It Ends With Us was just the beginning for Blake Lively and Jenny Slate.
The two actresses star in the upcoming movie adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s best-selling novel, and it seems they found kindred spirits in one another on set.
“I deeply fell in love with her,” Slate, 42, said in an interview with Entertainment Tonight published on Sunday, August 4. “Obviously, I have admired Blake for so long… [she’s] so fresh, so detail-oriented, so prepared — knowing, like, what page on the script things occurred on. She’d be like, ‘Well, I see that, but she doesn’t really find this out until page 96.’”
In It Ends With Us, Slate plays Allysa, the best friend of Lively’s character, Lily Bloom, who is in a volatile relationship with Allysa’s brother, Ryle Kincaid (played by Justin Baldoni). Lily and Ryle’s lives are upended by the return of Lily’s first love, Atlas Corrigan (played by Brandon Sklenar).
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As well as being besties on screen, it seems that Slate has found a new friend in real life, too.
“[She’s a] deeply trustworthy person who is also willing to share. We had long talks. I was never expecting to have the off-set experience that I had,” said the actress.
She continued, “I was really eager to work with Blake, but to really make a friend and someone who is so capable in so many ways — like, just like a genuine winner … I’m just so grateful for this sweet person.”
The feeling is mutual for Lively, 36, who said she and Slate bonded over their personal lives. Lively is, of course, married to Ryan Reynolds, with whom she shares four children: daughters James, 9, Inez, 7, and Betty, 4, and son Olin, 18 months. Slate, meanwhile, has a 3-year-old daughter, Ida, with her husband ,Ben Shattuck.
“I love Jenny so much, and she was such an anchor for me in so many ways. She’s just full of love and light, but she’s also deeply grounded,” Lively told Entertainment Tonight.
“When you’re working, sometimes you feel guilty for, you know, not being in your personal life in those hours you’re at work,” she added. “Just knowing that someone was having that same experience was very grounding.”
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Lively recently promised that the film adaptation of It Ends With Us will satisfy even the most diehard fans of Hoover’s 2016 novel of the same name.
“Some people will always like a book better than a movie and some people like a movie better than the book. But I think that we just did our best to honor the book and honor the fans, and, I think, really make something that works even by itself,” Lively said in a June interview with Entertainment Tonight.
“It’s a lot of different things that you want to accomplish in this story,” Lively said. “I’m just so proud of this film. I’m just so proud to be here and sharing it with Colleen and the fans. It’s just really special. It was a great honor to take on Lily, and I’m so proud.”
