Ryan Reynolds’ ex-wife, Scarlett Johansson, was brought into the It Ends With Us drama when the head honcho of Justin Baldoni’s production company talked about what it was like working with The Avengers actress and Blake Lively.
In unearthed audio obtained by Us Weekly, Wayfarer cofounder and billionaire Steve Sarowitz raved about working with Johansson, 41, on her directorial debut, Eleanor the Great, and made it clear that he did not have the same experience with Lively, 38, on the It Ends With Us set.
“I love this women’s empowerment. We have another first-time director we supported,” Sarowitz, 61, told filmmaker Claire Ayoub, who was talking about a female-led project during their conversation. Ayoub is also the writer and director of Empire Waist, which Wayfarer and Baldoni, 42, produced.
“A woman named Scarlett Johansson? I’m so excited for her!” Ayoub teased, prompting Sarowitz to joke, “We’re trying to give her her first big break. Maybe people will hear of her after this.”
Baldoni’s business partner then went on to gush about his experience with Johansson, noting it was in contrast to working with Lively.
“She was so cool, calm, collected and confident … and nice,” he said in the audio about Johansson. “It’s so interesting because you work with so many people. Almost everybody is nice, and then there’s Blake — she is totally different than everyone else. Not to say anything bad about her, but she’s different.”
Sarowitz followed up his comment by stating, “I think for the most part most people see what we are doing see we’re nice and they’re nice back. Even if they weren’t perfectly nice. I just think some people forgot to learn how to be nice.”
Reynolds was married to Johansson from 2008 to 2011. After their divorce, Reynolds wed Lively in 2012, while his actress ex married Romain Dauriac in 2014. Johansson then said “I do” to her current husband, Saturday Night Live star Colin Jost, in 2020, after her second marriage ended in 2017.
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Lively’s attorneys filed the audio as part of the actress’ legal battle with Baldoni. Ayoub recorded it after she allegedly endured “repeated, negative interactions” and “verbal abuse” from Baldoni while working together on Empire Waist, according to her September 2025 declaration.
In December 2024, Lively sued her costar and director Baldoni for alleged sexual harassment. He has denied the allegations. Baldoni later filed a countersuit, which was dismissed in 2025. Lively and Baldoni are scheduled to go to trial in May.
During the call, Sarowitz also briefly touched on the It Ends With Us controversy.
“The It Ends With Us drama is simply a drama. I’m done with it,” Sarowitz told Ayoub. “Let the chips fall where they may.”
He went on to say they were “not excited” about the film when it was released in August 2024.
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“We did our best to keep it centered on that. We didn’t succeed,” Sarowitz added, referring to the film’s partnership with No More Foundation, an organization focused on ending domestic violence, and alluding to the reported discrepancy between Lively and Baldoni about how It Ends With Us should have been promoted.
In the audio, which is almost 40 minutes long, Sarowitz also defended Baldoni.
He insisted “everything was made up” and “manufactured on purpose to take Justin down.”
However, Lively wasn’t the only female on the It Ends With Us set with concerns about the film’s director.
It Ends With Us author Colleen Hoover expressed her disappointment in Baldoni during her deposition for the case.
Hoover, 46, shared that during a dinner with Baldoni, he told her that Lively had been “exhibiting narcissistic behavior” about the movie.
“For a man who has a platform of building women up, that I left the dinner disappointed that it felt like I was made to not like her,” the author claimed in court documents. “I left the dinner feeling like the intention was to get me on their side or, you know, just explain their side before I heard it from her.”
Jenny Slate — who starred as the sister of Baldoni’s character in It Ends With Us — allegedly wrote a text to Lively on October 13, 2023: “Sometimes I get so angry at myself for ignoring signs in Justin that I should have taken seriously in terms of ‘wait…is this person ACTUALLY in line w a feminist perspective?’
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“The plus side is that I will ever [sic] make again this mistake again. I will say thought [sic], I wanted to work with YOU, and that was definitely the right instinct! But yeah. Wow. What a one of a kind s***show.”
She also didn’t hesitate to reveal how she felt about Baldoni in a text message sent to her team in June 2023.
“Hey guys- i don’t want to do anything with Justin, i don’t want to talk about him, like … nothing,” Slate, 43, wrote at the time.
“But this has been a really gross and disturbing shoot, and I’m one of many who feel thus [sic] way, and Blake and i have both complained directly to Ange [Giannetti] at Sony.
“Justin is truly a false ally and I’m unwilling to do anything that promotes the image that he’s crafting as a ‘male feminist’ … like … honestly i have no words to describe what a fraud he is,” Slate continued. “I honestly have never ever encountered anything like this dude.”
She added, “He’s the biggest clown and the most intense narcissist.”
Baldoni’s former Man Enough podcast co-host Liz Plank, who resigned in December 2024, allegedly sent Lively’s actor husband Reynolds a text in April 2023, stating, “I tried to warn blake on the red flags but was hoping he (Justin) had gotten better.”
“Working on his set was truly one of the worst days of my life, but it’s survivable and I’ll help,” Plank continued.
Also as part of the unsealed documents filed on January 20, text messages from May 28, 2023, between Baldoni and Wayfarer Studios CEO Jamey Heath reveal Heath didn’t tell Sarowitz about “the ‘comments’ the ladies had feelings about,” but Baldoni did.
“I shared with him today,” Baldoni replied. “He said he should come to sit [sic] and remind Blake whose money this is and I said that’s not the best idea.”
Heath responded, “He said that to me too regarding how difficult she is to work with. He doesn’t quite get the nuance.”
Us reached out to Lively, Baldoni and Johansson’s reps for comment.