In August 2024, ‘Breaking the Circle’ was released, the film about gender violence that has ended up being the center of a controversy about power dynamics in Hollywood. To explain where we are in all this controversy we must … situate: there are three key characters at this moment, on the verge of the start of the trial next May. The first is Blake Livelyprotagonist of the film and very famous actress married to Ryan Reynolds. The second is Justin Baldoni, director and love interest of the protagonist in the film. And the third is Taylor Swifta global superstar in the world of music whose song is part of the soundtrack and is also one of the main actress’s best friends.
When Justin Baldoni was absent from promoting the film with the rest of his colleagues in the summer of 2024, speculation began. In December of that same year, Blake Lively surprised by filing a lawsuit for workplace and sexual harassment during filming, detailed by ‘The New York Times’ in an extensive report. The director then countersued his leading actress for defamation, but in June of last year a judge dismissed this second lawsuit.
Justin Baldoni, from the beginning, has declared himself innocent and has shared several screenshots of messages that left Blake Lively in a bad light. He also insisted on including Taylor Swift, and her conversations, in the entire process, considering that the actress had wanted to put pressure on him and the production company, even on Sony, because of her important contacts. Now, just a few months before the start of trial next May 18a judge has declassified message exchanges in which the director and his protagonist complain to their friends about the counterpart.
Although Baldoni claims not to be able to “control” Blakeshe labels him as “clown” y “silly director” by considering that his movie is bad. They even joke that it is a “khaleesi», that is, a character from ‘Game of Thrones’ who controls dragons, and the singer and her husband, Reynolds, are her mythological beasts. Something that the director had already advanced and that shows that everyone knew this analogy, including the supposed dragons.
Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni during filming
Taylor Swift’s “playbook”
Taylor Swift, furthermore, is not a mere spectator. Blake asks him for advice on the script, and insists that Baldoni “believes himself to be a screenwriter”. The messages also make it clear that, contrary to what a representative of the singer had said, she did take part in creative meetings and offered her opinion on a professional level and not just as a friend.
«If Justin was strategic he would have refused to let my song appear in the trailer because it would have given him more power in the film, I am your ally, not his“says Taylor in another message.
In December 2024, when the complaint and the ‘NYT’ article were about to come out, he wrote about the director: «this bitch “He knows something is coming because he has taken out his tiny violin.” A reference to the expression of false empathy “here is the smallest violin in the world playing just for you.”
Curiously, this message connects with one of the songs from Taylor Swift’s latest album, ‘Cancelled’, where the artist talks about how she supports her friends even in the worst moments, because she has also experienced them. But Justin Baldoni, on the other hand, uses those previous experiences of the ‘Bad Blood’ singer as an attack against both women. Consider that Blake Lively is using “the playbook” of her friend by playing the victim, something that Swift would have used in her confrontation with Scooter Braun.
Friendship at a bad time
In short, messages that show us how the friends communicated, and make it clear that Taylor was always aware of everything. In other published exchanges, it is also seen that the singer was upset when she saw how this situation distanced her from her friend, who spoke all the time in legal and collective terms. «I miss my friend’s dark humor», he admits, getting an apology from Lively, who reveals that she has gotten a little lost in what happened.
Blake Lively, for her part, would not have turned only to Taylor Swift. She would also have recruited Matt Damon and his wife, Ben Affleck and other big names in the industry to support her cause, as she confesses that she felt insecure after what she experienced on set. And they did it.
