweights Weigh In
Unsealed emails show Lively reached out to Ben Affleck on May 17, 2024, asking for input on her edit of the film.
Her message described production as “the most upsetting experience I’ve ever had on a movie.”
The making of doc of this film would be more interesting than the movie could ever be. It’s like if Wild Wild Country, Fyre Festival and Going Clear had a baby with The Room.
Lively alleged she “ended up rewriting and restructuring the entire script” and had to “direct the movie via the chaotic clown ‘director’/actor/producer/financier/studio head.”
She also made explosive allegations about cult involvement, claiming everyone Baldoni brought onto the production “is in a cult.”
The Editing Battle
Lively described being shut out of editing until being given just 10 days to create her own cut—while Baldoni had been editing since July.
She asked Affleck and his then-wife Jennifer Lopez for feedback before a “bake off” competition between the two edits.
Reynolds separately recruited Matt Damon and his wife Lucy to watch Lively’s version, describing the production as “one of the all time zingers on and off set.”
Weight Comments and Boundary Violations
Reynolds shared an incident that occurred weeks before shooting began, right after Lively gave birth to their son.
According to Reynolds, Baldoni called their trainer Don asking how much Lively would weigh in two weeks because he had to carry her in a scene and claimed to have “low bone density.”
Lively also alleged Baldoni told her he “speaks to my father often” and hoped she didn’t mind—despite her father having died three years earlier.
Damon responded to the Affleck-Lively correspondence by inviting Lively to direct her next movie at Artists Equity, the production company he co-founded with Affleck, joking they’re “kind of like a cult but a really nice one.”
Isabela Ferrer’s Troubling Testimony
Ferrer, who played young Lily in the film, testified during her deposition that she witnessed “inappropriate or unwelcome actions, conduct or comments” three times during production.
Most concerning were allegations about how Baldoni directed intimate scenes involving teenage characters.
Inappropriate Comments About Intimate Scenes
Ferrer alleged Baldoni described one of her intimate scenes as “hot”—a characterization she found deeply inappropriate.
It didn’t feel appropriate in a work environment, and given that it was not necessarily like a note of any kind to do with my acting. It felt out of place and strange to hear about a scene, especially a scene that is meant to be a PG scene about two young teenagers having a very innocent experience intimately.
She emphasized that the scene, depicting her character losing her virginity, was choreographed with an intimacy coordinator to be innocent and PG-rated, not “sexy or hot or any term like that.”
Suggestive Direction and Alleged Winking
Ferrer described another incident during a kitchen scene where her character and love interest were making cookies.
Baldoni allegedly suggested she lick cookie dough off a spoon while looking up at her co-star “in a way that deemed to me kind of inappropriate given the context of the scene.”
It didn’t make sense to me in the scene that we were filming that my character would do that kind of thing given that she was 16 and in high school.
Perhaps most disturbing was Ferrer’s allegation that Baldoni pulled her co-star Alex Neustaedter aside before their Jersey City shoot, telling Alex he wanted him to “get to know me really well” and then allegedly winked at him.
Ferrer interpreted the wink as having sexual connotations she found inappropriate.
What Happens Next
Lively first filed her complaint in December 2024, alleging sexual harassment and a coordinated campaign to destroy her reputation through “social manipulation.”
Baldoni’s legal team dismissed the complaint as “shameful” with “categorically false accusations.” Baldoni filed a countersuit that was dismissed in June 2025.
These newly unsealed documents provide the most detailed public account yet of what allegedly transpired during production.
Multiple witnesses—from A-list celebrities to young actresses—have now gone on record describing concerning behavior.
The case raises broader questions about power dynamics in Hollywood, the performance of allyship versus genuine advocacy, and how allegations against self-proclaimed feminists are handled differently than those against others.
As the May 18 trial date approaches, both legal teams will have the opportunity to present evidence and cross-examine witnesses in court.
For now, these documents offer a rare glimpse into private conversations among Hollywood’s elite—and suggest the full story of what happened on the It Ends With Us set may be even more complex than previously understood.