“It Ends With Us” screenwriter Christy Hall discussed her decision to change one key moment in the film by adding a pro-abortion spin despite that being a deviation from the source material.
The Blake Lively-led drama, based on the bestselling novel by Colleen Hoover, is currently raking in the box office. The film far surpassed expectations over the weekend, earning $80 million globally against a $25 million production budget.
Hall spoke with People about intentionally adding pro-abortion language to one pivotal scene. Main character Lily (Lively) discovers she’s pregnant with her abusive husband Ryle’s (Justin Baldoni) baby. She visits the hospital with childhood friend Atlas (Brandon Sklenar) after Ryle pushes her down the stairs.
Atlas’ reaction to the pregnancy is one short line that Hall said she found “important” to include. When Lily and Atlas return to his house after her hospital visit, she says she’s nervous about motherhood. That’s when Atlas says if she chooses to keep the baby, she’ll be a great mom.
“I think the novel is pitch perfect, but it was also written a few years ago, so there were ways that we could very respectfully modernize it,” the screenwriter said.
“In the book, the way the pregnancy is talked about, it’s talked about in a way where everyone is just automatically assuming that she’s going to have it and she’s going to keep it. It’s already automatic the way that Atlas talks about it, the way that Ryle talks about it, the way that even Lily thinks about it,” Hall continued.
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“There’s never even a question. There’s this automatic, ‘Well, this is what you’re going to do, obviously,'” she told People.
“There’s a lot of different nuances to what Atlas is saying. And it just felt important to acknowledge that it should be more of a conversation than just a pressurized assumption without any choices at her fingertips whatsoever.”
Hall said the main character’s pregnancy was one of the book’s main storylines that was changed in the movie. She said that the decision came down to “real estate.”
“This is a very dense book. I know it doesn’t seem like it is, but when you start to attempt the task of adapting it, there’s a lot of meat on the bone, in a good way,” she told the outlet.
Despite the financial success of “It End With Us,” many viewers and critics have questioned how the film tackles the topic of domestic violence. On Tuesday, Lively posted on her Instagram Stories to address the backlash.
“Thank you to everyone who came out to show that people WANT to see films about women, and the multitudes we hold. ‘It Ends With Us’ is a story of the female experience. All the highest highs, and lowest lows. And we are so proud of it,” Lively shared.
A follow-up post included a link to the National Domestic Violence Hotline resource page.
“1 in 4 women aged 18 and older in the U.S. alone have been the victim of severe physical violence by an intimate partner in their lifetime. Intimate partner violence affects all genders, including more than 12 million people every year in the United States. Everyone deserves relationships free from domestic violence,” the actress wrote.
