Russell to Denzel: Here's spitting at you, lad!

They say first impressions count. But Russell Crowe did better than just make a good impression. He made a lasting impression on his American Gangster co-star, Denzel Washington.

Russell says he will never forget the first time he met Denzel while working together on the 1995 movie, Virtuosity. At the time, Russel was virtually unknown and had to do a screen test opposite Denzel, who was already famous. Describes Russell, “We had a cyclone wire fence between us and the scene was pretty intense. They said, ‘Action!’ and I started going into it. And this little bit of spit comes out of my mouth, it was really athletic and graceful, wound its way through the cyclone wire and straight onto Denzel’s lip. In the back of my mind I’ve got this voice going, ‘Oh my God, what have you done? And the thing is, Denzel was really cool about it. It was my screen test, so he just let it run (until) the director said, ‘Cut!’ His line, which I’ll always remember as cool, ‘I love the taste of saliva in the morning!’”