The ‘Drop’ actor says wearing the same brooch as Justin Baldoni at an Oscars afterparty ‘was a total happenstance’

Brandon Sklenar on March 2, 2025; Justin Baldoni on Aug. 6, 2024. Credit :

Brandon Sklenar is setting the record straight about wearing the same pin as Justin Baldoni earlier this month.

When the 1923 star stepped out for the 2025 Vanity Fair Oscar Party on March 2, he accessorized his look with a floral brooch. “Long live the (brooch),” he wrote on Instagram, sharing photos of his outfit.

Fans soon noticed the pin matched the one worn by his It Ends With Us director-costar Baldoni, 41, at that film’s New York City premiere held Aug. 6.

Was there any hidden meaning behind that pin choice? “Honestly, no. I wish I could say there was,” Sklenar told PEOPLE exclusively on the red carpet at the SXSW Film & TV Festival premiere of his thriller Drop on Sunday, March 9.

“That was a total happenstance,” the actor, 34, added. “I woke up in the morning and saw an article and I was like, ‘Oh, damn.’ I literally had no idea. I had an idea I wanted to wear like a floral brooch of some kind and that was the color that I liked the best. And, lo and behold, someone also wore that prior to me wearing it.”

In Drop, directed by Christopher Landon, Sklenar stars opposite Meghann Fahy, who plays a widowed mom on a first date that goes south when she is terrorized by threatening anonymous drops to her phone.

Sklenar told PEOPLE of working with White Lotus alum Fahy, 34, “It helps if you have a real relationship and you really vibe with the people you’re working with and you can have a good time. We had a really, really good time making this movie. I think you can feel it in the movie.”

Meghann Fahy and Brandon Sklenar in “Drop”.Bernard Walsh/Universal Pictures

Blake Lively, Sklenar’s other It Ends With Us costar, also opened her latest film, Another Simple Favor, at SXSW, attending the festival in Austin, Texas on Friday, March 7.

In December, Lively, 37, sued Baldoni, accusing him and others of sexual harassment and a retaliatory smear campaign, which he denies. Baldoni countersued Lively, her husband Ryan Reynolds and their publicist in January, alleging defamation and extortion.

While at the recent Vanity Fair party, Sklenar was asked by The Hollywood Reporter how he is “hoping to support” Blake Lively “during this time.”

He responded, “It’s a tough situation. I just hope everyone remembers what the movie is about and why we made it in the first place. It’s about love. It’s about supporting women in general and helping people through tough times.”

The actor, who played Lively’s onscreen love interest in It Ends With Us, added that the movie has “helped so many people.” Said Sklenar, “I just want people to remember what it’s about, why we made it, and to kinda keep it on that. That kind of, like, core ethos, you know what I mean?”