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Russell Crowe is famous for both brilliant acting and throwing phones at journalists. So interviewing him was always going to be a mixture of excitement and anticipation. Fortunately though when we went to speak to Crowe about his new movie American Gangster he was definitely more teddy bear than grizzly bear.

American Gangster sees Crowe team up for the third time with Gladiator director Ridley Scott, a man whom Crowe clearly admires and describes as “one of the greatest visual artists of our time.” In fact, although the film has opened to rave reviews and whispers of Oscar nominations Crowe says it took some convincing for him to take the role and it was getting Scott, who he calls the governor, on board that tipped the balance.

As for the reason they get along? “I know that some of you (journalists) will assassinate me for saying this but what Ridley and I know about each other is that were both very kind and generous people and that's why we get on.”

This is also the second time Crowe stars alongside Denzel Washington although 12 years have passed since the first time they worked together on Virtuosity. Crowe is adamant that speculation about rivalry between them is entirely misplaced and the two are in fact friends who revelled in the fact that they could work together again. “The fact that we're mates made it enjoyable that we were going to work together again. The thing is 12 years ago it was probably easier for both of us to simply have fun and enjoy ourselves and that was always the basis of our friendship.”

In fact Crowe thanks Washington for getting him the job in Virtuosity but an incident that occurred when Crowe auditioned alongside the then much more established and famous Washington was perhaps the glue that bonded the two. “My character's sort of raving on and this spittle comes out of my month and winds its way very delicately through the cyclone wire fence that they've set up and it lands clear and bright on Denzel's lip and we're at the beginning of the scene and I've got to do the rest of the scene.