Tiscali Celebrity

Crowe intimidates america's gangsters

RUSSELL CROWE met a group of hardened criminals in a bid to research his role in movie AMERICAN GANGSTER - and intimidated them with his impressive resume.

The actor was keen to perfect his role of Detective Richie Roberts in the crime movie, so paid a visit to notorious New York gangsters for advice.

But it was Crowe who left the group trembling - with his filmography.

He says, "With the first couple I met, I couldn't work out why they were shaking. I thought they must've been dealing with some sort of extreme drug problem or something like that. But then one of the gangsters I was doing the interview with said about the other one, 'No, don't worry. He's just f**kin' nervous. He's nervous because he's being interviewed by Maximus!'

"This is a guy who may well have been responsible for killing people, but a movie star is a movie star." (LJ/SQL)