Before The Office, before Hollywood, there was Chicago. And according to Steve Carell, it was not exactly one of his smoothest moments. The actor recently shared the “lame” and “super uncool” way he asked out his wife, Nancy Walls, during an appearance on the Good Hang With Amy Poehler podcast, tracing it all back to their early days at The Second City.
Carell was teaching an improv class when he first met Walls, who was one of his students. His first impression? Not great. “I thought she hated my guts,” Carell admitted, recalling her deadpan reactions during class. “No effect in her face at all. And I was like, she’s not buying any of this.”
Turns out, she was just nervous.
Their connection grew outside the classroom at a nearby bar called The Last Act, where Walls worked as a waitress and Carell would hang out after class. What followed was less of a bold romantic move and more of a mutual dance around the obvious.
“We both kind of talked around the whole thing forever,” he said.
Eventually, Carell made his move, if you can call it that. “If I were going to ask someone on a date, it would be somebody like you,” he told her. Walls matched the energy, replying that if someone like him asked her out, she’d say yes.
After a pause that probably felt like an eternity, Carell finally landed it: “Do you wanna go out?” His verdict? “It was so lame. It was so super uncool.”
It worked.
The two went out that night, just a couple of doors down, and that awkward exchange turned into something lasting. Carell and Walls married in 1995 and have two children together.
And in a very Chicago-to-New York twist, Carell revealed they were engaged just before Walls landed on Saturday Night Live, launching the next chapter of both their careers.
Not exactly a masterclass in confidence, but proof that sometimes the least cool move in the room is the one that actually works.
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