Justin Baldoni’s attorney has reacted to Ryan Reynolds’ filing to dismiss their ongoing legal battle.
“Mr. Reynolds’ exploitation of his enormous power in Hollywood continues, this time arrogantly asking to be dismissed from the case despite his publicly documented involvement extending far beyond just being a ‘supportive spouse,’” Baldoni’s lawyer, Bryan Freedman, told Us Weekly in a press release on Wednesday, March 19. “Mr. Reynolds was a key player within the scheme, defaming Justin around Hollywood, strong-arming WME into dropping Justin as a client, and attempting to destroy Justin’s profession nonetheless possible. His fingerprints have been throughout this smear campaign against Justin and the Wayfarer team since day one.”
Freedman added, “Mr. Reynolds now attempts to cut back plainly cognizable claims to ‘hurt feelings,’ sending a transparent message that bullying is suitable. After lighting a match, Mr. Reynolds now seeks to run from the flames. It won’t work. The Wayfarer Parties’ claims against him are real, and so they are serious.”
Per Freedman, his legal team “is not going to stop” until Reynolds, 48, is “held accountable for his actions.”
Us confirmed on Tuesday, March 18, that Reynolds submitted a motion to dismiss himself from Baldoni’s lawsuit. The Deadpool star’s lawyers argued that Baldoni “doesn’t discover a single allegedly defamatory statement” made by Reynolds.
“The whole thing of Mr. Baldoni’s case appears to be based on Mr. Reynolds allegedly privately calling Mr. Baldoni a ‘predator,’ but here is the issue, that shouldn’t be defamation unless they’ll show that Mr. Reynolds didn’t consider that statement to be true,” Reynolds’ attorneys Mike Gottlieb and Esra Hudson told Us in a press release. “The grievance doesn’t allege that, and just the other, the allegations within the grievance suggest that Mr. Reynolds genuinely believes Mr. Baldoni is a predator.”
The statement continued: “Mr. Reynolds’ wife has accused Mr. Baldoni — privately and in multiple complaints — of sexual harassment and retaliation, and as identified by Mr. Reynolds’ motion, Mr. Baldoni has also openly spoken about his past of mistreating women and pushing the boundaries of consent. Mr. Reynolds has a First Amendment right to precise his opinion of Mr. Baldoni, which ought to be comforting to a gaggle of people that have repeatedly called Ms. Full of life and Mr. Reynolds ‘bullies’ and other names over the past yr.”
Reynolds’ wife, Blake Full of life, sued Baldoni, 41, for sexual harassment and fostering a “hostile work environment” while they worked together on 2024’s It Ends With Us. Baldoni denied the allegations before filing a $400 million defamation lawsuit against Full of life, 37, Reynolds and their publicist Lesley Sloane. Sloane, for her part, has since filed to be faraway from the case. A trial date is currently slated to start in 2026.
Each Full of life and Reynolds, meanwhile, have denied Baldoni’s allegations.
