“You have to do it with care”

In 2016, Colleen Hoover wrote It ends with us: a heartbreaking novel about the painful cycle of abusive relationships. When the book became a global sensation in 2021, Sony Pictures acquired the rights to turn Hoover’s tale into a film. Joan the Virgin star Justin Baldoni has been hired to star and direct. Blake Lively has been cast as the title character, Lily Bloom, and Alex Saks is producing the highly anticipated adaptation. The story follows Lily Bloom (Lively), who must confront the shadows of her family’s violent past when her relationship with Ryle Kinkaid (Baldoni) begins to bear an eerie and dangerous resemblance to her parents’ abusive dynamic.

In this exclusive interview with CBR, Producer Alex Saks talks about Colleen Hoover's original novel, Justin Baldoni's vision as director, and the changes made to bring the book to the big screen, the tremendous teamwork behind crafting the imperfect world of Lily's Bloom and the dangers of depicting dysfunctional, destructive love on film.

It ends with us It's a touching and romantic story, but it has a really dark and tragic subject matter. As a producer, how do you translate such complicated subjects, like domestic violence, into a film?

Alex Saks:
Yes, I think it needs to be done carefully and thoughtfully.
But I think there was a certain level of reality that we wanted to infuse into this film, in addition to the romance and the journey of emancipation that ultimately comes from it.
We partnered with an organization called No More, and we consulted with them a lot as we developed the script. Obviously, Colleen [Hoover] it was a huge part. And again, kind of just moment by moment, just thinking carefully about how to portray it in a way that would keep the audience engaged and entertained, but also be real and true to the book.

It's a difficult balance, especially because you have these characters who are really complex in a situation that is not easy in any medium. And that's actually the perfect connection to my next question, which is about the director Justin Baldoni, who you worked with, and he was also the actor who played this particularly difficult role of Ryle Kincaid. How did you work together to change or update his character, or to portray him in the way that you did? Because it's not an easy character to portray on screen.

Yeah. Even before I came in, which was relatively early in the process, Justin had a very clear idea of ​​how he was going to play Ryle. So I have to give him credit for that.
Of course I was there while we were shooting, especially since he wasn't behind the monitor watching.
He explained to me what he wanted. And obviously, that was crucial as we developed the script. And obviously, once Blake [Lively] he came in, etc., we all kind of knew what the vision was. And then as we were shooting again, he would come back and watch the playback, and I would watch with this kind of vision that he had described in my mind. And I think he did it beautifully.

No, there were tears in the audience. The author of the novel, Colleen Hoover, along with Christy Hall, wrote the film. Were there any particular scenes or aspects of the film, such as characterizations or plot elements that were particularly challenging, that you had to work together to update for the screen?

I think the most challenging part of the adaptation, and I think Christy did a great job, was obviously the choice to change the ages. So, taking these beloved characters from a book who on paper were 10 years younger and putting them in a movie 10 years later,
It changed a lot the maturity of these characters, their behavior, what happens in their lives.
And I think they did that beautifully, and they did that the whole time, with the added challenge of knowing that they wanted to please the fans of this book that had kind of taken the world by storm.

So there was a lot to weigh, but again, because Colleen and Christy and Justin, when they set out to do this adaptation, they were so focused and clear on the vision. That's why it became what it became, which was a great version of itself. And then, of course, when Blake came in and I, etc., things got tweaked and changed, and that's always what happens. But I think the core of what they had established in that original idea of ​​the adaptation was maintained. The creative integrity remained.

Maybe aging the characters was a good idea, because I couldn't open my own shop right after college. Now I can barely open my own shop.

Exactly, exactly!

It Ends With Us hits theaters on August 9.