“It Ends With Us” faced some pretty divided responses from fans when it was announced that Blake Lively would star as the film’s lead, but according to author Colleen Hoover, the actress proved to be the right choice for Lily day in and day out.
At least part of the blowback came because of the age difference between Lively, who is 36 in real life, and Lily, who is 23 in the book. The same concern was voiced when director Justin Baldoni was also announced to play Lily’s abusive love interest Ryle, who is meant to be 30 years old in the book.
But, Hoover quickly addressed the aging up of the characters, explaining that she was “contracted” to write college-age characters when she wrote the book, and also admitting that she simply didn’t do the proper math in Ryle’s case (it’s just about impossible for him to be a neurosurgeon at just 30 years old, based on the required years of schooling and work in a hospital).
Since then, she’s noted that Lively was one of her dream castings for Lily and, speaking to TheWrap ahead of the film’s release, reaffirmed that the actress proved her right “every moment she was on screen as Lily.”
“Honestly, I appreciated the passion that she brought to it, but my favorite side was the humor,” Hoover explained. “Like, I feel like she brought such levity to this character that you expanded on even more in film than I attempted in the book.”
She continued, “So yeah, just your passion and love for this project and your humor, you’re so funny.”
Lively poked back at that, saying Hoover is “such a ball-buster” herself, so finding that levity was just “capturing a bit of that.”
“It Ends With Us” hits theaters everywhere on Friday, August 9.