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Entertainment journalist Kjersti Flaa weighed in on Colleen Hoover's casting decisions for the 2024 film adaptation of her bestselling novel It Ends With Us, starring Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni in the lead roles. In the June 23, 2025, episode of her podcast, Flaawsome Talk with Kjersti Flaa, the journalist questioned Hoover's logic behind pairing Lively with Baldoni as romantic leads.
"[Ryle] would have been older, and that's why they also chose to make Lily older, which doesn't really make much sense. I mean, there's a lot of men that date a lot younger girls," Flaa explained.
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In Hoover's novel, Lily was a 23-year-old recent college graduate when she first met 30-year-old Ryle. Atlas, her other love interest, was described as only being two-and-a-half years older than Lily.
However, the film adaptation significantly aged up the characters to match the actors portraying them. Lively, who played Lily, was 36 during filming. Blake Lively is now 37 years old. Baldoni, who portrayed Ryle, was 39 at the time of filming.
Referring to the age adjustments in the It Ends With Us film, which resulted in a much smaller age gap between the two leads, Flaa noted that it undermined the original dynamic intended in Colleen Hoover's novel. She also argued that by aging the characters to suit the actors, the adaptation lost some of the nuance that made the original relationship dynamics between Ryle and Lily more complex.
"I think it would have made the movie more powerful if they did that. Because [Lily] would probably be a little more impressionable. I don't think it makes it more relatable or more believable that they're closer in age," Flaa remarked.
Flaa discusses a resurfaced Colleen Hoover interview where she talks about casting Lively and Baldoni in It Ends With Us
In her podcast video, Kjersti Flaa addressed a resurfaced interview of author Colleen Hoover, conducted prior to the release of It Ends With Us, in which the author discussed the backlash surrounding her decision to cast Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni in the film adaptation's leading roles.
"Another video that has started resurfacing again is when Colleen Hoover is interviewed by this reporter, and she's asking her about the controversies of choosing Blake Lively for this part,” Flaa explained while introducing the interview clip.
Flaa then played the June 30, 2023, interview excerpt during her podcast, in which Colleen Hoover reflected on the unexpected reaction to her casting choices in It Ends With Us, expressing surprise at the public outcry.
"I was hoping, you know, when we announced the movie that people would be excited about it. Didn't think that it would, you know, spawn all these TikToks about it and that people would be so passionate and angry about, you know, some of the casting choices... The aging up of the characters was my fault, you know," Hoover said during the interview.
Colleen Hoover also acknowledged that she had not initially considered the realism behind creating a neurosurgeon in his late 20s, referring to Ryle, the character played by Justin Baldoni. She admitted that it was unrealistic, given the years of study required to become a neurosurgeon.
As a result, Hoover explained that she adjusted the story in the It Ends With Us film and made the protagonist, Lily (played by Lively), older to align with the revised age of Ryle. Addressing the interview, Flaa pointed out that Colleen Hoover appeared to be "taking the blame for the backlash" that Blake Lively was "experiencing at that point."
Flaa further referred to the ongoing feud between Lively and Baldoni that reportedly stemmed from the set of It Ends With Us, and noted that Colleen Hoover's interview dated back to 2023. This implied that the interview predated any reported tension between Lively and Baldoni and was conducted "way before Justin Baldoni could ever have started this smear campaign about Blake Lively."
"They were on good terms at this point. Nothing going on between Blake and Justin, as we know. We've seen their texts in the beginning," Flaa added.
Colleen Hoover is currently taking a break from writing, citing social media's negative impact on her joy for the craft. While she's not actively writing, she has several book-to-film adaptations in development, including Verity and Reminders of Him.
Meanwhile, Blake Lively is engaged in a heated legal battle with her It Ends With Us director and co-star, Justin Baldoni. it began when Lively filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against Baldoni, alleging that he started a smear campaign against her. Baldoni filed a countersuit, accusing Lively and her husband of defamation and extortion.
However, Baldoni's lawsuit was dismissed, and he was given time until June 23, 2025, to refile some of his claims against Lively. Meanwhile, Lively is still pursuing her sexual harassment and retaliation lawsuit against Baldoni. The trial for this lawsuit is scheduled for March 9, 2026.
