Justin Baldoni expressed his thoughts on the overwhelming response on It Ends With Us trailer, while also explaining the reason behind aging up the characters in film adaptation.
During his appearance at the Los Angeles premiere of The Garfield Movie, on which he served as the executive producer, Baldoni opened up about It Ends With Us trailer reaction, noting, “Rightfully so, there was just a lot of anticipation and people I think feeling unsure of what it’s going to be.”
He went on to share, “It’s really hard to take a book that’s beloved and also very important for a lot of social reasons and turn it into a film, and it was kind of the first time anyone was seeing what we were actually making for the last five years.”
“I’m grateful that people see the love and care and the attention that has gone into it from soup to nuts and that we really honored the book, I believe,” added the Jane The Virgin actor.
Speaking about the backlash that the film initially received for the decision of aging up the characters, Baldoni explained, “Originally Colleen had written this over 10 years ago, and it was a time when everyone was writing YA and she wanted the characters to be older.”
He further noted, “For us, it was just more about making the story more universal, because this isn’t just a story about a young woman, it’s a story about women, and it does not discriminate.”
“So for us it was more about making sure that as many people as possible could understand and relate to the characters and what Lily was experiencing.”
It Ends with Us is a film adaptation of Colleen Hoover's best-selling novel and scheduled to release on August 9, 2024.
