Despite the hype, some stars really are just like us.  Ask Steve Carell.

“I was not a good dater,” he said, during a recent interview for his new film, Dan in Real Life.  “I literally don’t remember ever asking a girl out on a date.  It was always someone I had been working with or had become friends with … I was always far too shy and insecure.”

That’s what happened with Carell’s wife of 12 years—actress Nancy Walls.  The actor insists that he stumbled into a relationship, after being friends and colleagues with Nancy for years.

“It was so stupid and so sloppy, frankly,” Carell said.  “It was not neat or cool, but romantic in its own right.  It was just two people who gravitated to one another.”

This may explain why the Golden Globe winning comedian is so good at playing vulnerable, insecure men.  Much like his character in the 2005 hit, Forty Year Old Virgin—and far removed from the braggadocio he plays on The Office—Carell stars as Dan, a widow with three teenage girls who inadvertently falls in love with his brother’s new girlfriend (Juliette Binoche).

Carell took the time to explain what it was like to work with the Oscar-winning French actress—and how playing a father to three teenage girls gave him a frightening glimpse of the future.  Here’s what he had to say:

So tell us about your family.  You have a daughter, right?
Two kids, 3 and 6.  The oldest is a girl.

Did making the film give you pause about what it’s going to be like in a few years?
I have taken a look into the future and it’s a scary place.  I know my daughter is going to be h--- on wheels when she’s 15.  So yeah, I’m bracing myself.  And I don’t want to be an overly protective dad.  I think the reason people are is that you’re concerned that your kids will get hurt.  When they’re little, you’re concerned that they’ll get hurt physically, more than anything. When they’re older, you’re concerned that they’re going to get hurt emotionally.  And at some point, you have to give up that protectiveness and let them get hurt and let them make mistakes.  That’s the hardest thing to do.  That, and the fact that all of my stubbornness, all of my eccentricities, will be reflected in them. 

Do you see that already?
Yes.  My daughter has a very cynical sense of humor already and she’s six. She understands irony, which kind of freaks my wife and I out.  But it’s not in like a rude way.  It’s not like she’s being sassy.