CNN —
It Ends With Us actor Brandon Sklenar is speaking out about the online controversy surrounding the release and promotion of his new film.
Sklenar posted a lengthy message on her Instagram page on Tuesday, saying that author Colleen Hoover, who wrote the best-selling 2016 novel on which the film is based, and the other women who star in the film “represent hope, perseverance and women choosing a better life.”
“Blaming the women who believed so strongly in this film’s message and poured their hearts and souls into making it is counterproductive and undermines the film’s purpose,” he wrote.
There had been reports that creative differences and tensions on set between star and co-executive producer Blake Lively and co-star and director Justin Baldoni were hurting the film’s release, but Sklener addressed them head-on.
“What happened behind the scenes does not diminish our intentions in making this film, and we hope that does not happen. It is disheartening to see so much negativity being projected online,” Sklenar wrote.
There has also been attention focused on how Livly and the film’s promotional campaign addressed (or, in some cases, failed to address) the issue of domestic violence, a central element of the film.
“There is not a single person involved in the making of this film who is unaware of the responsibility we have in making it,” Sklener wrote this week, “a responsibility to all women who have suffered from intergenerational trauma, domestic violence, or simply looking in the mirror and loving who they see.”
Sklenar said the film aims to inspire people, give them hope and “spread love and awareness.”
“This is not to make women the ‘bad guy’ again. Let’s get through this together,” he wrote, asking his followers to stop spreading hate online.
CNN has previously reached out to Lively and representatives from Sony Pictures for comment.
In a statement to The Hollywood Reporter last week, Sony Pictures Entertainment Chairman and CEO Tony Vinciquerra defended the film’s promotion, saying some had placed too much emphasis on the lighter aspects.
“So many women have put so much effort into this incredible film, working dedicatedly from the beginning to ensure that such important themes were handled sensitively,” Vinciquerra’s statement read.
“It Ends with Us” follows Lily Bloom (Lively), a flower shop owner who overcomes an abusive and traumatic childhood, as she falls in love with Lyle Kincaid (Baldoni) and the two form a strong bond, but soon notices disturbing patterns in their relationship that remind her of her parents’.
“Intimate partner violence affects all genders and more than 12 million people in the United States each year. Everyone deserves to be in a relationship free of domestic violence,” Lively wrote on her Instagram Story earlier this month, with a link to the National Domestic Violence Hotline.
Meanwhile, Sklenar hopes his followers will refrain from making negative comments and choose to “be part of something better together.”
“This is part of a new story, written for women and all people around the world,” he wrote.
CNN’s Dan Hetting contributed to this report.