Russell Crowe poses at the Q+A after the Australians In Film Screening Of "American Gangster" on October 30, 2007 in Los Angeles, California.
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CelebNews@Usmagazine.com! - Russell Crowe: Why I Gained 63 Lbs.

From hunk to chunk!

To play a manipulative CIA boss in Body of Lies (out Oct. 10), Russell Crowe had to pack on 63 lbs.

"'I'll have the cheeseburger for breakfast, thank you,'" he recalls thinking, according to a new Extra interview. (He adds that he also had his share of Sprinkles cupcakes.)

See photos of hunky stars who gained weight.

The spy thriller marks the first time Crowe has worked with Leonardo DiCaprio since 1995's The Quick and the Dead.

"[It's] pretty much exactly the same... except [DiCaprio] can drink legally now and he's no longer a virgin," Crowe jokes of their reunion.

Crowe says he couldn't stop pranking his co-star in between takes.

"I'd wait until he was sitting in the makeup chair, and I'd walk past him and go, 'A-choo!' and I'd squirt the atomizer so just little bits of fine mist would form on his face and he’d obviously assume it was mucus."

DiCaprio laughed it off.

"I'm really happy. It's been bothering me for days," he says sarcastically.

See photos of more celebrity bromances.

Crowe also opens up about being dad to sons, Charlie, 4, and Tennyson 2.

He says boozing has taken a backseat since having kids.

"The drinking thing has sort of taken a different place in my life since I had kids," he tells Extra. "There's a whole lot of things I don't do anymore because it affects my level of patience."

He adds, "I don't want to be in that place where I'm exasperated with these beautiful children."

Of fatherhood, he says, "It's the most fantastic thing I've ever experienced. And um, it continues to get more fun and complex with every day."

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