Justin Baldoni’s body double is weighing in on the It Ends With Us set dynamic.
Stunt actor Thomas Canestraro may not have worked with Justin and Blake Lively for long… But long enough for him to develop a sense of the latter’s demeanor on set. And from what he recalls, it doesn’t sound like it was bubbly. During an interview with DailyMail.com published on Sunday, Canestraro claimed Blake came across as very “closed off” during his brief time shooting scenes as Justin’s stunt double. He dished:
“You could tell that the set was tense. There was some discomfort from everybody.”
Yikes…
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He added that he was originally booked to shoot for five days but ended up doing two weeks:
“What I did experience was filming that was taking longer than expected.”
He remembered thinking at the time, “What’s happening here? Why are we taking so much time to film all of this scene? Why are we not on schedule?”
Mind you, this was long before rumors started percolating in August about tension, and even longer before Blake filed her legal complaint against Justin in December 2024. So the body double was in the dark about why Blake, in his opinion, felt so “closed off.” He told the outlet that he originally chalked it up to stress from filming delays as a result of the 2023 writers’ strike. But he couldn’t help shake the feeling that something happened between her and the Jane the Virgin alum, and he had a good reason for this.
You see, Thomas had actually worked with Blake years before on a “provocative” promo shoot for 2018’s A Simple Favor, which he claimed was an “extremely easy time.” During the shoot, he was naked with only a sock covering his privates. He remembered that Blake made sure he was provided with a bathroom after the shoot ended. It all went so well that he was “comfortable” working with her again. So, her “more closed off” attitude this time was definitely a stark shift for him, and it made him question what had been going on during this production that may have been different from before.
Another big clue (eventually) was Ryan Reynolds‘ appearance on set. The stunt double also recalled Ryan coming to set one day and not thinking twice about it:
“Originally, I came on set my first day, Ryan is on set, and I’m like, “Oh, my God. What a cool thing, it’s like when I was in A Simple Favor. What a supportive husband who just came on set to cheer his wife… I just love that about them, that’s a cool synergy in that couple.”
But months later when legal drama manifested, a clearer picture came into focus for him:
“And now I’m like, ‘Oh, was Blake already in such a bad place that Ryan just came to make sure that she was okay?’”
He added:
“When the whole scandal came after, it was just like, now that explains why things were taking longer. Now that explains why you could sense a discomfort.”
As for how he perceived Justin, he said the 41-year-old was “extremely friendly” and that he now feels for everything he’s going through:
“He has a wife, he has family, he has friends, and he has people who, right now, some of them believe him, some of them have a question mark over his head, and that must not be a good place to be… It must affect him.”
But don’t be mistaken — he’s not picking sides:
“I don’t even want to be in any team. I hope they can find an agreement… We don’t need that in the industry. At the same time, you can’t discredit anybody’s feeling, and anybody’s experience.”
What do YOU think of Canestraro’s take on the It Ends With Us set, Perezcious readers? Let us know in the comments down below!
[Images via Thomas Canestraro/Instagram & Variety/YouTube & MEGA/WENN]
The post Justin Baldoni’s <i>It Ends With Us</i> Body Double Describes Blake Lively’s Demeanor On Set — & When He Realized She Was In ‘Such A Bad Place’ appeared first on Perez Hilton.