Blake Lively followed in her husband’s footsteps Thursday, filing a motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought against her by ex-co-star Justin Baldoni.

Lively, whose partner Ryan Reynolds filed a similar motion in New York on Tuesday, is pushing for a judge to dismiss Baldoni’s claims against her, calling his lawsuit “vengeful and rambling.”

USA TODAY has reached out to reps for Baldoni for comment.

Baldoni and Lively co-headlined the film adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s buzzy novel “It Ends with Us,” − a project that ended in scandal when Lively alleged sexual harassment on set at the hands of Baldoni, who countered that she and Reynolds used their fame to extort and defame him. Sandwiched in the middle was an online public flogging of Lively over her “mean girl” persona, which at first appeared organic before Lively alleged it was the product of a highly coordinated but covert smear campaign spearheaded by Baldoni.

Swapping lawsuits and increasingly hostile claims, Baldoni and Lively have found themselves at odds in both the courts and the press. Lively’s most recent move alleges that Baldoni’s suit is an illegal retaliatory blow, taken to punish her for speaking out.

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“The law prohibits weaponizing defamation lawsuits, like this one, to retaliate against individuals who have filed legal claims or have publicly spoken out about sexual harassment and retaliation,” her legal team wrote in a filing Thursday.

The motion comes in response to a lawsuit from Baldoni and his production company Wayfarer Studios, which produced “It Ends with Us,” that accused Lively of conspiring with The New York Times to defame him in a December article that outlined Lively’s claims in depth.

“In an epic self-own, the Wayfarer Parties have created more liability for themselves by their malicious efforts to sue Ms. Lively ‘into oblivion,’” lawyers for the actress wrote, referencing alleged claims by Wayfarer’s cofounder Steve Sarowitz. “Sarowitz may indeed make good on his threat to spend ‘$100 million’ litigating against Ms. Lively, but perhaps not in the way he planned.”

Lively’s lawyers also took aim at what they describe as the contradictory logic at the heart of Baldoni’s suit.

“On the one hand,” they wrote, Baldoni and Wayfarer “insist that Ms. Lively is an immensely powerful Hollywood superstar who, along with her influential husband, wielded power to steal creative control … but on the other hand, they claim she was so powerless that the only way she could have any power was by manufacturing sexual harassment allegations almost a year in advance in a Machiavellian long game.”

Zeroing in on Baldoni’s claims of defamation, Lively’s legal team echoed the argument Reynolds made in his Tuesday motion, asserting that defamation implies a person does not believe what they are alleging. But Lively did believe she had been harassed and mistreated on set, the filing claims, making the defamation accusation false.

“The painful reality is that Ms. Lively is not alone in being sued for defamation after speaking up about being sexually harassed at work,” a representative for Lively wrote in a statement sent to USA TODAY Thursday. “While Ms. Lively has suffered greatly by speaking up and pursuing legal claims, it is important for other people to know that they have protections and that there is a specific law that expressly protects them from being silenced or financially ruined by a defamation lawsuit because they had the courage to speak up.”

Reynolds, in his own motion, argued through his legal team that Baldoni had self-identified as a predator through his books and podcast. Firing back at Baldoni, who rose to fame on “Jane the Virgin” before pivoting to a public speaking role centered around a rejection of toxic masculinity, Reynolds said you can’t sue over “hurt feelings” and stood by the assertions made by his wife.

Responding to Reynolds’ motion Wednesday, Baldoni’s lawyers wrote in a statement to USA TODAY: “Mr. Reynolds’ exploitation of his enormous power in Hollywood continues, this time arrogantly asking to be dismissed from the case despite his publicly documented involvement extending far beyond just being a ‘supportive spouse.’”

Baldoni and Lively are headed to trial next year.