Many fans of Anna Kendrick were shocked to learn that the Pitch Perfect star’s name appears in unsealed documents related to the ongoing and highly-publicized It Ends With Us legal battle between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni.
Kendrick has a professional history with Lively, having worked alongside the Gossip Girl star on the 2018 movie A Simple Favor and its 2025 sequel, Another Simple Favor. It does however, seem as though the pair’s friendship begins and ends on set.
Months after details of Lively’s legal battle against Baldoni went public, the actress went on a press tour for Another Simple Favor. While Lively kept a low profile, dodging questions about the legal drama, Kendrick did what she does best — joke about it.
When Kendrick was asked what it was like to work with Lively during the Another Simple Favor SXSW premiere in March 2025, she seemed to play coy.
“Oh, you know,” she told Entertainment Weekly at the time, before moving on to interact with a fan. Later on at the event, Kendrick chatted with Variety, where she was asked if the release of Another Simple Favor was “impacted” by what’s “going on in the world,” alluding to the Lively and Baldoni’s legal dispute.
“Why? What happened? I did ayahuasca and the last year of my life has been gone,” Kendrick said before bringing up Another Simple Favor. “But I hear the movie is amazing.”
When Lively was asked a similar question about working with Kendrick, the actress gave a different response.
“Oh, it’s the best!” Lively told Entertainment Weekly. “I’m so happy to be here.”
Lively has been embroiled in a public legal battle with Baldoni since late 2024. The two are set to meet up in civil court starting this spring.
As the lawsuit continues, several court documents have gone public. In January 2026, more than 180 records were unsealed, including Lively’s deposition, which included a question about Kendrick.
Keep scrolling for everything to know about why Kendrick was mentioned in the It Ends With Us court documents:
Why Was Anna Kendrick’s Name Brought Up During Blake Lively’s Deposition?
According to court documents viewed by Us Weekly, Lively was asked if she was “in a movie” with Kendrick during questioning.
“Are you asking about — I understood your question to be since It Ends With Us came out,” Lively clarified. “Are you asking since I shot It Ends With Us?”
The actress was then asked about going to Austin for the Another Simple Favor SXSW premiere.
“I just don’t want to misstate my testimony. So when you say ‘since It Ends With Us,’ I just want to be clear for the record that I understood you to be saying since It Ends With Us came out,” Lively explained, noting that she had “done a movie” after shooting It Ends With Us — but not since the legal drama started.
Are Anna Kendrick and Blake Lively Friends?
After A Simple Favor was released in 2018, there were rumors that Kendrick and Lively did not get along on set. However, a source told Us in February 2025 that things were OK between the pair.
“There aren’t any issues between Blake and Anna right now,” the insider said at the time.
What Has Anna Kendrick Said About Working With Blake Lively?
“Sometimes you work with somebody, and they’re great — they’re really, genuinely great — and they just have a very different working style, let’s say,” Kendrick told BuzzFeed in 2018, comparing the costars to having “partner-in-crime” vibes.
“You know, they’re the kind of person that you can’t come to them in between and be like, ‘Yo, let me tell you what just happened,’” she added. “So that was great.”
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