Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni had 'genuine affection'—until it unraveled, says intimacy coordinator

Amid news that Justin Baldoni's lawyer, Bryan Freedman sees their case with Blake Lively going to court, a Hollywood intimacy coordinator is sharing their thoughts on the situation. Baldoni released text messages between them, which have shared insight into the situation, but many are still wondering when everything began to fall apart. 

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One of the topics of contention between Lively, 37, and Baldoni, 41, has been surrounding intimacy. Mia Schachter, an intimacy coordinator who has worked on shows like Insecure, and Perry Mason, shared their thoughts on the situation. 

After reading their text messages Schachter explained, "I do get the sense that, at one point, there was genuine affection between them and what felt like a friendship,” during a new television documentary, He Said, She Said: Blake Lively vs Justin Baldoni, which aired on Channel 5 in the U.K. on Monday, March 17, per Us Weekly. 

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In her December 2024 lawsuit, Lively claimed there was often no intimacy coordinator on set. In his January countersuit, Baldoni alleged that she declined to meet with the film’s appointed intimacy coordinator before production.

Schachter shared their opinion based on experience saying, “When an actor says, ‘I don’t need to meet the intimacy coordinator until we’re shooting,’ as much as it hinders my process, it does typically indicate that they trust their scene partner." "And those texts made me think that at one point, she did feel a lot of trust with him," they continued. 

Of course, it should be noted that just because you trust someone at one moment in time, does not mean you can't change your mind. 

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They also addressed the viral kissing scene which Baldoni released the footage and audio from, denying Lively's claims that he broke character, and “leaned forward and slowly dragged his lips from her ear and down her neck as he said, ‘It smells so good.’"

He also alleged Lively was “consistently unable to take direction” and “continued to break character” while shooting. However, Schachter says they don't see what his team is trying to prove. “I see an actress trying not to kiss her coworker and instead of saying, ‘I don’t want to do that,’ she’s making other suggestions, which is actually pretty considerate because I think it could be humiliating for everyone there to see Blake Lively tell Justin Baldoni, ‘Stop trying to kiss me," they explained. 

Ryan Reynolds files to dismiss Baldoni's complaint 

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As of now, the date for the actors to go to court is March 9, 2026. On Tuesday, there was another update that Lively's husband, Ryan Reynolds, has filed paperwork to dismiss Baldoni's complaint against him.

His lawyers, Mike Gottlieb, and Esra Hudson, told Just Jared in a statement, “The entirety of Mr. Baldoni’s case appears to be based on Mr. Reynolds allegedly privately calling Mr. Baldoni a ‘predator,’ but here is the problem, that is not defamation unless they can show that Mr. Reynolds did not believe that statement to be true." "The complaint doesn’t allege that, and just the opposite, the allegations in the complaint suggest that Mr. Reynolds genuinely believes Mr. Baldoni is a predator. Mr. Reynolds’ wife has accused Mr. Baldoni — privately and in multiple complaints — of sexual harassment and retaliation, and as pointed out by Mr. Reynolds’ motion, Mr. Baldoni has also openly spoken about his past of mistreating women and pushing the boundaries of consent. Mr. Reynolds has a First Amendment right to express his opinion of Mr. Baldoni, which should be comforting to a group of people who have repeatedly called Ms. Lively and Mr. Reynolds ‘bullies’ and other names over the past year," they continued.