Blake Lively Apologized to It Ends With Us Screenwriter After Revealing Ryan Reynolds Rewrite: Complaint

Amid her ongoing legal battle with It Ends With Us costar and director Justin Baldoni, the actress filed a new amended complaint to her original lawsuit on Tuesday, according to TMZ.

In the new docs, Lively detailed the alleged “smear campaign” launched against her by Baldoni and his team, and appeared to respond to the criticism she and Reynolds received after Lively revealed that her husband rewrote a scene in the film — unbeknownst to the screenwriter, Christy Hall.

And according to the new complaint, Lively apologized to Hall.

At the premiere of It Ends with Us, Lively shared that Reynolds wrote a pivotal scene in the film — in which her character, Lily Bloom, first meets a neurosurgeon, Ryle Kincaid, played by Baldoni. Their meeting sparks a romance, and the two fall in love.

“The iconic rooftop scene, my husband actually wrote it. Nobody knows that but you now,” she told E! News. “We help each other. He works on everything I do; I work on everything he does. So his wins, his celebrations are mine and mine are his.”

However, in an interview with PEOPLE, Hall claimed that she wasn’t aware Reynolds rewrote a scene, which was included in the final cut. The screenwriter said she thought the new dialogue was just improvised by the actors.

“There were a couple of little things that I thought had been improvised,” she said. “Like when he says, ‘Pretty please with a cherry on top,’ and she talks about the maraschino cherries. When I saw a cut I was like, ‘Oh, that’s cute. That must have been a cute improvised thing.’ So if I’m being told that Ryan wrote that, then great, how wonderful.”

“There were a few little flourishes that I did not write, but I assumed that they had been improvised on set,” she added. “But, again, like I said, the moments that I felt like needed to be honored are there. So I recognize the scene and I’m proud of the scene. And if those flourishes came from Ryan, I think that’s wonderful.”

Lively’s amended complaint referenced Hall’s interview with PEOPLE, and included an alleged screenshot of an email that Lively sent Hall on August 11, three days after the PEOPLE article was published.

According to the docs, on August 11, Lively “received a message from another cast member making observations regarding the evident smear campaign against Ms. Lively and the cast was ‘insane.'” She allegedly replied, “Yeah. I am legitimately depressed and heartbroken. Like in an immense amount of pain. I’m sorry it’s being aimed at all of us. You included.”

The complaint continued, “On that same day, Ms. Lively reached out to the Film’s screenwriter, Christy Hall, after she was questioned about an impromptu comment Ms. Lively made about Mr. Reynolds’ input on the rooftop scene in the Film. Ms. Lively expressed a heartfelt apology that her comment resulted in questions to Ms. Hall, which Ms. Hall graciously accepted, sharing that she did not take Ms. Lively’s comment personally.”

The documents claimed that Baldoni and Wayfarer co-founder Steve Sarowitz were “scheming with their crisis PR team to find a way to exploit this moment to ‘flip the narrative’ and paint Mr. Reynolds as anti-feminist.”

In the alleged screenshot of Lively’s apology to Hall, Lively said she felt “awful” and was “mortified” that the screenwriter was “ambushed” about her praise of Reynolds’ rewrite of the scene.

“I heard you were ambushed at your junket with a question about something I said on the red carpet. I feel awful,” Lively wrote, per the filing. “I never would’ve said anything that I thought could be used against you, or anyone. I was just proud of my partner and feeling grateful for the ways in which he shows up for me. I believe firmly that two things can be true. In this case, he can show up for me and do great work doing so, and you can do great work which got us all here.”

“But the media will make things more black and white. And I should’ve seen that before speaking off the cuff,” she continued, per the screenshot. “I was frazzled for a multitude of reasons that you may know something about, or not. But in that moment, all I was trying to focus on was love and positivity. And the key source of that for me is my family. Which is why it was a crutch for me to talk about him.”

“I’m mortified how that translated with regard to you though. I pride myself in being thoughtful and trying not to step in land mines. But I did. It was such an avoidable, own goal. And I’m so sorry for any upset or hurt it may have caused you, or left you feeling badly in any way. That was never my intention. I was thinking about audiences loving real life love and seeing that on screen is inspiring. I should’ve been holding all of that AND you while speaking publicly and I didn’t do that. I’m sorry.”

According to the screenshot of the alleged email, Lively added she “spoke about” Hall “during the many days of junkets, but of course the one that gets shared back to you is the one where I give my husband credit for his invisible work he did on the movie.”

She appeared to go on to praise Reynolds, adding she “quite literally could not have gotten through [the film] without him,” but noted that it’s “not [Hall’s] bag to carry.”

Lively ended her email, per the screenshot, by expressing that she hopes she and Hall can “talk more one day” and possibly “get together.”

“Today is a congratulations, a celebration and an I’m sorry for any upset I may have caused in an otherwise beautiful moment,” the message concluded, before signing off.

In a statement to TMZ, Baldoni’s attorney, Bryan Freedman, called the amended complaint “underwhelming.”

Freedman said the suit is “filled with unsubstantial hearsay of unnamed persons who are clearly no longer willing to come forward or publicly support her claims, while adding that his clients — Baldoni, his publicists, and Wayfarer Studios — “have been transparent in providing receipts, real time documents and video showing a completely different story than what has been manipulated and cherry picked to the media.”

“Our clients have taken this matter and these issues very seriously notwithstanding the jokes made publicly by the plaintiff and her husband,” he continued, referencing the couple’s SNL appearance over the weekend. “Since documents do not lie and people do, the upcoming depositions of those who initially supported Ms. Lively’s false claims and those who are witnesses to her own behavior will be enlightening. What is truly uncomfortable here is Ms. Lively’s lack of actual evidence.”

Lively filed a sexual harassment complaint against Baldoni in December 2024, accusing him of misconduct during production. She also alleged that Baldoni and his associates engaged in a retaliatory smear campaign designed to “destroy” her reputation. Baldoni has denied the allegations.

Baldoni then fired back with a lawsuit of his own against Lively and husband Reynolds, as well their publicist Leslie Sloane, Sloane’s PR firm and the New York Times, alleging civil extortion and defamation. The suit is seeking no less than $400 million in damages. The case is currently scheduled to go to trial in March 2026.