Justin Baldoni’s Body Double Tells All About ‘Tense’ Environment on ‘It Ends With Us’ Set

The atmosphere on the set of It Ends With Us was markedly strained, according to Thomas Canestraro, who served as Justin Baldoni’s body double for the production.

Canestraro described a palpable discomfort among the cast and crew, hinting at underlying issues between the lead actors, Baldoni and Blake Lively.

“You could tell that the set was tense. There was some discomfort from everybody,” Canestraro revealed to the Daily Mail.

Canestraro, who stepped in for Baldoni’s character, Ryle Kincaid, noticed significant delays in filming on set.

He was initially scheduled for five days of work but ended up staying in Weehawken, New Jersey, for two weeks. “What I did experience was filming that was taking longer than expected,” he stated, prompting him to question, “What’s happening here? Why are we taking so much time to film all of this scene? Why are we not on schedule?”

The 38-year-old stunt double also observed a change in Lively’s life compared to their previous collaboration on a 2018 marketing campaign for A Simple Favor. During that earlier project, he recalled an “extremely easy time” working with the actress, noting her considerate gesture of ensuring he had a bathroom after the shoot.

However, on the It Ends With Us set, Canestraro found Lively to be “more closed off.” He also noted the presence of her husband, Ryan Reynolds, on set.

“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,’” he recounted.

Canestraro said he gained more perspective after news broke last December of Lively’s sexual harassment lawsuit against Baldoni. “And now I’m like, ‘Oh, was Blake already in such a bad place that Ryan just came to make sure that she was OK?’” he told the Daily Mail.

While calling Baldoni, “extremely friendly,” Canestraro noted they did not maintain contact after filming. The two-time kickboxing world champion empathized with Baldoni’s current situation, stating, “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.”

Canestraro emphasized his neutrality in the ongoing legal dispute between Baldoni and Lively, expressing hope for a resolution before their scheduled 2026 trial. “I don’t even want to be in any team,” he declared. “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[s], and anybody’s experience.”

The legal saga, which also entangled Reynolds, began last December when Lively filed a lawsuit accusing Baldoni of sexual harassment on the set of their 2024 film. Baldoni denied the allegations and, in January, filed a $400 million countersuit against Lively, Reynolds and their publicist, Leslie Sloane, alleging defamation and extortion.