7 It Ends with Us Filming Locations You Can Visit (And No, They're Not in Boston)

Book by Colleen Hoover It ends with us is coming to life with a recent film adaptation, but some iconic locations may look a little different on screen.

Starring Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni, the film follows a young woman named Lily Bloom who moves to a new town and ends up meeting and falling in love with a man named Ryle. However, their relationship eventually turns toxic as Ryle becomes physically and emotionally abusive.

Among the various changes from the book to the film, the filming locations also strayed from the source material. Although both the book and the film are set in Boston, most of the filming took place in New Jersey.

Ahead of its release, PEOPLE spoke exclusively with one of the film’s location managers, Jeff Brown, who spoke at length about the biggest settings from the book and how they were adapted for the screen.

As for why the filmmakers chose New Jersey as the backdrop instead of Boston, he noted that the decision was “primarily a financial one,” but the crew worked hard to give the Garden State an authentic New England feel.

“I think Justin really fell in love with a lot of the look of Jersey as Boston, and we were really trying to keep his vision of what he saw alive,” he said of Baldoni, who also served as director and producer for the project. “We all knew from the book and the script that Boston was a major part of the story. So with locations, sometimes you’re looking for things that are kind of underneath the story. What does Boston sell that isn’t necessarily Boston?”

“It’s more about the people than the location…it was necessary to find places where Justin and Blake would be comfortable performing these scenes,” he adds. “Their faces don’t necessarily say Boston, they say Ryle and Lily, and that’s more important than the specifics of a street.”

Read ahead as Jeff Brown breaks down the film’s greatest filming locations.

Warning: spoilers for It ends with us forward.

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Lily’s childhood home

Alex Neustaedter and Isabela Ferrer in the movie It ends with us.

Jojo Whilden/Sony

As for Lily’s childhood home, Brown says he worked to find a place that was multifaceted because it had to “exist both when Lily was a young woman” and when she comes home to visit her mother. “You have to find a house that satisfies both of those stories,” he explains.

To capture that essence, Brown settled in a 100-year-old house in Plainfield, New Jersey, which was also Maine for the film. “Plainfield has several streets that [are] very old. The [houses] they are all very big and very beautiful. And the homeowners kept a lot of the original moldings,” notes Brown. “Those are the things you look for as a location scout, you look for those details because those are things that are very difficult to replicate.”

“The structure of the house is one thing, and then the art department would really bring in the character of Lily’s mother and Lily’s room,” he adds. “The room itself sells character and that’s a big part of it.”

Ryle’s loft

Surprisingly, Ryle’s loft was actually created in a building owned by Veris Residential in Weehawken, New Jersey. “The loft was something that was very inconvenient, hard to find,” Brown notes. “Basically, the team created his loft within the common space of the rental building. So all that stuff, the bedroom and the kitchen, it’s all made up. None of it was real.”

“If you’re shooting on location for more than two weeks, you can’t have a really small location. You’re going to have to have something that’s pretty big because we have how many camera angles we have to allow for,” he explains. “Justin didn’t want to record on stage, so nothing was built on stage. They were all practical locations.”

Flower shop Lily

Jenny Slate and Blake Lively in the movie It Ends With Us.

Jojo Wilden

Of course, one of the central locations from the book and film is Lily’s Flower Shop, which Brown says was filmed in an “empty storefront in Hoboken, New Jersey.” For that location, he notes that they really wanted to play with the “distinct old-town vibe” that both Hoboken and Boston have.

“Other cities don’t have the Revolutionary War as part of their history,” he adds. “So the fact that these towns in Jersey and Massachusetts, they go back in time, that’s something that I think plays a big part in the story.”

He adds that the location really came to life thanks to the collaboration with the artistic team, including flowers from local florists. “What she does in the shop has a very specific feel to it,” he notes. “The art department created the evolution of the store through the set decoration and props. It’s a very touchable kind of location, and where they’re rebuilding it within the old space, it’s nice that they were able to pull off something like that.”

The roof where Lily and Ryle meet

Blake Lively in It Ends With Us.

Nicole Rivelli/SONY IMAGES

Unlike other filming locations, the iconic rooftop scene where Lily and Ryle meet for the first time was actually filmed in Los Angeles. Brown notes that they intended to use the roof where they shot Ryle’s loft scenes, but the weather ended up playing a big factor.

“When we shot, it was January in New Jersey and we had a pretty cold winter,” he notes. “So trying to shoot dramatic scenes on an icy roof on the Hudson River will be very difficult for Justin and Blake. While we were doing some of the prep for this round of filming, the executive decision was made that the East Coast would be too cold to shoot, so they brought it to Los Angeles.”

He adds that for the scene from the roof, Baldoni gave him a specific reference for the scene from the roof her starring Joaquin Phoenix. “Justin loved that rooftop vibe and was trying to find something similar,” he says. “[The location] had the kind of vibe he was going for. It’s a beautiful film, so we were trying to capture that sensibility.”

Lily and Ryle’s big kiss

Justin Baldoni and Blake Lively in the movie It Ends With Us.

Jojo Whilden/Sony

Lily and Ryle’s big kiss from the movie takes place on Newark Avenue in Jersey City. “It’s a commercial and we were shooting after Christmas, so we worked with them to take down some of the Christmas decorations, but leave the lights because our director of photography really responded to them as a texture in the background, especially when you have a romantic first kiss scene,” explains.

“We really needed those kinds of visual fireworks to show what was going on with the characters inside. It helps the mood of the piece, too, that it’s a very romantic street.”

Atlas restaurant

Blake Lively and Brandon Sklenar in the movie It Ends With Us.

Jojo Whilden/Sony

The environment of Atlas’s Root restaurant is actually a real place to have lunch! But it’s actually called South House, an upscale restaurant that serves southern cuisine as well as cocktails in a rustic setting.

The restaurant is also located on Newark Avenue. Brown notes that the interior and exterior of Atlas’s restaurant was shot on location.

The market where Lily and Atlas reconnect

Blake Lively in It Ends With Us.

Sony Pictures/Youtube

In the final scene of the film, Atlas and Lily’s paths cross again at a local market, which Brown notes is close to the location of Atlas’s restaurant. “It’s called Van Vorst Park and it’s a public park located in a very old part of Jersey City,” he explains.

“They get approached a lot for filming and I don’t think they allow a lot of filming, so we were very, very happy to shoot there. That was another one where Justin just fell in love with Van Vorst Park and was like, ‘There’s going to be a farmers market here.'”

Although there is an actual farmers market in Van Vorst Park, Brown says they moved it to a different location because it suited the lighting better. He adds that it was a collaborative effort as they brought in local vendors from the area to set the mood.

“Van Vorst Park, they have an organization that manages it, and they turned on the fountain for us because they closed it for the winter,” he adds. “They were really willing to play with us.”

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Source: HIS Education