In 2017, actor and Edgewood native Johnathon Schaech made a difficult and brave decision. In a People magazine article, he publicly alleged that he was sexually abused on a film set 25 years earlier at the hands of acclaimed director Franco Zeffirelli.

Schaech, best known for 1996′s “That Thing You Do!” said he knew other survivors — especially men — might relate to his experience and approach him for help. As he left his interview with the reporter at the legendary Chateau Marmont hotel, he remembered his first thought was, “’Oh my God, I better know what I’m talking about.’”

He made sure he was careful about his messaging around the subject, and was ready to “guide them to people who are much more skilled than I am to help them,” Schaech said.

I thought about John, currently starring on INSP’s “Blue Ridge: The Series,” when reading about actress Blake Lively’s tumultuous press run in support of her newest movie, the unqualified hit “It Ends With Us.” Based on a 2016 Colleen Hoover novel, the film is about a florist (appropriately named Lily Bloom) who finds herself in an abusive relationship.

I have seen other actors promote the issues their projects touch on in their press runs: Leonardo DiCaprio did a lovely job of letting “Flowers of the Killer Moon” co-star Lily Gladstone take the lead in their interviews with her advocacy for Native Americans, and Amandla Stenberg spoke extensively about police violence and Black youths while promoting “The Hate U Give.”

Lively’s initial strategy was to promote her Blake Brown hair care line and her alcohol brand, Betty Buzz, which includes a signature cocktail named after the film’s abuser character.

The “grab your friends, wear your florals” strategy has confused some fans of the book, abuse survivors and TikToker Bee Better, who uses his business education and humor to explain how celebrity marketing campaigns, including Lively’s, can go wrong.

And in the case of “It Ends With Us,” wrong certainly happened. In a now-infamous clip, one reporter awkwardly asked how Lively might be approached by fans who personally related to Lily’s plight. The actress appeared to sarcastically dismiss the question, asking if she should provide those fans with her address or share her location. Yikes.

No sane person expects a star like Lively, married to a fellow celebrity like Ryan Reynolds, to hug everyone who approaches her and spend an hour listening to their issues. She’s a movie star, not a social worker. But I was surprised that someone who willingly signed onto a movie about such a disturbing and sadly relatable topic didn’t have a ready list of answers and resources to give out.

Schaech said he usually “can tell the difference between someone trying to get close to a celebrity, and someone who’s like, ‘This happened to me and I haven’t been able to get around it.’” He has helped many people who come forward find groups and resources, whether about sexual abuse or sobriety.

“I love helping people. I’m a survivor of sexual assault, so I can help them to a point and then they have to help themselves,” he said, citing groups like 1in6, named for the statistic of men who have been sexually assaulted, and the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, for which he did a campaign.

I want to assure you that this is not a Lively-bashing column, just a question of how she may have done things differently. I admired her strong work as a strung-out young woman in “The Town” and a mysterious perfect mother in “A Simple Favor.” (I’m not so much a fan, however, of her wedding on a former South Carolina slave plantation, or her gushing photo spread about “The Allure Of Antebellum” on her now-shuttered lifestyle website, Preserve.)

I have not heard anywhere that the actress ever experienced the same things Lily does, but it seems it would make sense to acknowledge the subject more, since she chose to star in a movie about it. And Lively appears to have recognized her mistake: Days after the release of those promotional interviews and other potentially damaging ones from earlier projects, Lively posted a statement with statistics about intimate partner violence and links for resources to her Instagram Stories.

I just wonder what the press tour — which has the added spectacle of alleged bad blood between Lively, Reynolds, and director and costar Justin Baldoni — would have looked like with less cross-promotion and more focus on the issues. As a savvy protector of a strong personal brand, it’s flummoxing that Lively doesn’t appear to pay anyone to say, “Girl, don’t do that.”

I am not a celebrity with a big booze brand, but on a much smaller scale, I can relate. I am nowhere as well-known as either Lively or Schaech, but I’ve lived a more modest version of intentionally and publicly presenting my own personal trauma — my sudden widowhood at 44 — expecting that other grieving people would relate and reach out to me for support on social media or by email.

With the advice of professionals and others who have experienced this terrible loss, I developed a response, much like Schaech did: I am so sorry for your loss. Do you have supportive people in your own life who have experienced widowhood and grief? Would you like links and connections to organizations that provide services in your area? I am not a mental health professional but I want to get you to the right person.

Schaech said that, ultimately, he found himself “asking people if they needed my help. I was an advocate for a very long time. I was able to get to the other side of this, but others would struggle and struggle and falter and fail, and not be able to get out of bed. I needed to help that person so they could help their families.”

There’s no legal obligation to do that. But if you’re going to wade into such sensitive waters, it feels really good to be able to bring other people through with you, if you can.