Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds Transition from Actors to Influencers

It Ends with Us wants to sell you something. The new and inappropriately gorgeous domestic violence movie is, ostensibly, about a young woman trapped in a cycle of abuse and haunted by memories of the hunky homeless boy she loved and lost. However, it is also a film primarily about aesthetics: the immaculate hair of its leading lady Blake Lively, the Pinterest-ready flower shop her character owns, the adoringly ramshackle book of illustrations she ties together with twine, and the Taylor Swift ballad that soundtracks her moment of realization. It is Instagram Story: The Movie, an Amazon.com landing page with plot and dialogue. And it’s all yours, too, for the right price.

Before It Ends with Us, Lively, an often underrated actor, hadn’t made a movie in four years. But during that time, she embraced a new kind of superstardom, where a creative project isn’t just a creative project but a merchandising opportunity. This ethos can be seen as The Swift Effect, where the goal is to sell multiple things at once rather than just one.

Alongside her new movie, Lively has launched a haircare line, Blake Brown, and continued to promote her two drinks labels, Betty Booze and Betty Buzz. Her husband, Ryan Reynolds, has been an active participant in the It Ends with Us promotional activities, filming skits for her Instagram and attending the film’s New York premiere with his Deadpool & Wolverine co-star Hugh Jackman, who also appears with Lively in a new photo spread for Vogue. The synergy between these her separate ventures is palpable, with a Deadpool mask covered in It Ends with Us-inspired floral patterns recently spotted in one of Lively’s Instagram posts.

By now, we should be used to celebrities plugging both their films and their side hustles simultaneously. From Angelina Jolie and Scarlett Johansson to Dwayne Johnson and Matthew McConaughey, major A-listers often have their own lifestyle, skincare, or alcohol brands, or at least a fashion house they endorse. However, Lively and Reynolds represent a new dawn in A-list self-promotion. Their marriage and family also form key components of their personal brands, regularly blurring lines between their movie roles and business ventures. For instance, Deadpool & Wolverine features not just a cameo from Lively but also includes appearances by two of the couple’s young children, as well as players from Wrexham AFC, the Welsh football team bought by Reynolds and actor Rob McElhenney in 2020.

Lively has openly mentioned that Reynolds rewrote whole scenes of the It Ends with Us script, surprising the film’s credited screenwriter, Christy Hall. Meanwhile, Betty Buzz released a collection of It Ends with Us-themed cocktail recipes that featured both Lively’s beverage brands and Reynolds’s Aviation Gin. Reynolds’s gin has been referenced in his recent films like 6 Underground, Red Notice, and Deadpool 2. (Lively’s character in her 2018 thriller A Simple Favor also consumed Aviation Gin.)

This amalgamation results in work that feels like a capitalist venture masked as a movie, one that we can only fully appreciate if we purchase the array of merch associated with it. Currently, Lively is facing criticism on her Instagram for her approach to promoting It Ends with Us. The film, dealing with a woman fleeing an abusive relationship, seems at odds with the marketing of themed cocktails that include a drink named the “Ryle You Wait,” after a character who, unsettlingly, throws her down the stairs.

Complicating matters, there are rumors of discord on set, with director Justin Baldoni conspicuously absent from the group promotions. Allegedly, major players have unfollowed him on social media. Baldoni has used his solo press run to discuss domestic violence and toxic relationships, while Lively has focused on promoting the film’s love story angle. It appears they are promoting two different films.

The larger concern is how easily stars can get lost in such multi-tiered brand promotions. Reynolds has completely leaned into this model, coasting on his smart-alec persona whether on screen or off. However, Lively’s talent seems diminished by this approach. Prior to her hiatus from movies, she demonstrated a wide range as an actor. Her strongest roles leveraged her innate allure, drawing audiences in effortlessly.

In films like A Simple Favor, The Age of Adaline, and The Shallows, Lively’s performance anchored each narrative. In It Ends with Us, there are moments where her brilliance shines through, characterized by melancholy, regret, and epiphanies. But too often her nuanced performance is overshadowed by the numerous commercial layers around her.

This cannot be the future of Hollywood—our best movie stars treating films as merely one facet of a broader business plan. Ryan Reynolds should remain an anomaly, not a blueprint.

Source: various sources