Blake Lively and Jenny Slate Gush Over Working Together on ‘It Ends With Us’ (Exclusive)

While Blake Lively’s new film It Ends With Us is a tale of love, loss, pain and hope — there was nothing but true love and joy in her real-life friendship with co-star Jenny Slate.

Lively and Slate sat down with ET’s Rachel Smith in New York City on Sunday, while promoting their new romantic drama, and the pair had nothing but words of kindness and support for the bond they formed during filming.

“I love Jenny so much, and she was such an anchor for me in so many ways,” Lively, 36, marveled. “She’s just full of love and light, but she’s also deeply grounded.”

For Lively, her connection with Slate was fostered by how much they both “really love our personal lives a lot, and love our jobs.”

“We love our work and we take it very very seriously, and we work very, very, very hard, and we completely immerse ourselves in our work — but who we are is defined by our personal life so much more than our work,” Lively explained, “and we can be both of those things at once.”

“When you’re working, sometimes you feel guilty for, you know, not being in your personal life in those hours you’re at work,” said Lively, who shares four children with husband Ryan Reynolds — daughters James, 9, Inez, 7 and Betty, 4, as well as son Olin, 1. “Just knowing that someone was having that same experience was very grounding.”

Slate, meanwhile, shares a 3-year-old daughter, Ida, with her husband, author Ben Shattuck.

“I deeply fell in love with her,” Slate said of Lively and their time on set. “Obviously, I have admired Blake for so long… [she’s] so fresh, so detail oriented, so prepared — knowing, like, what page on the script things occurred on. She’d be like, ‘Well, I see that, but she doesn’t really find this out until page 96…'”

Slate gushed over getting the opportunity to not only act opposite Lively, but also getting to become a close friend when the cameras weren’t rolling.

“[She’s a] deeply trustworthy person who is also willing to share. We had long talks,” Slate recalled.
I was never expecting to have the off-set experience that I had.

“I was really eager to work with Blake, but to really make a friend and someone who is so capable in so many ways — like, just like a genuine winner… I’m just so grateful for this sweet person,” Slate added with a smile.

It Ends With Us — adapted from Colleen Hoover’s novel of the same name —  follows flower shop owner Lily Bloom’s (Lively) volatile relationship with boyfriend Ryle Kincaid (Justin Baldoni) amid the reappearance of her first love, Atlas Corrigan (Brandon Sklenar). Slate stars as Allysa Kincaid, Lily’s best friend and Ryle’s sister.

It Ends With Us hits theaters Aug. 9.

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