Russell Crowe has lavished praise at Ryan Gosling saying his The Nice Guys co-star makes him laugh and is "some kind of comedic genius".
Crowe revealed that he had great chemistry with Gosling in Shane Black's buddy comedy film because the pair listened to each other and didn't make assumptions.
"That kid just makes me laugh. He's some kind of comedic genius. We had a very open collaboration. It was great in that regard with Shane [director and screenwriter] too because he just trusted us to stay in the spirit of what he intended. He was totally open to other things that we might discover," Crowe told RTÉ TEN in London.
"People keep on talking about the chemistry between me and Ryan but it's very simple - we just listen to each other. I don't make assumptions. Even if it says black and white on the page, Ryan will take ten steps left, and then turn to the right," he added.
The Nice Guys is set in Los Angeles during the '70s where the unlikely duo — private detective Holland March (Gosling) and hired enforcer Jackson Healy (Crowe) — join together in search of a missing girl who is also linked to the death of porn star Misty Mountain.
The 52-year-old New Zealand-born star, who lives in both Sydney and Los Angeles, said that it was his decision to put on weight for his role because he wanted to be the physical juxtaposition of Gosling.
"It was very apparent that if you were going to do this type of comedic duo, that in the cinematic history of that, there's always a marked physical difference in the two people. You look back at Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and Costello, Bing Crosby and Bob Hope and Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor.
"I just suggested it to Shane [gaining weight] because it was at a point in my schedule where I was in the post production stage of The Water Diviner [2014] so I was sitting in a studio for fourteen to sixteen hours a day and to do the opposite would have been something I would have immediately had to plan.
"I told Shane I think I can just clip off all of my workouts and walks and all of that kind of stuff and knew I'd be in a really bad state by the time I next saw him. I think it works really well," he added.
The Nice Guys also stars Angourie Rice, Matt Bomer, Margaret Qualley, Keith David and Kim Basinger, and hits cinemas nationwide on June 3.
