United Kingdom, March 24 -- Steve Carell has explained the "lame" and "super uncool" way he asked his wife Nancy Walls out on a date.

The couple first met when Nancy enrolled as a student in an improvisation class Steve was teaching for The Second City comedy organisation in Chicago, Illinois and the Rooster star has confessed he initially thought she "hated him" because she was so frosty in his classes.

During an appearance on the Good Hang With Amy Poehler podcast, Steve said: "I was teaching . and she was in my improvisation class . She's cool and nice and sweet to everyone ...

"I thought she hated my guts because I'd be teaching and talking and . nothing. Dead eyes. No affect in her face at all. And I was like 'boy she's not buying...