Blake Lively and Brandon Skelnar Dish On Bringing“ It Ends With Us” Characters to Life: 'It’s Been a Trip'

'Gossip Girl' fan Sklenar also said that “finally” meeting Lively was a highlight of the process

Now that It Ends with Us has wrapped filming, Blake Lively and Brandon Sklenar are looking back on the experience.

During a Q&A panel for Book Bonanza moderated by Entertainment Tonight on Friday, June 14, the costars — who play on-screen love interests Lily Bloom and Atlas Corrigan — were asked what the “journey” bringing Colleen Hoover's hit novel to life has been like.

Sklenar’s first thought? “Oh, boy.”

“I mean, it's been a trip,” the actor, 33, said, adding, “Honestly, I had no expectations of these things, and I've been kind of blown away with the response to everything.”

The most challenging part, according to Sklenar, was playing “a character where there's so many people’s idea [of] who he is and how he's meant [to] be, how he's meant to look.”

Related: Blake Lively and Colleen Hoover Promise It Ends With Us Stays True to Form: ‘If You Liked the Book, You’ll Love the Movie’

“And just sort of divorcing yourself from that and letting yourself, you know, do your thing with it and not be weighed down by what you think people might want to see or how they want to see it,” he added. “And just sort of let that go and just do what you do.”

Meeting and working with “powerhouse ladies” Lively, 36, and Hoover, 44, who joined Sklenar at the Grapevine, Texas event, was also a highlight of the journey, Sklenar said.

“Colleen and I definitely spent some time and got to know each other and she's just such a lovely, lovely person,” he said, noting that it has also been “fantastic meeting Blake Lively.”

Related: It Ends with Us Director Responds to Criticism on Blake Lively's Costumes: 'Just Go See the Movie'

In fact, because he is “such a big Gossip Girl fan,” meeting Lively — “finally” — may have been “the most exciting part” of the entire process, he later added.

Revealing her own “most exciting part,” Lively explained it was, “Just bringing this this movie to life.”

“'Cause it was such an emotionally rewarding film and, and I'm so proud of it,” she said. “And to do that in [a] movie people actually see… if you get like a great female character, it's usually like a movie no one's ever gonna see.”

Lively said “that speaks to Colleen being able to tell a story that, it's quite big and quite commercial, but it's still really grounded in human emotion.”

However, the scariest part of the process, Sklenar said, is still to come, as he has not seen any of the movie yet. Lively, meanwhile, reflected on what the "scariest part" had been for her, concluding that, “I think this was the first time I didn't feel scared.”

“I don't know why,” she continued. “Maybe because I just had a kid like three months before and I was like, ‘Oh God, what am I doing? So I had enough other stuff to worry about.”

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While reflecting on her own experience, Lively also recalled the hardest part of filming, which she said was striking a balance between her two love interests, played by Sklenar and Justin Baldoni — who also doubles as the film’s director.

“It was actually interesting because our director also plays my other love interest,” the actress said of Baldoni, who plays Ryle Kincaid in the film.

“And so I think when we were in scenes together, he was like, ‘You seem like yes, but you seem like you're in love with him, but you love Ryle,’ ” Lively recalled. “And I was like, ‘No, I also love Ryle. Like, 'I really love Atlas, but I love Ryle.' "

In other words, she said, her character, Lily, was "conflicted."

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The Gossip Girl alum said “that was always an interesting dynamic when you have somebody who's playing the character, also being the one like looking at the movie.”

“So we were always like, ‘Are we too, too connected?’” she said, adding “that was always tricky for me.”

Elsewhere, Lively noted how much she adored her character in the movie.

"I love Lily so much... I just love her. And I think that that's really important to love the character that you're playing and to just understand and just... feel the heart and soul and all the people around you," she said, adding that, "every single person in this movie is a revelation."

It Ends With Us will be in theaters starting Aug. 9, 2024.

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