Justin Baldoni reveals the email he received from Colleen Hoover that made him change his mind about playing the role of Ryle in the film adaptation of 'It Ends With Us.' Plus, he talks about working on those challenging scenes as an actor and as a director for the film.
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00:00I know you mentioned that you said that you weren't sure if you wanted to play Ryle until a conversation with Colleen.
00:05What did she say that convinced you?
00:08Well early on
00:10when I first read the book I had an assistant at the time who said you should play Ryle.
00:14And I think we all have these moments where you know you read something or
00:18you have a dream about something and then that voice inside shows up
00:22and it's like oh you could never do it or you're not good enough or you know what a better actor should play that role.
00:26So I think that deep down I always wanted to try but I was afraid and
00:31I didn't let myself dream or think that I could do it and I would never want to ever harm the movie and harm this
00:36book. And then Colleen sent me an email just before we closed her option agreement.
00:41It was a very short email and it said have you ever thought about acting in the project? Ryle perhaps? I could see it.
00:48And I think that that email and her believing in me gave me permission to believe in myself.
00:54And then you know I thought long and hard about it.
00:57I had conversations with my wife and two years later in the development process is when I decided okay. I'm gonna I'm gonna do it.
01:04But I wanted it to be truthful.
01:05I wanted to be honest and and he's a very complex dark character that has a lot of pain.
01:10And I just don't know if I was ready to go there at the time.
01:12For sure and I know of course the movie and the book deals with some pretty heavy topics.
01:17What was the most challenging scene for you to either work through yourself or work through as a director?
01:23I think all of the scenes showcasing gender-based violence.
01:30I think that was very hard for me. I almost had to step out of my body. There were a lot of times.
01:36I've been thinking about it. It's hard.
01:38A lot of times where I would have to go privately into a room and just cry or shake it out and try to get him
01:44out of me and that energy out of me because
01:49it's too real.
01:51And there are
01:52there
01:54there are too many people
01:58that are the real-life lily blooms of the world that have to deal with that every single day.
02:02And I wanted it to be as real as possible and yet it was it was it was very hard to shoot those scenes.
02:11But luckily the only way it was possible is you know I had an incredible intimacy coordinator.
02:16I had an incredible stunt coordinator both of them were women and then there was Blake who honestly between those three women
02:21they really were the ones choreographing and navigating all of those scenes because I was stepping I needed to play Ryle.
02:27And in those moments to be perfectly frank, I really wasn't the director.
02:31It was those women that were that were in charge and from the beginning
02:34I wanted all the intimate scenes to be from a female gaze and I never wanted my bias to potentially you know
02:40interject and go into the film. So I kind of stepped back and
02:43felt all the things and allowed myself to do the work and and shook it off as best I could.