Blake Lively and Isabela Ferrer not solely had an on-screen connection in It Ends With Us, every enjoying a variation of the lead character Lily Bloom, however in addition they cast a detailed bond in actual life.
Although their uncanny resemblance could shock some — down to a mole under their proper eyes — they really didn’t know one another prior to working collectively on the film, based mostly on Colleen Hoover‘s beloved book of the same name. However, Lively tells The Hollywood Reporter that once she saw Ferrer’s audition tape, she immediately knew they discovered somebody particular.
“We were like, ‘This is crazy,’” Lively remembers. “And there were other great actresses who gave great performances, but there was just no one but her. Because even if she didn’t act in a similar way as me or speak in a similar way or have similar mannerisms or look like me or have the same mole, her performance was so strong, her heart was so strong.”
As for Ferrer, she felt grateful to be trusted with the accountability of portraying a youthful model of the character, who’s featured in flashbacks all through the movie. It was additionally notable provided that it was her first function movie.
“I knew how important this movie was and how important Colleen is,” Ferrer says of touchdown the position. “Also, what a nice compliment to be like, ‘Could you play young Blake Lively?’ That’s the biggest compliment I’ve ever gotten in my whole life.”
Lively, an trade icon, rapidly took Ferrer below her wing to assist her discover the confidence to belief her skills as an actor and to take possession of her variation of Lily.
“You got here up to me and also you have been like, ‘I want you to know that this role is just as much yours as it is mine,’” Ferrer recounts of an on-set conversation between them. “It was like the most supportive and uplifting thing to feel as a young actor coming into this, to feel like somebody like you who has such a high status and is so important in this project to also be like, ‘What do you think?’ That’s the largest privilege and praise.”
Their vulnerability with one another finally developed into an off-camera friendship, one which had Lively jokingly enthusiastic about turning into a “stage mom” for Ferrer. “The film is my side hustle,” the Gossip Lady alum quips throughout the joint interview with THR. “Isabella is my main priority.”
Lively additionally remembers how Ferrer supported her on set.
“She knows I’m feeling something that nobody else in the room knows, and it’ll just feel like the sweet hand on my shoulder or on my leg or on my back,” Lively says of Ferrer.
It Ends With Us is directed by Justin Baldoni (who additionally performs Ryle). In the movie, Lily should study to rely on her personal power to overcome a traumatic childhood and later a relationship with Ryle that reminds her of her mother and father’ abusive relationship. Whereas the movie features a love story, it additionally facilities on a girl’s power to finish the cycle of home violence in her life — a message that has resonated with many since the guide’s 2016 launch (it reportedly bought hundreds of thousands of copies worldwide).
Lively, who additionally served as a producer on the mission, explains that it was additionally essential for them to inform the story with “love and sensitivity and empathy” from all angles, dismissing claims that the movie romanticizes home abuse.
“We’re saying life is messy, love is messy, people are messy. It’s not Google Maps. You haven’t arrived at your destination. You think you’ve arrived,” Lively says. “[Lily] knows where she came from and where she’s going, but she still gets lost and still finds herself more. And I think that that grace and that empathy is everything.”
She provides, “You are with Lily on this journey. It’s very important that you weren’t watching her, it was important that you were her… you feel it as her.”
And that’s additionally why enjoying present-day Lily was notably particular for Lively, because it gave her the probability to painting a personality that she says is commonly “rare” to discover.
“I’ve been given the opportunity to play characters that have levity and light and humor. And I’ve been given opportunities to play characters that have immense darkness and weight and trauma and drama,” she explains. “But you don’t normally get both at the same time, and this really has the entire spectrum and every color of human emotion: the messiness of it, the beauty of it, the pain of it, in a story that feels incredibly honest and real.”
