Brandon Sklenar smoothly navigated Gayle King‘s questioning about his It Ends with Us co-star’s legal drama, which has dominated headlines for months now.

The actor, who played Atlas Corrigan in the Colleen Hoover adaptation alongside sworn enemies Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively, was put on the spot while sitting down with CBS Mornings co-hosts King, Tony Dokoupil, and Vladimir Duthiers on Monday (Feb. 17).

When King asked for his thoughts on what has “turned into a big, major story” between Baldoni and Lively, Sklenar replied, “I just want people to remember why we made the movie in the first place and what it stands for, just keeping the focus on that. That movie meant so much to me.”

He noted that “someone very close” to him has “gone through” what It Ends With Us‘s Lily (Lively) “is going through, for a long time,” referring to the protagonist’s abusive relationship.

“I’ve been on the front lines helping her navigate that space, so that movie meant a lot to me, and it means a lot to her, this person in my life,” he explained. “It was one of the reasons that me doing that film gave her this strength to change her life… It means a lot to me. It’s unfortunate that things get taken away from what the ethos of that thing is and it gets convoluted.”

Despite Sklenar’s respectful response, King still kept pressing as she asked him if he’s “team Blake or team Justin.”

Sklenar strayed away from controversy, responding with a chuckle, “I’m team It Ends with Us.”

Lively filed a legal complaint against Baldoni on Dec. 20, 2024, accusing him of sexual harassment and attempting to harm her reputation, before filing a formal lawsuit on Dec. 31, per Forbes. According to People, Baldoni then filed a $250 million lawsuit against The New York Times following their Dec. 21, 2024 article, “‘We Can Bury Anyone’: Inside a Hollywood Smear Campaign.” The lawsuit had claimed that “the Times story relied almost entirely on Lively’s unverified and self-serving narrative, lifting it nearly verbatim while disregarding an abundance of evidence that contradicted her claims and exposed her true motives,” per Variety.

People reports that Baldoni also filed a lawsuit in January against Lively and her husband Ryan Reynolds, their publicist Leslie Sloane, and Vision PR, Inc., Sloane’s public relations firm, claiming that Lively never read It Ends with Us — leading Lively to make “wrongheaded creative decisions” — and that her work on the movie showed a “need for control.”

Per the New York Post, Lively and Baldoni are expected to settle their case in court on March 9, 2026.