Blake Lively admits it was her idea to touch her co-star Henry Golding’s private parts while filming a scene together for “A Simple Favor.”
In resurfaced commentary about the movie after it wrapped, the 37-year-old actress discussed the scene with director Paul Feig and co-star Anna Kendrick, per a video shared on TikTok and X.
“This is one of my favorite additions that you came up with,” Feig, 62, tells Lively, showing approval for the improvisation — despite it not originally being part of the script.
The filmmaker then laughs off how the “Gossip Girl” alum grabbed Golding’s “nuts” and adds, “Anyway, you really went for it, too.”
Lively responds, “That’s always awkward when you’re, like, ‘Hey, hi, nice to meet you. Can I grab your nuts really hard? It’s not ’cause I want to, ’cause I feel like she [my character] would.”
Feig then says he asked the “Age of Adeline” star to do it “harder,” which Lively details that she obliged as an homage to “Baby Jane Hudson,” a 1962 film character played by Bette Davis, who transforms a spoiled child star to a faded actress who descends into alcoholism and madness.
Page Six has reached out to Golding’s reps for comment but did not immediately hear back.
However, he filmed again with Lively, Feig and Kendrick for “Another Simple Favor,” which will be released May 1 on Amazon Prime Video. When asked at the SXSW premiere of the sequel how it was “reuniting,” Golding, 38, responded, “I mean, it’s the best. Paul Feig, the ladies. What could go wrong?”
It’s unclear whether an intimacy coordinator was on the set of “A Simple Favor.” However, we’re told the risqué scene was planned in advance, and there was a discussion about the “creative suggestion” before it was executed.
Amid her ongoing legal battle with her “It Ends With Us” co-star Justin Baldoni, Lively has been very outspoken that she is very much in favor of an intimacy coordinator being present while filmmaking.
She told Digital Spy in August 2024, “I think it’s critical to have an intimacy coordinator. I think that being choreographed is critical for everyone’s safety.”
Baldoni, 41, has agreed with that sentiment, telling Harper’s Bazaar that same month, “There was no way [to] … do this movie without intimacy coordinators.”
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However, Lively alleged in her sexual harassment suit against Baldoni that he had been “behaving inappropriately” while filming a slow-dancing scene with her and throughout other periods of making the movie.
Baldoni — who is countersuing Lively and her husband, Ryan Reynolds, for defamation and extortion — has denied that characterization and released raw footage of the dancing scene to defend himself.
The behind-the-scenes clip shows the on-screen couple dancing, chatting and joking. Baldoni then, at one point, kisses Lively on her neck and forehead before calling cut.
Lively’s team said in response that the footage only further corroborates her claims, saying in January, “Justin Baldoni and his lawyer may hope that this latest stunt will get ahead of the damaging evidence against him, but the video itself is damning.
“The video shows Mr. Baldoni repeatedly leaning in toward Ms. Lively, attempting to kiss her, kissing her forehead, rubbing his face and mouth against her neck, flicking her lip with his thumb, caressing her, telling her how good she smells, and talking with her out of character.”
People on social media claim the “Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants” star’s claims about Baldoni are hypocritical given her resurfaced clip about Golding.
“She preaches autonomy but only for her,” one person wrote on TikTok. Another user on the social media platform agreed, “Rules for thee but not for me.”
A spokesperson for Lively tells Page Six exclusively in response, “Blake collaborated and reached an agreement with the director and her co-star before filming the scene. That is the entire point here and that is what Mr. Baldoni did not do.
