Russell Crowe Says Co-Star Ryan Gosling Is a 'Comic Genius'

— -- Oscar and Golden Globe-winner Russell Crowe stars opposite Ryan Gosling in the buddy-detective comedy, "The Nice Guys."

Crow plays enforcer-for-hire Jackson Healy who teams up with Gosling’s character Holland March, a down-on-his-luck private investigator, to find a missing girl.

But the pair’s strong onscreen chemistry may leave fans surprised to learn that they’ve never worked together before.

“The thing about this kid, right, he’s genuinely a comic genius,” Crowe said of Gosling on "GMA" today. “I work with him and the pleasure I got out of being on the set with him every day…it was almost like, ‘Why are they paying me for this?’ It’s more fun than anything else, you know?”

He added: “I kind of knew that we shared a sense of humor, but you really never know that chemistry is going to exist until you actually start doing your job and people have been asking me to explain it…the really simple version is, we just listen to each other.”

During Gosling’s “GMA” interview Thursday, a clip was shown from a "Couples Therapy" promotional video the two have done for the film, where Russell complained about all the Gosling/"Hey Girl" merchandise out there.

“It’s a lot of fun on a daily basis -- just getting to enjoy what we were doing,” Crowe said.

"The Nice Guys" hits theaters nationwide next Friday.