Justin Baldoni and Brandon Sklenar play Blake Lively ‘s love interests in It Ends With Us . However, they weren’t the only stars in the running for the roles. In fact, an LGBTQ+ actor recently revealed that they sent in an audition tape to play Atlas, the role which ultimately went to Brandon .
He opened up about the “atypical” role and shared some funny anecdotes about the audition during a podcast episode. Keep reading to find out more..
. The actor in question is Matt Rogers , who played Luke in Fire Island and cohosts the Las Culturistas podcast with Saturday Night Live star Bowen Yang . During a recent episode of the podcast , Matt said that a new agent was lining up “more atypical things” for him to audition for.
That included It Ends With Us . He filmed an audition tape shortly after going through a breakup. “I was crying every day, sobbing every day, and I had to cry on this tape — but I also had to be straight,” he recalled, via People .
“I had to manage how to maintain my emotion but also seem like a love interest of Blake Lively , who, by the way, was named Atlas.” He continued, joking, “It was just so funny because me crying as a straight man I don’t really think plays.” Matt explained that the breakup did not help him.
It made him emotional, but he was “not in control” of those emotions. “And you think, ‘Oh, this is a great opportunity to go on tape for something emotional because I am,’ and then it just didn’t match up with.