She wanted “A Simple Favor.”
Blake Lively sent Justin Baldoni a private voice memo about the “It Ends With Us” production schedule in February 2023, which has been unsealed in their ongoing legal battle.
“I hope you’re so well,” the actress began in the court exhibit, obtained by People on Thursday. “I just wanted to connect to put something on your radar.”
Lively confessed to hesitancy sharing her request with her co-star, noting that husband Ryan Reynolds had “encouraged” her to share.
The “Deadpool” actor, 49, supposedly said, “You guys have such a great trust. Fill [Baldoni] in.”
Lively, 38, went on to explain that she was speaking to Baldoni “as a friend more than anything” over how “stressed” she felt about filming their movie and “Proxy” back to back after welcoming son Olin.
Lively noted that she doesn’t “talk to [that director] like [she] talk[s] to” Baldoni, before briefly mentioning her struggles to find a baby nurse.
“The only reason that I’m doing [that movie] before is because I gave them my word and I wouldn’t go back on that,” she explained. “But having a week off in between, it’s just a lot.”
The “Shallows” star, who is also the mother of daughters James, 11, Inez, 9, and Betty, 6, added, “Shooting in April, shooting in March is just too soon after having a baby and not sleeping and wanting to be in my best shape.”
Additionally, she admitted, “Ryan and I have also been really stressed about spending a month apart. … The most we’ve ever done is less than two weeks.”
Lively confirmed that this was “so not [Baldoni’s] problem.”
However, she said, “I know our schedule is our schedule, I’m not trying to move anything. But if by chance you’re like, ‘Oh my God, if I could go two weeks earlier, that would actually be great,’ then amazing. If it is what it is, then it is what it is.”
She concluded the voice memo, which she requested Baldoni “keep between” them, by saying, “So nice talking to you. [Well], not talking to you. This is so sad. This is my social interaction these days — just talking into voice memos.”
Reps for Lively and Baldoni did not immediately respond to Page Six’s requests for comment.
Lively filmed “Proxy” between March and May 2023, followed by “It Ends With Us” between May and June 2023 — until the writers’ strike pushed the rest of filming back to January 2024.
By the time the movie, based on Colleen Hoover’s book of the same name, premiered in August 2024, Baldoni and Lively had sparked feud rumors.
The duo did not interact while promoting the project.
Four months later, Lively sued Baldoni, 42, for sexual harassment, which he has denied — and while the “Jane the Virgin” alum countersued in January 2025, his case has since been dismissed.
Their ongoing legal battle has been steadily making headlines, most recently sparking social media chatter with unsealed text messages and emails to Taylor Swift, Ben Affleck and more A-listers revealed, as well as Lively’s voice message to Baldoni.
Last year, the Daily Mail obtained a voice message from Baldoni in which he apologized — at 2 a.m. — to Lively over disagreements regarding a rooftop scene’s rewrites.
While railing against “f–kheads” in the industry and what Lively has “experienced as a woman” in her career, he quipped, “Hopefully that’s not going to be the experience with me.”
Their trial will begin on May 18, 2026.
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