Russell Is An Expert in Nonverbal Communication

Russell Crowe and his wife Danielle looked like a perfectly athletic (bunny loving!) couple out on Sunset Boulevard with little Tennyson and Charles yesterday morning after their big LA premiere of American Gangster. We got a glimpse into Denzel, Russell and their banter off screen and I can't wait to see how they work together in the movie. Russell had some great sound bites of his own in that EW article — on playing real people and working with Ridley Scott. Here's highlights:

• On playing real life people: It's incredible when you've actually got the source, still alive, still erudite, still willing to discuss things with you and give you details. A lot of it is osmosis, though, man. You can pretend you're shaping it and putting it together, but if I spend enough time with someone, I pick stuff up I'm not really fully conscious of. You just do your best to get some sort of accuracy. You're not a slave to it, but you don't want the person you're playing to scoff at the end and say, ''That's nothing like me.''
• On working with Ridley Scott for the third time: Ridley and I have perfected the art of the wordless argument. He'll look at me across the room and nudge his head one way and I'll go, ''No,'' then he'll open his eyes a bit wider and look that way and nod and I'll go, ''Uh-huh'' — and we've just worked out the blocking of the scene. It saves a lot of time.