Justin Baldoni reveals the email he received from Colleen Hoover that made him change his mind about playing the role of Ryle in the film adaptation of 'It Ends With Us.' Plus, he talks about working on those challenging scenes as an actor and as a director for the film.
00:00I know you mentioned that you said that you weren't sure if you wanted to play Ryle until a conversation with Colleen.
00:06What did she say that convinced you?
00:08Well, early on, when I first read the book, I had an assistant at the time who said, you should play Ryle.
00:14And I think we all have these moments where, you know, you read something or you have a dream about something.
00:20And then that voice inside shows up and it's like, oh, you can never do it or you're not good enough or, you know what, a better actor should play that role.
00:26So I think that deep down, I always wanted to try, but I was afraid and I didn't let myself dream or think that I could do it.
00:34And I would never want to ever harm the movie and harm this book.
00:37And then Colleen sent me an email just before we closed her option agreement.
00:41It was a very short email.
00:42And it said, have you ever thought about acting in the project?
00:45Ryle, perhaps?
00:46I could see it.
00:48And I think that that email and her believing in me gave me permission to believe in myself.
00:54And then, you know, I thought long and hard about it.
00:57I had conversations with my wife.
00:58And two years later in the development process is when I decided, okay, I'm going to do it.
01:04But I wanted it to be truthful.
01:05I wanted it to be honest.
01:06And he's a very complex, dark character that has a lot of pain.
01:10And I just don't know if I was ready to go there at the time.
01:13For sure.
01:13And I know, of course, the movie and the book deals with some pretty heavy topics.
01:17What was the most challenging scene for you to either work through yourself or work through as a director?
01:25I think all of the scenes showcasing gender-based violence, I think that was very hard for me.
01:32I almost had to step out of my body.
01:34There were a lot of times, even thinking about it, it's hard.
01:38There were a lot of times where I would have to go privately into a room and just cry or shake it out and try to get him out of me and that energy out of me because it's too real.
01:51And there are too many people that are the real-life Lily Blooms of the world that have to deal with that every single day.
02:02And I wanted it to be as real as possible, and yet it was very hard to shoot those scenes.
02:11But luckily, the only way it was possible is I had an incredible intimacy coordinator.
02:16I had an incredible stunt coordinator.
02:17Both of them were women.
02:18And then there was Blake, who honestly, between those three women, they really were the ones choreographing and navigating all of those scenes because I needed to play Ryle.
02:27And in those moments, to be perfectly frank, I really wasn't the director.
02:31It was those women that were in charge.
02:33And from the beginning, I wanted all the intimate scenes to be from a female gaze, and I never wanted my bias to potentially interject and go into the film.
02:41So I kind of stepped back and felt all the things and allowed myself to do the work and shook it off as best I could.
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