Justin Baldoni’s It Ends With Us body double is detailing his experiences on the film set that prompted dueling lawsuits between the actor and costar Blake Lively.
“You could tell that the set was tense. There was some discomfort from everybody,” Thomas Canestraro, 38, told the Daily Mail in an interview published on Sunday, June 1.
Canestraro was Baldoni’s double during reshoots that took place in early 2024, following the 2023 Hollywood writers and actors’ strikes.
According to Canestraro, he was initially booked to work five days on set in Weehawken, New Jersey, but ended up staying for two weeks amid alleged production delays.
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“What I did experience was filming that was taking longer than expected,” he explained, recalling that he thought at the time, ‘What’s happening here? Why are we taking so much time to film all of this scene? Why are we not on schedule?”
Canestraro also said that Lively, 37, seemed more “closed off” during his time working with her on It Ends With Us compared to an earlier project they worked on together. The actor said he previously starred in a marketing campaign with Lively for the 2018 movie A Simple Favor. He posed with the actress in “provocative” adverts in which he posed nude, save for a sock covering his genitals.
The actor said he had an “extremely easy time” working with Lively on that shoot and while he was “comfortable” working with her again, he felt that something was amiss on the It Ends With Us set.
Addressing Lively’s husband, Ryan Reynolds, visiting the set, Canestraro said, “Originally, I came on set my first day, Ryan is on set, and I’m like, ‘Oh, my God. What a cool thing, it’s like when I was in A Simple Favor. What a supportive husband who just came on set to cheer his wife… I just love that about them, that’s a cool synergy in that couple,’” he said.
However, amid news of Baldoni and Lively filing lawsuits against each other, and Lively’s claims of sexual harassment on set, late last year, Canestraro said, “And now I’m like, ‘Oh, was Blake already in such a bad place that Ryan just came to make sure that she was okay?’”
“When the whole scandal came after, it was just like, now that explains why things were taking longer. Now that explains why you could sense a discomfort,” said Canestraro, who also noted that Baldoni, 41, was “extremely friendly” with him during his time on set.
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Us Weekly has reached out to Lively and Baldoni’s representatives for comment.
In December 2024, Lively filed a lawsuit against Baldoni, accusing her It Ends With Us director and costar of sexual harassment, creating a hostile work environment and orchestrating an alleged smear campaign against her.
Baldoni denied all the allegations, subsequently filing his own $400 million lawsuit against Lively, Reynolds and their publicist Leslie Sloane, accusing them of civil extortion, defamation, false light invasion of privacy and more. They have since denied the claims and pushed for the lawsuit to be dismissed.
