DiCaprio, Crowe forged early friendship

Leonardo DiCaprio has revealed that he instantly became friends with Russell Crowe when they met on the set of Sam Raimi's western The Quick And The Dead.

The pair, at the time just beginning their Hollywood careers, bonded because they did not feel they could fit in with the 1995 film's stars Gene Hackman and Sharon Stone.

DiCaprio told DS: "I worked with [Russell] when I was 18 years old. He did Romper Stomper and I just did a film called What's Eating Gilbert Grape. Here we were converging on this big budget movie with Gene Hackman and Sharon Stone.

"We kind of forged a friendship there because we didn't know where to fit in. We didn't belong to the character actor group or the movie star group and I remember talking to him a lot about movies back then, the type of actor he wanted to be, the type of films he liked."

DiCaprio, who re-teams with Crowe for this week's Body Of Lies, insisted that his co-star is still grounded despite finding huge success.

"He's the same guy that he was back then," he commented. "Incredibly funny, committed to his work, great to be around. I have nothing but great things to say about him and I was happy to reunite with him on this movie."

> Click here to read our interview with Leonardo DiCarpio