Justin Baldoni, from the movie 'It Ends With Us,' shares his feelings about the isolated and unfamiliar shooting process

Actor and director Justin Baldoni is ready to talk about his experience shooting It Ends with Us.

Justin Baldoni recently addressed the challenges he faced during the filming of Colleen Hoover’s book adaptation. In a podcast interview with Elizabeth Day, he opened up about the demanding shoot, which took a toll on him both physically and emotionally. Even now, he continues to grapple with some of the repercussions.

Baldoni shared how his recent ADHD diagnosis exacerbated the difficult emotions he experienced while working on the movie. Playing the character Ryle Kincaid and also directing the film added to the complexity of his responsibilities on set.

He described the role of a director as isolating, with constant pressure and expectations making it a solitary experience. Despite the challenges he faced, Baldoni remained candid about his struggles and the impact they had on him during the production of “It Ends with Us.”

The Jane the Virgin alum also shared that the exalted position of leading a film doesn’t give much leeway to express stress or frustration to others on set.

“You don’t really have many people to talk to,” he continued, per PopCulture, “and you can’t necessarily share your anxiety or your nervousness about something because you’re also the leader.”

Along with directing, Baldoni also had to channel the mindset of the abusive Ryle in front of the camera.

Noting the duality as “a very strange place to be,” there were times when Justin would have to walk away from filming to “shake it out” to the best of his ability – which didn’t always help.

“I’ve done a lot of somatic therapy so there were times when I was actually just shaking,” he recalled.

“There’s a moment in the movie where Ryle finds Lily’s (Blake Lively) phone and he finds a phone number. He’s very jealous and he’s heartbroken, and he’s angry. He doesn’t harm her but you can see in his eyes how dangerous he is. After that scene, I had a near breakdown.”

Baldoni says he required a break to “cry and shake because there was so much pain.”

Shooting on It Ends with Us wrapped sometime in early 2024 following a postponement due to the 2023 WGA Strikes.

According to Justin, it would take four months for him to fully detach from playing Ryle.

“[Ryle] lived in my body,” Baldoni shared. “What’s hard about having [a character like] that in your body is having the trauma live in [you] of what he’s experienced.”

“I [even] had dreams as him for a while,” he further admitted, “but I think, for the most part, he’s out 1733535846.”

Later in the How to Fail podcast, Baldoni touched on a shocking experience during a “toxic relationship” from his college days.

While attending Long Beach State, Justin says he met a “beautiful young woman” while shopping at Abercrombie and Fitch.

Unfortunately, the coupling was disastrous from the start.

“I right into this relationship because I was trying to fill a hole and a void where I just didn’t feel like I was enough,” he relayed.

“I had strong values and opinions and beliefs going in,” Baldoni says, “and those were very easily manipulated and reshaped to the point where a few months in I completely lost any sense of self that I had left. And it got very emotionally abusive.”

At some point, Baldoni “experienced sexual trauma” that sent him into an emotional tailspin.

“[I] wrestled with that trauma for the rest of my life,” he shared, “because, in my head, a man can’t experience sexual trauma at the hands of a woman. It’s the way society has kind of made me feel that you know, it’s only the other way around, when in reality it can happen.”

While he didn’t detail what exactly occurred, Justin confirmed that he lost his virginity during the heinous act.

“[I] was hoping to save myself for marriage, and that’s as detailed as I’ll get into the story,” he stated.

A therapy session as an adult would finally start the healing process.

“One day my therapist asked me, ‘Justin, you do a lot of work in this space: If a woman told you that story, what would you call it?’ And that’s when I broke.”

If you have not seen It Ends with Us, you’re in luck! The movie will begin streaming on Netflix on December 9. It is also available on DVD and BluRay.