Baldoni appeared on the How To Fail With Elizabeth Day podcast and discussed a specific scene that stands out as one of the hardest scenes he had to film for It Ends With Us. In the scene, Ryle finds Lily’s phone and notices Atlas’ number, which makes him very jealous. Baldoni explains how hard it was to portray the anger that was boiling up inside his character during the scene. Read Baldoni’s full comments below:
Directing is a very lonely job, I’ll just be very candid. Because you are kind of at the top of this totem pole. In your moments of quiet, everybody has a thousand questions for you and also nobody wants to disturb you and you don’t really have many people to talk to and you can’t necessarily share your anxiety or your nervousness about something because you’re also the leader.
I’d have to remove myself and go shake it out. I mean, I’ve done a lot of somatic therapy so there were times when I was actually just shaking. There’s a moment in the movie where Ryle finds Lily’s phone and he finds a phone number and he’s very jealous and he’s heartbroken and he’s angry and he doesn’t harm her but you can see in his eyes how dangerous he is. After that scene, I had a near breakdown. And I had to leave and just cry and shake because there was so much pain.
What’s hard about a character like that isn’t necessarily what he does. What he does is a result of what he has kept in and so what’s hard about having that in your body is having the trauma live in your body of what he’s experienced or creating that trauma in your body and creating that insecurity and the pain and the feeling that you shouldn’t actually be alive. Your brother should be. It’s all your fault. Nobody really loves you. That was very hard and that took a few months. I had dreams as him for a while, and it lived in my body but I think for the most part, he’s out.
What Baldoni’s Comments Mean For His It Ends With Us Character
Ryle Was Abusive Towards Lily In It Ends With Us
At the beginning of It Ends With Us, Ryle is introduced as a man with seemingly no flaws. However, things take a turn for the worse when he and Lily actually begin dating. Throughout their relationship, Ryle is emotionally and physically abusive towards Lily. Even though Ryle doesn’t physically hurt Lily in the scene that Baldoni is referencing, the actor explained that the scene was still very hard to shoot because of the pain within his character.
Baldoni explained that the pain and guilt he feels over his brother’s death is still with him throughout his relationship with Lily, and he takes all his anger out on her.
Even though Ryle’s backstory doesn’t excuse his actions in the movie, It Ends With Us later reveals that he actually shot and killed his older brother when they were young. Baldoni explained that the pain and guilt he feels over his brother’s death is still with him throughout his relationship with Lily, and he takes all his anger out on her. Ryle is a tortured, dangerous character in the film, which is why it’s good that the It Ends With Us movie changed the book’s controversial ending.
Our Take On Baldoni’s Comments About Ryle’s Behavior In It Ends With Us
Ryle’s Actions In It Ends With Us Are Unforgivable
