Russell Crowe offers advice to young stars

Russell Crowe was on hand to help out the young cast on the set of his new movie The Water Diviner.

The film, which also marks Russell's directorial debut, tells the story of a father's promise to find his three sons who never returned home from WWII's Battle of Gallipoli.

Child actor Aidan Liam Smith was cast as the young Edward, one of Russell's character's sons.

"I joined acting classes and six weeks later they sent out a casting call for the part. My mum sent off my photos and I was invited to audition. I never thought I would get it, they were auditioning so many kids, but surprisingly I got the part," Aidan told Cover Media.

"I thought it would be a little tense at first on set but when I met Russell he was a really good guy and he helped me a lot and it was fun."

Russell has been nominated for three Oscars over his career, taking home gold in 2001 for Roman epic Gladiator.

While his skills in front of the camera are well established, stepping behind it was new ground for the New Zealand-born star.

"Russell is a great director, he was helping everyone and I always understood what he was asking me to do," Aidan revealed.

Set across Australia and Turkey, The Water Diviner's cast also includes up-and-coming actor Jai Courtney and Olga Kurylenko.

Aidan was close to the rest of the young cast on set, bonding well with his onscreen brothers Ben Norris and Jack Douglas Patterson.

"I felt really proud of myself and the rest of the cast when I saw the movie, it's so awesome.

"[In the future] I'm just going to continue with my acting classes and auditioning if parts come up and just have fun. Hopefully I can be as good an actor as Russell one day," Aidan smiled.