Mindy Project and The Newsroom star Chris Messina says he enjoyed playing a funnyman opposite Ben Affleck's strong, silent type gangster in new crime thriller Live By Night.
In the movie, which was directed by Affleck from his adaptation of Dennis Lehane's novel, Messina plays Dion Bortolo, a fast-talking wiseguy who is very much the comic relief to the lead character of Joe Coughlin, an ex-con who lives by a strict moral code in Boston and Florida in the 1920s and '30s.
Speaking to RTÉ Entertainment, Messina said: "There was a lot of comedy on the page that was in the book and Ben added some more and it was clear that this character has a lot of fun.
"That was my responsibility in the movie - to enjoy being a gangster and enjoy being down in Florida and enjoy making sure my friend holds up to the rules of the gangster."
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Messina, who previously appeared with Affleck in the Oscar-winning Argo, also said he shares his co-star's passion for the golden era of gangster movies such as the original Scarface and White Heat.
"When I was a kid, my brother showed me the Godfather I and II and then I found Once Upon a Time in America and a big part of me wanting to be an actor was those movies," he said. "Then I went back and discovered White Heat and Public Enemies and Cagney.
"All those movies are fantastic, all the way up to Goodfellas. Warner Bros, our studio, is the home of those gangster films so to be a part of that lineage was quiet a nice feeling."
Read our review of Live By Night here and watch an interview with leading man Ben Affleck and his co-star Sienna Miller here.
