Latest Promotion run for We end up The film centers around two distinct points: the ornate, bright marketing elements that directly contrast with the seriousness of the cinematic narrative of abuse, and Blake Lively standing firmly by her character, Lily Blossom Bloom, amid the drama surrounding her cast. In a recent interview with BBC News, the actress combined these two elements in her defense of the film.
Lively shared the video of the red carpet on her Instagram account, writing: “Thank you to everyone who came out to show that people want to see films about women, and the audiences we embrace. It Ends With Us is a story about the female experience.”
“The film is about domestic violence, but what’s important about this film is that she’s not just a survivor and she’s not just a victim,” she said in the clip. “And while those things are huge, they’re not who she is. She’s not defined by something that someone else did to her or something that happened to her, even if it’s multiple events.”
The rest of Lively's Instagram Story post defends We end up “It Ends With Us is a story about the female experience. All the ups and downs. And we are so proud of that,” she wrote. “We celebrated this film and succeeded in communicating a very important message to audiences.”
About an hour after sharing the interview on her story, the actress followed up with contact information for the National Domestic Violence Hotline. “One in four women ages 18 or older in the United States alone has been a victim of severe physical violence by an intimate partner in her lifetime,” the post read. “Intimate partner violence affects all genders, including more than 12 million people each year in the United States. Everyone deserves relationships free of domestic violence.”
This is the message that many felt was missing from marketing and promotion. We end upwhich was made into a film based on Colleen Hoover's best-selling book of the same name.
In an analysis of how the film deals with domestic violence, Rolling Stone“What was abundantly clear about the promotion cycle was that the studio was prioritizing ticket sales for a love story while ignoring the domestic violence awareness message at its core,” wrote CT Jones of The Verge.
Jones describes the film's marketing campaign as a “paint job” and says that “the dark themes of the book have been glossed over in favor of fan-friendly pop-ups and activities, like photo calls, virtual memorial bouquets, and treasure hunts in New York and Los Angeles.”
