Russell Crowe vowed to be the "juxtaposition of Ryan Gosling" when the pair starred together in 'The Nice Guys'.

Russel Crowe

Russel Crowe

The 51-year-old actor piled on the pounds for the upcoming movie in which the duo play private detectives, because he had no intention of competing with the slimmer hunk

Russell confessed: "I was 121.6 kilos (268 pounds) the first week of August last year. I did a movie called 'The Nice Guys', so I wanted to be the physical juxtaposition of Ryan Gosling."

Despite wanting to look notably different to his co-star, Russell says the pair had a lot in common and got on like a house on fire and Ryan, 35, was in fact "very, very, funny."

Speaking on Australia's Fitzy & Wippa radio show, he added: "That kid is a comic genius. He's great company. He's really smart. He loves what he does and he asks all the right questions. Working with him was such a treat. The kid just knows how to make me laugh. He's very, very funny."