Blake Lively Accused of ‘Cruel’ Behavior by Assistant Director
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Blake Lively was, according to one assistant director, a terror on set.
Not on the set of It Ends With Us, the film that led to a legal battle with producer, star, and director Justin Baldoni. This allegedly happened on another project.
However, the claim about her on-set behavior is clearly coming out as part of the fallout from that conflict.
The assistant director accuses Lively of having reduced her to tears — citing her as the reason that she quit the project.
This Blake Lively accusation dates back to ‘A Simple Favor’
Back in 2018, Barbara Szeman worked as an assistant director on A Simple Favor, which starred Blake Lively and Anna Kendrick.
Another Simple Favor — a sequel — comes out soon. Henry Golding’s Instagram post on the subject is where the accusation came to light.
In a reply, Szeman wrote: “I worked with you on the first one. My experience with everyone was absolutely amazing, except for a certain someone who is the reason I quit being an AD. Guess who that person is. …”
Szeman did not name Blake Lively (or anyone else) in that vague post. Instead, she simply concluded: “I wish you all the best with this though!”
After adding that dramatic tease in the comment, Szeman elaborated. She claimed that she had hoped to “avoid” drawing attention — and alleged that the actress in question had been “cruel to many.”
Szeman alleged: “I know I cried my way home many nights because you try so hard to please someone who is never pleased and puts you down constantly. I can’t believe it’s actually getting back at her. Karma is real.”
Others have enjoyed working with Blake Lively
Barbara Szeman then responded on her Facebook page to the massive upswell of attention that her snarky — but perhaps cathartic — reply had received.
“Last time I leave a comment on an Instagram post,” she expressed.
When asked about how many people have described Blake Lively as being “nice and lovely to work with,” Szeman acknowledged: “Maybe for them. Not for me.”
Another commenter wrote: “I’ve been thinking about you and this whole situation because you told me the stories so long ago. It’s good that you commented.”
Szeman responded to that post with a “love” reaction.
That Facebook post is no longer publicly accessible. One must infer that Szeman relearned the lesson of publicly visible social media commentary on controversial, polarizing topics involving A-list celebrities.
What should we make of this?
If Barbara Szeman has some sort of motive to fabricate a story of Blake Lively being “mean,” we do not know of one. In fact, it seems that she regrets saying anything at all due to the public attention.
It is actually very normal for people to dislike working together. Sometimes, two professionals simply do not vibe. They can have different communication styles, different standards, and clash without either party being “bad.”
That said … sometimes, on a particular day or beyond, a person can be an unpleasant coworker. Even unpleasant enough to drive someone to quit.
We don’t know what things were like between Blake Lively and Barbara Szeman on that film set. But we do know that this likely has no real bearing on the situation with Justin Baldoni … except, of course, that it’s bad PR for Blake.
