Russell Crowe Recalls the Hilariously Awkward First Time He Met Ryan Gosling

Turns out Russell Crowe’s first meeting with Ryan Gosling did not go as planned.

The Nice Guys star recalled the first time he met Gosling on The Ellen DeGeneres Show Tuesday, and explained how his now ex-wife got a little too excited about having dinner with the heartthrob.

After binging on a few Gosling films several years ago, Crowe told DeGeneres that he was anxious to meet the talented actor to discuss working on a project together in the future. So Crowe reached out to the Drive star and they made plans to have “a quiet little intimate dinner” with their significant others.

But on the day of the date, Crowe learned that his wife at the time, Danielle Spencer, had invited 12 of her girlfriends over to meet the star – including her mother!

“Well I can t have him walk into the room with his girlfriend where there s like sixteen women,” Crowe said laughing.

WATCH: Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes Welcome Daughter Amada Lee

“So I re-balanced it,” he explained. “I started calling blokes. I called RZA from the Wu-Tang Clan. I called Eli Roth, I called all his friends and got them all together. So Ryan walks into the room expecting this intimate dinner party and there s 30 people.”

It wasn’t until years later, when they teamed up for The Nice Guys, that Crowe finally got to explain the backstory. “I said, look mate you got to get along with the wife.”

Gosling, meanwhile, recently welcomed another baby girl into his family with Eva Mendes. The couple, who have a 20-month-old daughter Esmeralda, had Amada Lee Gosling on April 29.

“It sounds so clichéd, but I never knew that life could be this fun and this great,” Gosling told PEOPLE of the joys of fatherhood in an interview alongside Crowe in the upcoming issue.

The Nice Guys hits theaters May 20.