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Blake Lively, Brandon Sklener, Isabella Ferrer and Alex Neustadter talk about “It Ends with Us,” the upcoming film based on Colleen Huber’s wildly popular novel.
Extra’s Mona Kosar Abdi spoke with Blake, Brandon, Isabella and Alex about the film, which features the Taylor Swift song “My Tears Ricochet” in one particularly memorable scene.
Blake, who is close with Taylor, explained how it came about, saying, “It was first used in the trailer. We put a lot of effort into that trailer, it was so powerful. This is a movie you have to see in the theater. You don’t get to see a movie star being born anymore. This is Isabella’s first film and everyone on screen stands out. It’s a story that feels like it came from a book, it’s a big IP, it’s never been made before, it’s never been on screen before. It’s a special event, a special experience, the production values are so high.”
She added: “That being said, we didn’t have a huge budget, so we weren’t thinking, ‘Oh, you know, let’s put the most successful singer of all time in the movie.’ It wasn’t even on our radar. But it looked so good in the trailer that we were like, ‘We have to put that in the movie.'”
She continued, “There was a moment in Lily’s journey that was really important to me because something happened in her life that changed her perspective on what the future held, and it was important that the song coincided with that time in her life, when she was thinking about the future.”
Blake insisted she had no hesitation in taking on such a beloved book and her character, Lily Bloom.
She said, “For me, it was a no-brainer. Colleen gave us such a beautiful, clear roadmap for Lily’s journey and I completely understood why she made the decisions she did. And it was really important to me to bring to life a character who was strong yet vulnerable, passionate yet passive, masculine yet feminine – brilliant yet grounded. I wanted to show that she is more than one thing. She is someone who has lived a life, has had a lot of life experience, and yet, given her past and her background, tends to lose sight of what there is to see.”
Blake, who also served as a producer on the film, continued, “I fell in love with Lily and I really wanted to tell her story, and it was really important to me that I could speak for myself as the book author, and I’m really grateful for that.”
Blake and Isabella, who plays the young Lily, also spoke about the uncanny similarities between them.
Although Lily nailed all of her quirks to play the younger version of her character, the pair didn’t spend “a lot of time together,” as she explained, “We’re so similar to each other that I felt like I didn’t have to try too hard to recreate the quirks.”
Blake joked, “I’m moving to Capri and Isabel’s going to take over my whole life because I’ve realized I can just be peaceful and nobody will notice me, which is great. She’s taking over four kids and a great husband, which is going to be amazing.”
The two had “several conversations” and “met twice” before filming.
Lily raved, “Even when we were having those conversations, she felt so bright and alive. I was so excited to be able to connect with someone so quickly, but also so excited to share the role with such an incredible person.”
Brandon, who plays Atlas, becomes friends with the younger Alex, who even teaches him how to fly fish.
Another important person for Brandon was author Colleen, who was his “north star” throughout the entire project.
“Of course I want to make it my own,” he says, “and to be honest, I didn’t want to think too much about what people want, because I feel like I’ll trip myself up if I think too much about what I think I should do, rather than my own honest interpretation of what’s in the book on the page.”
Brandon said he knew that as long as Colleen loved what she was doing, “it’s you and it’s your story, so you don’t have to think about anything.”
Blake also spoke about Lily’s costume and how important it was to playing the character.
She commented, “Lily’s wardrobe felt really important to me because it represents everything that she is: practical yet glamorous, masculine yet feminine, old yet new. She is a woman of contradictions, but at the same time, you can see them harmonious. She is coming to terms with her past while paving the way for the future. I think her wardrobe tells all of those stories.”
She added, “Plus, to look like that, you have to really be in your own skin, you have to know who you are and have a strong sense of self. So I think that’s probably the most important thing is to see someone who isn’t struggling or trying to find who they are or grabbing on, someone who is really grounded and has a strong sense of self, not realizing that they’re losing themselves and losing themselves. I think that’s really powerful.”
“It Ends with Us” will be in theaters on August 9th.
