A new life in the big city sets up an opportunity for love for Lily Bloom, the main character in Colleen Hoover’s #1 New York Times bestselling novel It Ends With Us. Charismatic neurosurgeon Ryle Kincaid is just that opportunity, sweeping Lily off her feet from the get-go. Playing the role of Ryle and helming the film as the director is actor Justin Baldoni, who’s known for his role as Rafael Solano in the hit satirical telenovela Jane the Virgin.
It was actually Hoover that suggested to Baldoni that he was the right man to play Ryle. “Ryle may not be exactly what viewers expect,” he says. “I wanted to portray him as a complex, smart man who has never dealt with old traumas. There is absolutely no excuse for what he does in the film. We wanted to show an example of a complex and seemingly impossible situation that so many people live through. Showing that there may be real love while not running away from that fact that there is also real harm.”
As new love blooms, an old flame returns into the picture in the form of Lily Bloom’s childhood sweetheart, Atlas Corrigan, played by Brandon Sklenar. “Atlas and Ryle are polar opposites,” Sklenar says. “Ryle has a manipulative, toxic presence. Atlas is strong and sturdy, an example of what masculinity can be in a calm, present and open way. Unlike Ryle, he has no need for validation. When he’s with Lily, he’s just purely there for her.”
Hoover talks about the contrast between the two men in Lily Bloom’s life, and Sklenar’s portrayal of Atlas. “Atlas is who Ryle wishes he could be: someone who doesn’t blame his past for his present,” Hoover says. “Atlas has learned and grown from his hardships, rather than shrinking because of them. I needed to see an openness and tenderness in Atlas that we wish wasn’t missing in Ryle, and Brandon portrays that beautifully.”
Baldoni talks about changes to characters from the novel, with the blessing of Hoover’s fans. He wanted it so that Lily, and in turn the audience, come to the realization that the relationship between her and Ryle was an abusive one gradually. “We decided to bring that realization out slowly, like a recovered memory,” Baldoni explains.
Go on a cathartic and emotional journey as It Ends With Us arrives in Philippine cinemas on August 7.