Macaulay Culkin and Brenda Strong think they "would've hated each other" if they had met 10 years earlier

Macaulay told America's Cosmopolitan magazine: "It took me, what, 37 years? 36 years?"

Brenda replied: "But it wouldn't have happened any other way."

Macaulay then said: "No, but if I met you 10 years earlier..."

And they agreed together: "We would've hated each other."

And the 44-year-old actor admitted Brenda, 36, was "thoroughly unimpressed" by him on their first meeting, when Macaulay was staying with Seth Green and trying to cheer up his friend and the actress when their short-lived sitcom 'Dads' was cancelled.

Brenda recalled: "He was trying to be funny about our show being cancelled and I was not having it."

The 'Home Alone' star added: "She was thoroughly unimpressed by me is what I will say."

Seth brought the pair together for 'Changeland' and while Brenda - who hadn't been on a date in nearly two years - wasn't looking for love, another friend noticed how interested she seemed in her co-star.

She recalled her pal telling her: "If you're going to ever have a fling. Mack is a safe person."

The pair grew closer, and Macaulay gave Brenda some of his journals to read in her spare time, where she got to know the real him.

She recalled: "I saw this person he put out there-it was a product of this armour that he's put on to protect himself.

"But I could see that that wasn't really who he was; I could see these glimpses of this really interesting, very sensitive, very intelligent, artistic person that he doesn't really let show."

But the couple "kept expectations low" as they had both been "very hurt" in the past, but continued to see one another after they returned to the US when filming wrapped.

The 'My Girl' actor admitted he knew he loved Brenda before she acknowledged her feelings.

He said: I'd never felt this way before. I believed in her. I mean, I believed in people before, but I believed in her down to my bone marrow. You know what I mean? I put it behind the armour though, behind that shield."

But Brenda said: Which is so crazy to me because I feel like you were the opposite!"