Russell Crowe says Ryan Gosling was the one person who could make him break on The Nice Guys

I’m still crushed that The Nice Guys wasn’t more successful. In a perfect world, we’d already have at least two sequels featuring Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling solving cases and cracking jokes. Oh well. Crowe had a lot of fun working on the film, and despite his reputation for never breaking character no matter what, he told GQ that Gosling was the one person who could make him crack.

“People f***ing love that movie. I loved making that movie. Ryan Gosling, Jesus Christ,” Crowe said. “Trying to work with that kid. I’m famous for not breaking character no matter what – Ridley used to laugh about it. The Colosseum could be collapsing behind me and I’d still be doing my stuff. There’s a thing in acting called corpsing – laughing inappropriately. That little motherf***er gets me every time.“

Directed and co-written by Shane Black, The Nice Guys starred Gosling as struggling private-eye Holland March with Crowe as hired enforcer Jackson Healy, two working-class blokes who were forced to work together in order to solve the case of a missing girl and the death of a porn-star. Throw in a swanky ’70s setting combined with a healthy dose of dark humour, and you’ve got a fantastic little film.

Although there’s been talk of a Nice Guys sequel from time to time, it doesn’t seem likely. Gosling recently said that the sequel’s fate was sealed when The Nice Guys got destroyed by The Angry Birds Movie at the box office. “So much of a sequel, I think, is decided by the opening weekend of a movie, and we opened up against Angry Birds,” Gosling said. “So Angry Birds just destroyed us. Angry Birds got a sequel.” The Nice Guys grossed $11.3 million during its opening weekend, while The Angry Birds Movie grossed $39 million. At the end of its run, The Nice Guys had grossed just $62.8 million on a budget of $50 million. Not great, and as much as fans might want a sequel (myself included), the writing was pretty much on the wall after that performance. Still, it would be great to see Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling join forces for another project.