Movie promotions are an integral part of celebs' life. In the Independence Day week, five to six films were released in theatres. However, a week before Independence Day releases, on August 9th, Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni's film "It Ends with Us" was released in cinema halls.
Both actors are leaving no stone unturned to promote the film, however, their approach towards promoting is different. Blake is facing criticism for her 'tone-deaf' promotional strategy for the film which is an adaptation. Fans called her insensitive' as she is belittling the issue of domestic violence that her film addresses.
All you need to know about the It Ends With Us row
It Ends with Us film is based on Colleen Hoover's best-selling novel by the same name. It features Justin Baldoni, Brandon Sklenar, Alex Neustaedter, Jenny Slate, Hasan Minhaj and others.
The story is about a woman who suffers domestic violence at the hands of her husband and finds solace in an old friend from her childhood.
However, Blake is being called out for promoting her newly launched haircare line and selling the film as a romantic drama. Justin Baldoni, who stars opposite her as the abusive husband, has also directed the movie. His approach towards promoting the movie has been starkly different. He is talking in interviews about dealing with sensitive issues such as domestic violence with care in his movie.
Blake lively during one of her promotions along with all the female star cast, spoke about self-development, remienced childhood and neglected domestic violence. The Instagram reel was captioned Girl Talk. They spoke about what would they do if they lost their job and their fear of horses.
Blake lively had the opportunity to speak about domestic violence, but she used the platform to talk about thousands of other topics which were relevant to the film. This made social media users fuming.
Here are the comments on Blake Lively and the Girl Talk gang's Instagram reel.
A user wrote, "You had an opportunity to turn this into a beautiful thing for women who suffer every day. Shame on you and your PR team for turning a blind eye."
Another wrote, "Missed opportunity, tone deaf self-promotion (s). Domestic violence is more prevalent than ever these days. Be better."
The third one commented, "Blake you are sure what happened between Justin and you, but as a well-meaning fan: this Girl Talk session reinforced multiple stereotypes about women and doesn't address the single most important theme in your film: domestic abuse. You can use this moment for a felonies reckoning, to make some difference in countless lives. To encourage and support women to speak up; but you're focusing on flowers and hair care and outfits: women are more than this, we deserved better from you."
A fan commented, "Justin Baldoni is the only one promoting this movie the right way."
While Blake turned a blind eye towards an important issue. Producer Rhea Kapoor, actor Sonam Kapoor's sister and Anil Kapoor's daughter came out in defence for Blake Lively.
This is what Rhea Kapoor wrote
Rhea's comment read, "The commentary on the marketing of the film is so sad. More power to Blake, Colleen and the producers for promoting the crap out of this movie. As a filmmaker, we know how difficult it is to bring real women's stories into the mainstream and share them with as many people as possible. Celebrate women that we see every day who have been through this and come out stronger and embrace their light. Normalise telling their stories instead of throwing them into a box. You want to shame the actress for wearing pretty dresses for the press tour instead? What was she supposed to? Hide at home in sweats? a great way to ensure even fewer of these stories are told. And so what if she promoted her brand she's a businesswoman and she's doing press god how judgmental. Are. We."
Netizens slammed Rhea Kapoor for her tone-deaf comment on Blake Lively's Instagram.
A user wrote, "Why is it always a Kapoor? Does she think she will get noticed by Ryan & blake and then Sonam will invite them to dinner?"
Another wrote, "People in the film industry think their intellect level is so high that normal people are not getting it. The director of Fighter saying 90% Indians have not travelled in aeroplane and now this statement by Rhea Kapoor and there are multiple examples of tone deaf statements. These people are so out of touch that they still use PR tactics from 20 years ago. They really need to educate themselves and shut the hell up."
The third one said, "She is promoting a movie about domestic violence as if its a rom com, not even touching upon the topic. Watch any of her posts. She is telling all the girls to come watch this movie with ur girlies as if its s romcom, not a single trigger warning from her about what the movie is about . The only person talking about dv is the director, whom she has unfollowed along with the cast.. it goes on and on.."
