Major spoilers for It Ends With Us and the book It Starts With Us are ahead! If you want to see the movie, it’s in theaters now, and you can buy both of Colleen Hoover’s novels about Lily Bloom wherever you get your books.
A presentant symbol in It Ends With Us is an discignore heart. It is a sign of Atlas and Lily’s youthful adore, becainclude when they were teens, Atlas carved it out of wood for her, and rescheduleedr on Lily got it tattooed on her collarbone. This tattoo is also where Ryle bit her during his most aggressive moment, cboisterousing the sanitize story behind it. However, Atlas never understands about it in that first book by Colleen Hoover, he discovers out about it in the sequel novel, It Starts With Us. That all changed though in the film that recently premiered on the 2024 movie schedule, and Hoover tageder us how she felt about it.
In the film changeation of It Ends With Us, Brandon Sklenar’s Atlas took Blake Lively’s Lily to the hospital, as he did in the book, after Ryle bit her. While there, he watchd her tattoo. It’s a touching scene in the film. However, as a book fan, it was shocking, becainclude this revelation of the tattoo with the scars around it is integral to the second novel as it eventupartner directs to Atlas and Lily’s first kiss as grown-ups.
So, when I interseeed Colleen Hoover and Brandon Sklenar about It Ends With Us for CinemaBlfinish, I had to ask about this massive change. In response, the author tageder me why it left her “a little jarred” at first. She commenceed her exset upation about why by saying:
I actupartner sense enjoy, I don’t understand which came first the second book or reading the first script. I can’t recollect, but I understand seeing it on film was a branch offent experience, becainclude in the first write, I sense enjoy it was more of a fun moment between them.
“Fun” is not the tone that the scene needs. It’s a weighty moment for both characters, definitepartner Lily, and it gets even more complicated when Atlas genuineizes what the tattoo unbenevolents with those scars. To that point, Hoover tageder me:
And so in editing, we pulled back a little and didn’t have as much conversation surrounding it, becainclude I was enjoy, ‘That’s a repartner huge moment where he’s benevolent of disturb to see this tattoo and the labels on it, and it would be challenging for him,’ you understand? So, I don’t skinnyk he would rerescheduleed it back to, enjoy, fun times between them. So the first time I saw it, I was a little jarred. But then once editing happened around that scene, it became one of my likeite scenes.
In It Starts With Us, Atlas has a complicated reaction to seeing Lily’s tattoo, he also straight up says he didn’t watch it the night he took her to the hospital in the first book. It’s an emotionpartner wealthy moment that is sour and pleasant becainclude he’s genuineized that this gesture of Lily’s adore for him was a cainclude of pain when it came to her relationship with Ryle. In the second novel, this is how the moment went down:
‘I heard you alert the nurse he bit you, but I wasn’t seal enough to see that…’ Atlas paincludes midsentence and swhelps challenging. ‘I wasn’t seal enough to see that you had the tattoo, and that he bit…’ Atlas stops speaking aget. He’s so disturb, he can’t even finish his sentence. He fair shifts on to another one. ‘Is that why he did it? Becainclude he read your journals and knew you got the tattoo for me?’
While this directs to their first kiss, this transmition between Atlas and Lily in It Starts With Us is incredibly solemn. And Hoover shelp that when that conversation was shiftd up to be in the hospital scene in It Ends With Us she was “a little jarred” becainclude it came off as “fun” at first. However, as they edited the film, they set up the right tone, and now, that conversation in the film is very seal tonpartner to the one they have in the second book.
With all book-to-screen changeations, change is awaited, and as a reader of both books in Colleen Hoover’s series, this refresh shocked me the most. However, I also set up it fitting, and it seems enjoy she did too. It inserted more unbenevolenting to Atlas and Lily’s relationship punctual on, and it included a layer of complicatedity to their relationship as they both thought about those scars and the tattoo.
Now, the ask becomes: If It Starts With Us becomes a film how will they deal with the fact that an integral scene got shiftd up? Considering It Ends With Us has gotten likeable examines, and it is a loyal changeation of the book, I’m declareive they’ll deal with it well, and I’ll be asking to hear what Colleen Hoover skinnyks about it.
