Actor, director of 'It Ends With Us' speaks about domestic violence at CSUB
Oct 30, 2024
BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) -- The film It Ends With Us was a hit at the box office. And like the flower shop that Lilly opens in the movie, it was filled with beauty, but also dark truths.
"We made a movie that speaks to domestic violence, ending the cycle. But that's just a movie. It's speaking to many people of course but unless Justin and I who are in a position of making the movie, actually use that to learn and take it elsewhere in our lives and communities, then it's for naught, it really is for naught," explains Jamey Heath, Wayfarer Studios CEO, about why they came to Bakersfield in late October.
October is domestic violence awareness month.
"We often say that movies don't save lives, they don't cure cancer. The joke at Wayfarer is, well maybe we're making the wrong movies," explains Baldoni who helped co-found Wayfarer Studios. Heath and Baldoni say they approach each film as an opportunity to start conversations and effect change.
When It Ends With Us released in August, millions of people bought tickets. But those aren't the numbers that keep Baldoni and Heath up at night.
"This is something that touches far too many of us. As men, we often say if there was anything that touched a man's life where one in three men were affected by something like domestic violence, it would have all the funding so that it never happened again. But because this is happening to women, one in three or four women are affected by domestic violence, we are not doing enough."
In the US one in four women and one in seven men will experience severe physical violence by an intimate partner in their lifetime.
Here in Kern County, this year alone, at least ten people have been murdered by the hands of someone they trusted.
"When we made this movie I said if there was just one woman who left then it would be worth it; and there have been days where I have just been in tears because I don't have enough time to read all the messages," says Baldoni.
When Wayfarer embarked on the process of taking It Ends With Us from the page to the big screen, they partnered with No More, a global coalition of organizations fighting back against domestic violence, by teaching what healthy relationships and red flags look like.
On October 28th Heath and Baldoni came to Bakersfield where they toured the Open Door Network facilities and met with domestic violence survivors before speaking before a sold out crowd at California State University Bakersfield.
"I wish we didn't have to have these conversations. I wish this beautiful organization didn't have to exist. I wish that men could be better," Baldoni says.
But until the conversations are commonplace, and the abuse is not, the work continues. "Talking to the survivors today reminds me that what I really need to do is go home, and raise my son better," Heath said.
And the two are trying to clear up misconceptions and change the conversation around domestic violence.
"We always ask the question as a society, why doesn't she leave? Why did she stay? And that's the question that has to go. We need to reframe it and ask why are men harming? Why did he harm her? The other one I think, it's important for people to know not all abuse is visible. There are scars that you can't see," says Baldoni.
A message breaking free from the silver screen... and into real lives around the world.