All right, let’s get to the stuff that I really wanted to talk about this podcast. So I’m so in the weeds for everything about it ends with us. I here’s my background. I knew absolutely nothing other than I knew the general idea of the story was a relationship that had domestic violence involved.
Okay. So you didn’t read the book.
No, but because I knew this movie was coming out this past weekend, and my job is to also cover things that people are talking about in pop culture, I wanted to be a part of the conversation and be able to contribute in some way, even without reading the book. And so that’s all I knew.
I did not know. Until after the movie that Justin directed it, I did not know about, like, I didn’t even know the premise. I thought it was about a relationship between two people involving domestic violence. And in the movie, we were just going to see, does she stay or does she leave? I did not know about an Atlas before that, all that stuff.
But after the movie, I’ve done as much reading as I could, not of the book, but. Went on Wikipedia, read the plot of the book and, and had articles already set up to read after I watched the movie of what differed from the book to the movie. So that’s, I knew the basic premise of it. So I want to ask you a couple of things about it.
Obviously you read the book. When did you read it? Do you remember?
I read the book maybe beginning of the year. Yeah. And her book, I just love Colleen Hoover. She’s an amazing writer. Her, her books are easy reads. They’re quick. She hooks you right out of the gate. So I read, there’s a sequel to this book.
Oh, I’ve already read the plot for the sequel. Cause I couldn’t wait. I read
both books in three days. Like I love them.
So you, you read it at the beginning of this year. Probably because you knew the movie was coming out this summer. You were like, I just, I want to have a backstory on this. So here’s a question.
When, when you, after you read the book and then you found out, or maybe you even knew before the book, cause they, I’m assuming they had already finished filming the movie by January and you knew that Blake Lively was playing Lily, was that someone that you saw? Oh, I can totally see that. Or no,
I think I read the book.
Maybe it wasn’t the beginning of this year. Maybe it was like, I read the book before she was cast.
Okay. So I
did not have her in my mind at all, but, and I, and at first I was like, this isn’t the girl I pictured. This isn’t who I was thinking, but it, it, when you watch the movie, it didn’t bother me at all.
She did a great job.
Yeah. And I thought, you know, I did read after the fact that in the book, Lily’s 23. And obviously for the, for the movie, they just kept it the ages, you know, Justin’s 40 and Blake is 36. And I did read an interview with Justin, which I agree with where he said, look, I didn’t want to do a story about domestic violence involving a 23 year old.
I want it to be an older adult. So that made sense to me. So your overall thing about. Book versus movie. Obviously, we know when you deal with a book being turned into a movie, unless the movie is released in three different parts or something like that, a book is just going to have way more details.
It’s just, you’re going to be able to dive into more stuff. And, you know, with that said. Watching your Instagram story about it. You were very pleased with the movie, correct?
I mean, I’ve, I’ve read plenty of books and then seen the movie and you’re always disappointed. I walked out of this wanting to go right back in and see it again.
Like they did such a good job. Keeping to the story in the book. And even with some of the small little details and they did, actually, this is why I want to go see it again, because I did notice a few background details that are a bigger detail in the book. And so they did a good job of like placing those things.
It just, they did amazing. It was amazing.
From what I read from what was, what differed from the book to the movie. I think a lot of it was. Not all that big of a deal. Like I understand in the book, the letters to Ellen DeGeneres played a major role in the movie and in reading an interview with both Colleen and the screenwriter for the movie, they just said, look, ultimately this movie isn’t about Ellen, so we couldn’t.
Focus so much on that just due to time constraints. And it seemed like everything in the movie that was truncated was just strictly for time purposes. You just don’t have that type of time to tell it. Whereas you do in a book. But I
appreciated that they at least even put in a scene where she’s watching Ellen.
Cause then immediately you’re like, Oh yeah, this was a big part of the book. You know?
Yeah. And I think seeing that and, you know, kind of watching it play out. And then for me. You know, there were, there were a lot of, it was everything that I read. Cause there was a whole article that said what differs from the book to the movie.
And there was a lot of things, but they were all small and not, not anything that changed the fabric of what this movie was about, you know, that. And I think that’s, that’s where they did a great job. You know, one of the things that obviously is being discussed is, and I don’t get this and I don’t think you do either the biggest, I guess, problem that people are having and not even talking about the off screen, you know, do these people even like each other, you know, Colleen and Brandon and Blake have seemingly, you know, unfollowed Justin and there’s, and he’s just hired a crisis PR team.
And I’m just like, so here’s my thing. And just not even talking about that part. Cause we honestly don’t know the truth. There’s reports that he was misogynistic on set. He was verbally abusive. And then there’s other stuff that’s just like, Oh, in post production, she wanted Ryan’s editor to edit the movie.
And he had his own editor and they ended up going with Justin’s. And that’s why she’s bitter. Who knows? My whole thing is about the whole idea surrounding domestic violence. And some people are saying that this movie or the story itself. I guess in particular, the movie romanticizes or glorifies domestic violence.
I’m just like, not at all. Like, what are these people watching? I mean, if Lily in the movie, they changed the whole movie and Lily in the movie. You know, sorry, spoiler here. I mean, we’re going to talk about it. There’s no way to talk about this without being
spoiled,
you know, not going into spoilers, but If that would have continued happening in the movie and she ultimately ends up staying with him, then yeah, I think we could have a problem with it, but that’s not what happens.
I think they did a good job of giving a realistic take on it. Like, she doesn’t leave after the first time. She doesn’t leave after the second. That’s probably normal life. I would think that’s,
I don’t know what the statistics are. I said this in my column. I’m like, I’m guessing 90 to 95 percent of people that are in an abusive relationship don’t leave after the first hit.
I mean, that’s just me throwing out a number, but we’ve heard the stories like they’re all over the place. Nobody leaves after the first
romanticize it at all. And I’ve actually had. People who messaged me and they’re like, I haven’t seen the movie yet. I’m afraid to do it. How graphic is it? And I actually feel like they do a good job of not making it too graphic or uncomfortable.
You know what happened, right? And you know, it was a bad thing, but it’s not like, Oh God. I, you know, like it’s not too hard to watch.
That scene, the, you know, the scene that everybody knows that we’re talking about. It. It went up to a line, but it didn’t, it didn’t cross it in my mind. Was it uncomfortable to watch even for me?
Who’s never even been in a situation like that. Yeah, it was still, it’s cringy, but this is a, this is a very sensitive topic. So you can’t, there’s no way to do that unless you literally just right at the start of the scene and you know where it’s headed. And then they just cut the whole thing out. They wanted to get you at least, that’s why I thought it was so well done.
Like I, I was like, they brought you to a point and that’s, that’s The point you needed to get to and they didn’t cross it and they didn’t make it so overly graphic. Now, somebody that either is currently in a relationship like that or is previously been in one, will they find it triggering? I would think so.
Well, sure. It’s not like it’s pleasant to watch.
Yeah, yeah.
It’s more just like they don’t over
Don’t overdo it. Yeah. And, and look, and I, and I said this after the fact, I just, and this is just, I guess, a testament to his acting or the casting of it. And we know that abusers come in all shapes and sizes and looks, but Justin Baldoni.
Came across to me as somebody who just had the look, I was like, he had me believing that he, it was realistic for someone like this to be an abuser, you know, and that’s, it’s not to say, like I said, abusers come in all shapes and sizes,
powerful man, you know, who holds all the cards and. Yeah, I know it was, it was amazing.
It was such a good movie.
He had, he has 0 percent body fat guys, a hunk.
He is so easy to look at.
I know. And then that, and, and that’s, I think that’s the appeal of the movie because it makes, and, and they’ve all said it in interviews, like it makes you understand a little bit more, not because just, he was hot, but.
He’s a doctor.
Seemingly a guy that has it all.
Yeah.
But you’re not just gonna, Oh, you know, you can be convinced, Oh, maybe it was just an accident. He says he’s never going to do it again. Like we know that’s what happens where, and it’s why women for the most part, obviously there’s other, there’s, you know, domestic violence the other way around, but it’s mostly towards women.
They, that they do stay after the first or second or even third time. It’s, it’s not just, Oh, because he’s hot. It’s just what they are bringing to the table because every, and that’s, and that’s why the movie was so good because everything leading up to that made you understand at least why it wasn’t so easy for her to leave after the first day.
No, I mean, both reading the book and seeing the movie, like when we first find out that he’s abusive, I was like, so disappointed. I was like, Oh my God, I want to love this guy. So much. I want to love this character. I was almost just like pissed. I’m like, God, I want to like you.
Did you know, did you know going into the book that it was about that?
No.
So you didn’t even know?
No.
Okay. So that’s what I mean. It’s like, I don’t know how anybody watches the first, up until the first hit in the movie, which is probably, I don’t know, 45 minutes in before we get that first one, they build the relationship of Lily and Ryle and you’re just like, These two are, you know, totally in love and you could see why, you know, she lets him, you know, makes him wait a little bit, kind of teases them a little bit because he even says like, look, I’m just interested in casual sex.
And she’s just like, no, that’s not what I want. And it’s just, you can see their connection and then it happens and you’re like, Oh, what is she going to do? And then obviously I’ve gone over this the way they showed it. So for me, as someone who didn’t read the book, I think they got the exact effect that they wanted because when I saw the movie and the oven scene happens and then the stair staircase scene happens, I’m like, but wait a second, he didn’t really do like, how do we even know he hit and it’s like, oh, okay.
And it wasn’t until the third scene when we see her flashback to those scenes and we see the full scene play out. We’re like, oh, okay. But as me. Not knowing anything. I was like, wait, did he did he hit her or not? Was it an accident or not?
I know. I know. It’s so good. But I say that and I just want to give caution.
I’m not supporting domestic violence. And
I think that’s
incredible.
And that and that’s the point. Like, look, The whole movie is this isn’t a rom com. This isn’t a chick flick. This isn’t girls night out movie And I think that’s where what I’m reading is some people are saying all the red carpet interviews are making it seem like hey Chick flick Blake Lively’s in it go see it and this hot guy or in it go see it It’s just like every interview that I’ve seen they are very making it clear of what this movie is about They’re not surprising anybody and I’m guessing Again, 85, 90 percent of the people that went to go see this movie probably read the book or have an idea of what this is about going in.
I think they’re being surprised. Like
actually what I love about what’s his name? Justin Baldoni. I don’t really know, but his whole platform through the whole movie. And if you go to his social media, all he talks about is domestic violence and how to help survivors and how to, you know, all that kind of stuff.
So he’s doing a great job.
Yeah. And he’s. Been every interview that I’ve seen with him has been very vocal about, you know, why did you make this movie? Because there was like a bidding war and his production company after he read the book basically approached Colleen and said, I want to do this movie.
Yeah.
And so he, you know, he, he won the bidding war rights to this movie. He wanted to make it, he wanted to make it how he made it. Now, this is where we get into the, you know, what happened with post production and all this stuff. And, you know, we’re just, I don’t think we’re ever going to get a, a, True answer.
I just
want some, like, I hate it. I hate it because I love this movie and this book so much, and I feel like it’s tarnishing it a little bit. And it’s, oh, it just bothers me every time an article come across my feet. I’m like, I just wish they would both come out with a statement. Or something and just put it to bed
and, you know, and we talked about this.
The latest one was people magazine did a, you know, insider say sources on set, say this, this runs deeper than a Blake Justin riff. The cast does not want to have anything to do with him. And I’m like, okay, well. Either that has to get settled or we’re not going to get a sequel because there’s no way you could do a sequel and just recast Ryle as a totally different guy because we can’t have Justin.
You
have to have him. I think people would be more, I think people would rather take no sequel than sequel with someone replacing Ryle’s, recasting Ryle’s character.
I mean,
when you, when you read the second book, obviously you did that somewhat recently. So it’s still somewhat fresh in your mind. The second book is more about.
Lily and atlas’s relationship, but ryle still plays
a big part of it.
Yeah still plays a role So you can’t take him out of it You couldn’t cut him out of the second movie completely because that would be a complete
there’s no there’s no book without ryle So
so when you read the second book, did you like it better than the first?
For sure it does just kind of help wrap up the story and like where everyone’s at she even says in like her her Little thing before the book starts. She’s like, I never wanted to write this book. I’m only doing it because people loved the first one so much. And I feel like I owe it to you guys to wrap up these characters.
So let me ask you this about the first book. Cause this is something I read that differed the first book. I guess the ending made it seem like it was more concrete that Lily and Atlas were going to pursue a relationship. Or, and the movie, it’s a little more open ended. They just meet in Boston, and she asks him if he’s single, and he says he is.
I don’t feel like that’s how the book
was. Was, was, that’s what I’m asking. Was the book, the book was more, they are definitely dating at the end of the book? No,
I feel like the book is like
Open ended?
They could reconnected, but like, we don’t know, but then the second book literally picks up at that last scene
and they take it from there to do just like,
it’s not like time has passed or anything.
They pick it up right from that last scene.
Okay. Yeah. Cause the movie is just, and it almost makes it, it almost makes it make sense as to, and I heard the same thing too, but not until recently that. You know, she wrote the first book and she left it pretty much open ended, but because of the fanfare the book got and the popularity of it, it was like, we want to see some sort of resolution.
Does she end up in a love story with Atlas? Does she have a child with Atlas down the road or whatever? We need, we need some sort of resolution to this. What happens with Ryle and all that? So I didn’t realize she writes that in the beginning of the second book. Like, Hey, I didn’t want, I didn’t want to do this, but I did it for you.
That’s interesting.
All her books are good. I just love it.
Or any of her books or any other of her books being made into movies that you know.
And Verity is. I don’t know if it’s her biggest book, but it definitely had the biggest splash. It, it’s incredible. It’s totally different. What’s it called?
Verity.
What’s it about?
It’s, God, it’s been a long time. I should actually read it again. I would read it again. I read that one in one day. Like, you can’t put it down.
Was it, did it come out, did it come out before it ends with us? Did she write it before or after?
Maybe.
Because It Ends With Us came out in 2016, but I guess it didn’t take off until 2020.
Yeah, I probably read Verity in 2018, maybe?
Okay.
No, no, no, no, probably 2021. I don’t know. I don’t know. I’m not even going to guess, but it’s good. It’s darker.
Is it V A R I T Y? Let me just see when it came out.
V E R I T Y.
Oh, Verity. Let me just see. I just want to see when it came out. Verity, Colleen Hoover.
Oh, gosh. Where does it say when the year that it came out? I’m on Amazon looking at it.
Okay. That doesn’t say it. I’m going to have to almost go to Wikipedia for it. Let me just Verity,
Crap. Oh, wait, Verity Wikipedia. Okay.
Maybe,
maybe you read it in 2021.
Oh, Verity book. Cause there’s, there’s giving me the thing of Verity.
I can’t find it. I don’t know why I can’t find that.
Crazy. We got,
yeah. The date on this thing. It’s like Verity.
Come out 2018.
Okay. So it came out two years after.
But like I said, I, the people that I have spoken to have basically said, like, I didn’t read it ends with us. It didn’t take off until basically COVID when everyone was home doing nothing,
nothing. Yeah, it
kind of, it kind of, I don’t know if it ended up being like Oprah’s book club or it was a word of mouth thing or something like that, but it definitely took off during that time.
From what you remember, roughly what Verity was about. Do you, yeah.
Yeah. So it’s, it’s a, it’s a dark romance novel. It’s this husband and wife and the wife is Seemingly in a coma and she’s a famous writer and this gal comes that she’s been writing something. And so they hire this ghost writer to come in and kind of complete a project that she was working on because she’s in this coma, but no one knows it.
And it just, it’s wild. It’s so, and I heard they’re making it into a movie and I like lost my mind when I heard on that out. It’s so good. You read it, please read it.
Is it. Can you tell me this? Does she get out of the coma?
I can’t tell you that
reality. Molly can’t spoil verity for me. You know, I could just go on Wikipedia and read the plot. Like, I don’t
want to spoil it for anyone.
Okay. No, that’s fine. I’ll probably read the plot. Like, you know, cause when I, after I watched the movie on Saturday, I was like, I want to read the What we Wikipedia says the plot of the book is, and that’s where I also saw some of the differences.
Now I want to make sure that I’m talking about the right book because so many of her books.
I, I, you know, this is how far out of it I was.
She’s doing an unfinished, an author’s unfinished autobiography. Yes.
Okay. Gotcha. And this is how I like, I don’t think I had ever heard the name of Colleen Hoover until this movie started making the rounds last week of, Hey, it’s coming out this weekend.
Like I didn’t know she was like the main young adult writer. That’s very hot that everybody reads, you know, that reads their reads
like romance books. I don’t watch like romance shows or anything like that. Her books are just so good because she hooks you on page one. Like, she gets you wrapped into the story right away.
And her books are really easy reads. Like, you can read them super quick.
And the book, from what I read, the book starts with the rooftop conversation.
Yes.
Okay. And that is, and another reason where it differs from the movie, but it’s not like the movie took you 30 minutes to get to the rooftop conversation.
It’s within the first, I think, 10 and it’s very early on. But yeah, I needed to establish because I did not know anything about Lily and her father and all this. Clearly when she couldn’t speak at the eulogy, I realized, okay, she clearly had some issues with her father in the past.
Yep.
That’s, and it set that up for me, and then we see him on the rooftop, and he comes out, and he’s upset, and then all of a sudden their flirting starts, and there you go.
But,
I’m really happy to hear that people who haven’t read the book still love the movie.
I loved, I thought it was excellent. I thought Blake Lively deserved like at least a nomination. She won’t get it because they just don’t give popular movies. You know, people that are up for best actress and best actor or are these people in indie films that, you know, people let’s see at the Cannes film festival, Cannes film festival.
Popular movies don’t get nominated for anything, you know, except for maybe costume or something like that. Oh, that’s something I wanted to bring up. Were you put off by the whole wardrobe thing? It
wasn’t, again, it wasn’t how I pictured her. But it didn’t bother me as much as I know there’s a lot of people who are super bothered with how she dressed I don’t think it bothered me that much.
I think so much it had I read the book freshly I might be pissed But time had passed so i’d kind of moved on from what I thought of her. So
at the dinner party She looked hot like in that dress. Yeah, it was just her everyday garb with you know, A floral summer dress and a June jacket over it or something like that.
It was just, but for me, I didn’t, again, I didn’t care. It’s Blake Lively. I don’t care what, you know, but he was great. Here’s another thing that came up. Could you have seen Brandon, the guy who plays Atlas? Could you have seen him in the role of Ryle and Ryle in the role of Atlas?
Yeah. I couldn’t have seen Justin Baldoni as Ryle, or as Atlas.
I could have seen Atlas as Ryle.
Interesting, because I couldn’t have. Just because he has more, like, Justin’s face, I guess because it’s so chiseled and perfect. It’s like, he, it also just has a feature to it, almost a darker, it’s like his cheeks are sunken, and it just has a darker feature to it. Brandon just looks, He has too nice of a face to come across as as someone who’s abusive to me.
But like we said, an abuser can look like anything. It’s just,
the book does a good job of setting it up where it’s like, you know, Ryle is just like smoking hot. Okay.
So, okay. How, And finally, I know we got to wrap up here just out of curiosity. And I guess I don’t think I’m going to go back and read the book.
I feel like I know so much about it now. I don’t feel like I need to read it. I’ve seen the movie, but I kind of want to forward to the part of the main abuse scene, because I don’t know how somebody. Like it’s just, it’s easier to watch, not easier to watch. I didn’t sound good, but you know what I mean?
Something like that playing out on screen versus how did, how does she, did she, in the book when you’re reading it where you’re like, did you cringe more when you’re reading that scene in the book or watching it play out?
No, in the book, cause there’s just more details to it.
Oh, okay. See that, I guess that’s what I want to read.
I was like, how do you detail something like that?
But she does do a good, she like, she gives the same impression throughout the book of like, was it an accident or was it, you know, so you kind of have the same takeaways when you’re watching the movie, like maybe he didn’t mean to do this on purpose.
Maybe it was just like a gut reaction or, you know, I don’t know.
Hmm. Yeah. I find that fascinating. I guess, you know, because I’m not a reader of any of this type of stuff. I mean, the books I read are sports related or just television in general, reading about network TV and cable and all that stuff.
Streaming services. Those are the only books I read. And I don’t read any sort of stuff. You know, Fifty Shades of Grey, stuff like that. Okay, well,
I’m asking you to read Verity.
I should read Verity?
It will take you no time. It is so quick.
That easy, huh?
It is a book you cannot put down.
I wonder, I wonder if they’re gonna, they haven’t mentioned any, I’m assuming that you said it’s going to be made into a movie from what you hear?
I swear I saw an announcement that it’s gonna be a movie.
And I wonder if they’ve already cast it. Like, can we start looking at who they’re, who’s gonna be on it? Or who’s gonna be in it?
It’s going to be in a movie today. They said it.
I got to believe that anything, I mean, she’s especially after this and I’m assuming work out whatever kinks you have with Justin and Blake.
They can’t, it’s almost like they can’t not make the sequel. They can’t not make it starts with us, but they have to get to the bottom of what, what the heck is going on between these two? Because. It’s just not gonna work and she’s just, like I said, the hottest writer going right now. People want her stuff.
Probably another book that she wrote in the past is probably going to take off and be made into a movie. It’s kind of how it works.
That’s another great one. I mean, I could go on.
What’s it called?
Reminders of him.
Oh, I’m guessing that’s, Is that more of a young love type of book? It sounds like it. That’s, that’s interesting, but I’m so glad we got to talk about this.
And we spent just as much time on this as we did on,
On
the bachelorette. But Molly, thank you so much for coming on. I really appreciate it. So much fun to have you on. It’s been, been a while. Like I said, I probably, I’m going to go back into my.
Podcasts
and see how long it’s been. I want to say it was definitely either COVID or pre COVID.
It’s definitely wasn’t past post that. So again, thanks again for coming on. Really appreciate it. And we’ll be in touch.
Sounds great.
Thanks, Molly.
Thanks.
Thank you so much to Molly for coming on. So great to have her on after all these years. My gosh, I want to say like, I, we were debating there at the end of the podcast, like when did she come on again?
And even at the beginning of the podcast, like, When was she back on or what was she on before? I want to say it was around COVID, but that would be the latest it would have been. I think it was probably 2019 though. It might’ve been 2018 cause I had both her and Jason on, you know what? They were one of my, I don’t even remember another word for it, but they were one of my.
I’m trying to think of the word and I’m blanking on it, but they were basically either podcast number 100, Like that numeric episode where I was like, I need to get somebody good for, you know, podcast number 100. I think they were podcast number 100 if I’m not mistaken. You know what? I’m going to pause it right here, Google something and see if I can get the right number.
But I’m good before I, before I get, before I look this up, my guess is they were podcast number 100. So let me check. Damn it! I was wrong. Podcast number 100 was with Mary Delgado, the woman that Byron Velvick chose. You know who, though, was podcast number 200? Jason and Molly Mesnick. So I knew they were one of the seminal ones.
And it was, it was during COVID September of 2020, September 17th, 2020 is when they came on. Because I think member bachelor that season during that summer was running the recapping. You know, Chris Harrison was in his office and he would get people on zoom and they would do like a recap of a season. I think Jason and Molly had just been on that.
And I was like, Hey, why don’t I try and get them on the podcast? And they came on, so that was great. So yeah, they were podcasting for 200 back in 2020. So yeah, September 17th. So almost four years to the day that Molly was a podcast guest, but. She was great. And as I said, in the beginning of this podcast, just give me a few more days, people maybe into next week, and I’ll stop talking about it ends with us for the sake of this podcast and possibly even this Sunday night, going to talk about a little bit more on the live stream.
But after that, barring anything happening in the offscreen drama, even though more stuff is coming out, seemingly daily, I’m not going to cover it daily. Because it’s still a bunch of onset sources say this insiders say this, and I just, I want something more concrete than that, but good conversation with Molly about their time on the show on Monday, how awkward the radio date was, how much Sam talked, basically Molly saying like, look, what you saw on TV was what happened.
They did not add anything in. And if anything, there was so much you didn’t see that conversation between 30 to 45 minutes. You saw maybe two or three of it. So anyway, great to have Molly on always like talking to her. So thank you all for listening. I really appreciate it. Follow me on Apple podcasts also rate in review, but you got to hit play.
It’s the only way it counts as a download daily roundup was posted two hours ago. Sports daily was posted an hour ago. Good friend of mine, Jason Stewart, radio producer for the Doug Gottlieb show on Fox sports radio. You want to go listen to that? That was an hour and a half interview. So for Molly Mesnick, I’m reality.
Steve, thank you all for tuning in and I will talk to you tomorrow.
Send all links and emails to: steve@realitysteve.com. To follow me on Twitter, it’s: www.twitter.com/RealitySteve. Instagram name is RealitySteve, or join my Reality Steve Facebook Fan Page. Talk to you tomorrow.
