Writer Christy Hall On Balancing The Complex Subject Matter In ‘It Ends With Us’: “It’s Art’s Job To Create Safe Spaces”
The first feature-length film adaptation of a Colleen Hoover novel, It Ends with Us, debuted this weekend. The film, adapted to screen by Christy Hall, who also wrote and directed her first feature in this year’s Daddio, follows Lily Bloom (Blake Lively), who overcomes a traumatic childhood to start a new life in Boston where she can accomplish her lifelong dream of opening her own flower shop. A chance encounter with a dashing neurosurgeon, Ryle Kincaid (Justin Baldoni), sparks an intense connection, but as the two fall in love, Lily begins to uncover the dark side of Ryle that reminds her of her abusive upbringing. When Lily’s first love, Atlas Corrigan (Brandon Sklenar), reenters her life, her relationship with Ryle comes to a boiling point. Lily soon realizes she must learn to rely on herself to make the best choice for her future.
Here, Hall talks to Deadline about adapting the well-beloved novel, anticipating fan reaction, working with Hoover and Baldoni and the care that went into navigating difficult subject matter.
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DEADLINE: It’s like the year of Christy Hall between Daddio and It Ends with Us. What was the timing for writing these two films and dwelling in these different worlds?
CHRISTY HALL: It’s been a long road so to enjoy a summer like this, I do not take it for granted. I’m very grateful. It’s so important as a writer and creator to cast your net wide because you don’t know what’s going to actually manifest into reality. Art is really hard and takes a very long time. And sometimes the thing you thought was going to hit doesn’t hit, and the thing you didn’t think was going to hit does hit. So, I like to pursue stories I love and just try to be as prolific as my bandwidth allows.
I actually wrote Daddio back in 2013/2014, but my spec script got passed around Hollywood in 201. So that’s when Daddio became my bridge into Hollywood. And that was the stepping stone to landing this job writing It Ends with Us. But there was a juggling act because I wrote It Ends with Us while Daddio got its financing, and since then, I’ve been holding both very closely and lovingly. But it has been a very interesting last two years, for sure.
#ItEndsWithUsMovie writer/producer Christy Hall on developing the screenplay with author Colleen Hoover and the overall challenges of adapting a novel for film: “I feel like I won the lottery” pic.twitter.com/xuWshYlkhu
— Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) August 8, 2024
DEADLINE: Can you talk more about helming this adaptation?
HALL: This started out as a really indie film. Justin Baldoni, his company is Wayfarer Studios; he was aware of my work and had read Daddio along with other specs of mine and an adaptation that I did for 21 Laps, Shawn Levy’s company, based on a book. And so, he was aware of not only my original work but also my ability to adapt. And he reached out to me and said, “I feel in my bones.” He said, “I just got the rights to It Ends with Us, and I just feel like you’re the one to adapt it.” I had not read the book yet, but he said, “You read it.” And he’s like, “I know you’re going to want to do it. And give me a call.” And that’s exactly what happened. I went away, sat with the book, and went on the journey. I just fell in love with Colleen Hoover specifically. I think she’s extremely brave. I think it is just incredible that she’s very vocal about the fact that this was inspired by events in her own life. I love that it reads like a love story, and then, slowly but surely, you realize that Lily’s a frog in boiling water. I really went on the journey, and I laughed and cried.
Afterward, I called Justin and I was like, “Look, if you guys will have me, it would be an absolute honor and a privilege to be a part of something like this.” And so, he connected me with Colleen. I remember we got on Zoom, because she lives in Texas, and it was very instant, the feeling of trust between us. We got along splendidly from the jump and talked a lot about the things I wanted to hold and maintain as much as possible. And then some of the areas that I wanted to continue to explore with her blessing, obviously. Because if Colleen’s not happy, then what’s the point? That’s the North Star.
DEADLINE: How exactly did you work with Justin and Colleen while writing the film? What went into delineating between the characters in the book for you and writing them for the screen?
HALL: This was a tricky one because the book is so beloved, and it’s also beloved by everyone who made the film. Because of that, there was a lot of expectation around the film, so we had to be extremely thoughtful about every decision we made, especially decisions we made to delineate from the book. So, early conversations about aging the characters up a bit happened. For me personally, I didn’t want people to think, or anyone who has maybe never been a victim of abuse; I didn’t want audience members who maybe did not have that experience in their own lives to chalk it up to her being young and being like, “Oh, Lily’s just young. She doesn’t quite know how to draw boundaries yet. She doesn’t know how to say no.” I wanted to make it very clear that this is what I talked to Colleen about. This is a story about this grown woman, she just launched her own business. She’s funny, she’s smart and she’s self-realized. But she’s contending with these things because of her childhood trauma and her ancestral story patterning, that it’s even baffling her, and it’s confusing. I just wanted to make it extremely clear that it’s not because she’s young. It’s because these patterns are familiar to her because of her family, her mother went through this, and now she’s contending with this, too. And then also, Ryle being a neurosurgeon and all those years of school he had to take [so we aged him up too].
Something great that we did was when I had a draft that I felt really good about, Wayfarer reached out on their social media channels and asked, “Who’s a fan of It Ends with Us? Who wants to come in and read an early draft and give thoughts?”
DEADLINE: Wow.
HALL: Yeah, they had to write and say why they loved the book, and they had to be in the LA area. And I thought it was so incredible. There was a day where we went into the Wayfarer offices, and Colleen flew in from Texas and brought her mother with her. They brought in 15 to 20 fans, and then we printed scripts out that they could read. We all had lunch and a roundtable with the fans to ask them questions about the script and the book. We asked things like, “What did you miss from the book? What did you like about the changes that aren’t necessarily in the book?” We really got deep and under the hood. Colleen was sitting right beside me. We were able to really navigate those test audience responses early on because the goal was to deliver something that the fans would really feel seen and celebrated. We wanted to deliver something that felt recognizable but could also fit into a three-act structure because, as we know, movies are not books. There’s limited real estate. So, you have to pick and choose what lands on the screen.
DEADLINE: That sounds like a really intimate experience. I don’t think I’ve heard of such a direct connection between fans and film script in that way before.
HALL: It’s amazing. I’ve never heard of it either. And I have to say that any adaptation I do moving forward, I want to borrow that because I just thought it was extremely wonderful. This process even helped bolster us in terms of things that had been shifted and scenes that had been added that weren’t necessarily in the book. There were even parts where sometimes I’d be like, “I know that scene’s not in the book, but it felt like it was in the book.” Sometimes, it kind of helped to gauge things. Then there were a couple of things where they were like, “Oh, I don’t know if Atlas would say that.” So, it was wonderful. And I remember afterward, Colleen turned to me and was like, “Man, you were just put through the fire.” And I’m like, “Actually, I’d rather, let’s do the litmus test now before we get on set.” Also, meeting Colleen’s mom too? It was just an incredible day.
An example of this would be, typically, in screenwriting, you’re taught that very rarely can you get away with the title actually being spoken in dialogue, and obviously, in the book, Lily says to her daughter, “It ends with us.” So, I thought it was a worthy exploration in the film version, to be like, well, maybe she says, “It stops right here, bub.'” And you say it without saying it. And that day, when in the room with the fans, we asked about that moment, there was a resounding wall of them being like, “She has to say it!” I was like, “Well, you know…” And they’re like, “No, she has to say it. I don’t care what other movies do. She has to say it.” And it was 100% percent resounding. And I was like, “Noted.” So that showed me that it was a worthy exploration, and I don’t apologize for trying it out. Blake [Lively’s] performance of that line is incredible, and it’s now my favorite part of the film because she delivers it with such nuance. It’s so raw and real. Because you know, sometimes, when you hear a title of the movie in the movie, it can take you out of the film. But I feel with the way Blake delivers it, it makes you melt deeper into the movie.
DEADLINE: The subject matter of Daddio and It Ends with Us has these themes of female empowerment while looking at the dynamics between men and women in a different way than the typical Hollywood fare. What were some of the important things you kept in mind while tackling these movies? Is there a particular theme you wanted to emphasize for the audience?
HALL: We’re in an exciting time in Hollywood where space is being carved out for stories about women, by women, but for everyone. And I just find that to be a really exciting untapped frontier that’s a big reason I raised my hand to adapt this book. Because again, Wayfarer originally was going to make it a small indie movie that maybe they would sell on the other side. And then Sony came on saying, “We’d actually love to partner with you on it,” and the project started to grow. Then Blake came on board, and it just started to swell from there.
But I think we all felt a sense of responsibility in terms of stories about abuse. Typically, those have been relegated to smaller indie movies. And I think everyone involved had the courage to make a beautiful, glossy commercial studio movie that has a lot of wish fulfillment to it but also has this kind of subject matter at its core. I’m interested in telling stories and having conversations that we’ve maybe been afraid to tell but that are actually very prevalent in our society, but are uncomfortable to talk about. And I think it’s art’s job to create safe spaces for society to have very adult conversations, and I’m really proud I feel like It Ends with Us is part of that.
DEADLINE: I keep thinking about Jenny Slate’s line as Allysa, where she tells Lily’s character that as a sister, she would like for Lily to forgive her brother’s indiscretions, but as her best friend, she would never forgive her for going back to someone like that.
HALL: Yeah. So that moment in particular, I loved that moment in the book where you think that Lily is going to get pushback from her like, “Please forgive him. Please go back to him. I want us to be a family.” And the fact that these two women are talking privately, that she is more invested in Lily’s safety and health and happiness over saving face, I feel like victims are often asked to question and not necessarily to fight for themselves. And I just love that of all the people, Ryle’s sister telling her, “I support you, and I want you to leave.”
Because clearly, look, I feel like this book has saved lives. I believe art saves lives. I believe this book has saved lives. My hope is that this movie has the power to continue to carry that torch to inspire people to find healthy, safe, peaceful realities for themselves. And whatever they have to do to get that, I feel like that’s what this book is celebrating and trying to inspire.
And even if you look at Atlas’s character when he puts his number in her phone, and he’s like, “Hey, if you ever need something,” that also, I think, is a really important relationship to flag, in that he doesn’t force his help, which I think is important. But he offers a lifeline, like, “If you need it, I am here.” And so if this also inspires not only victims, again, to seek safety, even if there are people who watch this that know of someone who’s contending with this reality, don’t force your help, but offer a lifeline. Render yourself a safe place so they know they can come to you if and when they want that help. And I think the book has inspired that, and I hope the movie can continue to inspire that as well. That would be the greatest hope.
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