Ryan Reynolds was much more than just “a supportive spouse” during Blake Lively’s on-set conflicts with Justin Baldoni, the lawyer for the beleaguered “It Ends With Us” director and co-star said in a statement Wednesday.
Reynolds was a “key player” in his wife’s “scheme” to destroy Baldoni’s reputation, using his “enormous power” in the movie industry to defame the less famous actor around Hollywood and to “strong-arm” his agent into dropping him as a client, said Bryan Freedman Wednesday in a statement released to TMZ.
The attorney was responding to Reynolds’ efforts to be dismissed as a defendant from Baldoni’s lawsuit against his wife.
“Mr. Reynolds’ exploitation of his enormous power in Hollywood continues, this time arrogantly asking to be dismissed from the case despite his publicly documented involvement extending far beyond just being a ‘supportive spouse,’” Freedman said in the statement.
On Tuesday, the “Deadpool” star and his attorneys asked a court to dismiss Baldoni’s legal claims against him, saying that he did nothing more than act as a “supportive spouse” when his wife alleged that she was being sexually harassed by Baldoni during the making of the 2024 film.
As for allegations that Reynolds referred to Baldwin as a “sexual predator” in conversations with Baldoni’s agency, WME, Reynolds said that he was sharing his own “genuine” belief about Baldoni, given that the director’s behavior was “reflective of a ‘predator,’” according to his court motion. Reynolds said that sharing a belief that someone is a “predator” is “constitutionally protected opinion.”
In the motion, Reynolds and his attorneys did not deny that he used Baldoni to create his “Nicepool” character, who appeared in a cameo in his summer blockbuster film “Deadpool & Wolverine.” Reynolds was accused by Baldoni of using “Nicepool” to satirize his “woke feminist” image and to further damage his reputation.
But Reynolds’ lawyers responded that Baldoni was expressing “thin-skinned outrage” by complaining about being mocked. Baldoni “may not appreciate being called” a predator or being mocked by the “Nicepool” character, the lawyers said, but those “hurt feelings” do not give rise to legal claims.
Baldoni and Lively co-starred in “It Ends With Us,” playing lovers whose relationship is destroyed by the male partner’s physically violent behavior. Baldoni also directed and produced the film, having spent several years developing the property after securing the rights to Colleen Hoover’s popular novel.
When the film debuted in August 2024, Lively was the subject of fierce online criticism over her apparent disregard of the film’s serious subject matter while promoting it. In late 2024, Lively revealed to the New York Times and in a civil rights complaint that Baldoni had subjected her to sexually inappropriate behavior during the film’s production. She also alleged that he, his producing partner at Wayfarer Studios and his publicists orchestrated the negative media against her during the film’s release to retaliate against her coming forward about the sexual harassment.
Baldoni and Lively are now engaged in back-and-forth lawsuits, with Baldoni also alleging that Reynolds help Lively take control from him over the film’s writing and editing.
Freedman, Baldoni’s attorney, said Wednesday: “Mr. Reynolds was a key player in the scheme, defaming Justin around Hollywood, strong-arming WME into dropping Justin as a client, and trying to destroy Justin’s career however possible.”
Freedman said that Reynolds’ efforts to be dismissed as a defendant in Baldoni’s lawsuit is laughable because “his fingerprints have been all over this smear campaign against Justin and the Wayfarer team since day one,” according to TMZ.
“After lighting a match, Mr. Reynolds now seeks to run from the flames,” Freedman continued. “It won’t work. The Wayfarer Parties’ claims against him are real, and they are serious. … We will not stop until he is held accountable for his actions.”