Author Colleen Hoover knows better than anyone how passionate fans are about her bestselling book It ends with usFrom the moment Blake Lively was cast as the lead Lily Bloom the internet played a role in the film adaptation a lot of of opinions without knowing much about them.
“At first I was a little shocked that everyone was so passionate about the wardrobe,” Hoover told Yahoo Entertainment, referring to how the internet picked apart paparazzi photos from Lively’s filming. However, Hoover said she quickly came to see that passion as a “compliment.”
“I thought, wait — they’re passionate about it because they’ve read the book and they want it to feel like the book,” she continued. “I take it as a compliment that readers are so passionate about it that it feels the same [feeling] like when they read the book. And I really think they’re going to be happy when they see it. I think that [the cast and crew] did the book so much justice.”
Screenwriter Christy Hall had the big task of adapting the book for the big screen. The rights were acquired by director Justin Baldoniwho also plays Ryle in the film. According to Hoover, it was quite a process to convince him that he should be in front of the camera to play Lily’s troubled love interest.
“Justin bought the film rights to the book. He sent me a really sweet letter saying how much the book meant to him. And while we were doing it, he said, ‘Oh, I think I want to direct this,'” Hoover explained, noting that she had just seen his 2019 directorial debut Five feet apart. “I watched it and thought, ‘Oh, you did so well with that movie. I think you’d do well with this one.’ And then the idea came up to have him play Ryle. He struggled a little bit with it, with — can you take on all these roles and do it well? But as you can see, he pulled it off.”
It ends with us is based on the relationship between Hoover’s parents. The romantic drama follows Lily, who overcomes a traumatic childhood and then finds herself in an abusive relationship. The author believes Lively captured Lily’s complexities well.
“When I see her in this role, I can’t imagine anyone else in this role. She’s just done such a phenomenal job bringing her to life and I couldn’t be happier,” she said.
As with any book adaptation, there will be some changes, but Hoover is happy with everything that has remained the same.
“I really, really wanted the storyline to be very true to the book and the characters. I was super excited when everyone came in — Atlas and Lily and even Marshall and Allyssa and Ryle. Because sometimes [filmmakers] “To take away a character completely,” Hoover said.
But there was one thing that Hoover thought would be a better change in the film.
“One of the things I didn’t mind them changing was the name of [Atlas’s] restaurant,” she explained. “There wasn’t a lot of time in the film to tie together all the things that Atlas and Lily had in common from their childhoods. And so I felt that changing the name from Bibs to Root was a necessary change for the film and a better one.”
It ends with us is in theaters from August 9.
