Paul Feig has defended Blake Lively, calling her "awesome".

The 62-year-old filmmaker directed Blake, 37, in the 2018 movie 'A Simple Favor' and it's 2025 sequel 'Another Simple Favor' and when asked about the acrimonious relationship Blake had with director Justin Baldoni on her last film 'It Ends With Us', Paul insisted he loves working with the actress.

Paul was asked by Lulu on her 'Turning Points' podcast: "Blake Lively has got this thing going on about her last film and her director and is that interfering with everything you have to do?"

And, he replied: "No, no. You know, I mean, Blake's awesome and I love working with her and, you know, no press is bad press … I just don't like negativity around people I love, you know, it's not stopping us from anything. Blake's great. I just love working with her."

Referring to Blake's co-star Anna Kendrick, Lulu asked: "I would imagine that Anna and her get along well, because they've already made a film … if you didn't get along, well, you wouldn't be happy."

Paul said: "Oh very much so. They have this scene in a pool - it was like the second or third day we were shooting, and they're supposed to be kind of drunk and talking as a long dialogue scene - and they were just magical together.

"We just, my producing partner Laura and I, were just sitting there like watching these tapes going like, 'Oh my god', like this, they just slid back into these characters so wonderfully ... Their chemistry is just through the roof. It's really great. I'm just so lucky to get to work with these amazing people and who bring their own personalities to a project."

Meanwhile, Paul also opened up about directing President Donald Trump for a Macy's commercial in 2010.

He said: "So, when I was going to do this commercial with him everybody, all his reps, everybody's like, 'you got to get him in and out - he does not want to be there'. So I'm already stressed out. 'Okay, how do I do this?' It was kind of a documentary style thing… basically he shows up at like a kid's bake sale at school and he finds the one kid who's kind of this dumpy kid who's not doing it right and he says, 'come on, we're gonna give you a makeover' and takes him to Macy's, buys him a suit from his line and goes back and the kid's successful.

"So here's what we're going to do. We're going meet Donald at the door with the camera. So when he walks in, I'm going to go like, 'Donald, go', you know... So I'm there with the cameras, he comes in. I'm like, 'all right, Donald, we're ready to go'. He's like, 'whoa, whoa. Whoa, wait a minute. I gotta get my makeup on'. So he goes and gets his makeup on and all this stuff and we do the first half of the thing goes through and he's fine. He does a nice job. And so I'm like 'we got it' - he's like 'this is great, you're the greatest, everybody, thanks so much, goodbye, I'm gonna see you later, blah, blah', and I go, 'well, no, no. Actually, Donald, wait, we have to set up the second half where you're successful with the kid'. And he's like, 'what? I was supposed to be out of here an hour ago'. And it was like, 'well you got here 45 minutes ago, so I don't know quite know how to get you out of there …"