Jane Campion wanted to hire a gigolo to train me in the love scenes," grins upcoming star Mark Ruffalo. "But she gave up because it was too expensive."

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Every director talks about getting the best out of their actors, Ruffalo said. But the New Zealand-based Campion knows how to do it, he continued. Campion, he said, makes her actors her creative partners.

Ruffalo plays a detective who has a passionate affair with a professor (Meg Ryan) while investigating a woman's murder in the neighbourhood. "She explained every detail to us. She read poetry. She brought in so much of outside references," he said.

Yet Ruffalo was tense.

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"I was really scared," he said at a press conference during the Toronto International Film Festival where the film premiered. "She [Ryan] was with Russell Crowe. All I could think of is, 'what am I going to be like compared to Russell Crowe?' "

Ruffalo was drawn to the script because of Campion's reputation for making quirky films. He also loved Susana Moore's novel. "It is an impressive character study buried under the genre [of a mystery thriller]," he said.

Photograph: Getty Images

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