Kate Mara kept trying to matchmake Jamie Bell with other people before they got together.

The 42-year-old actress married her Fantastic Four co-star - with whom she has two children - in 2017 and she's recalled how she thought he was "the biggest catch" very early in their friendship, but it took some time to realise she was the right partner for him.

Speaking to Ted Danson on his Where Everybody Knows Your Name podcast, she said: "I just thought he was the best and he was single, and I was trying to set him up with all these people.

"I thought, 'I gotta set him up with someone. He's the biggest catch. How is he not with someone amazing?'

"I just didn't know that I was the person I was looking for. It took me a year to figure that out."

Kate joked she and Jamie, 38, had "trauma bonded" while promoting Fantastic Four because they had had a rough" time making the film.

She recalled: "We were friends, but we didn't really know each other.

And then we made the Fantastic Four movie together, which was a really interesting experience.

"[It was] rough. Not a great experience. It was a mess. Just a messy, messy experience."

Noting they "fell in love" on the press tour, she added: "It was sort of like, you know, trauma bonding."

The Bucking Fastard actress admitted Jamie had fallen in love first but once they had established their romantic connection, the pair knew "instantly" that they wanted to marry.

Asked who made the first move, she said: "Jamie Did. He blinked. And that was it. Insane.

"We were like, 'Oh, I guess we're getting married.' Like instantly. 'Cause we knew each other forever. We just thought, 'Oh, right. This is going to be forever.' And here we are, a bunch of kids later. Yeah, it's the best."

The couple are usually private about their relationship but Jamie previously recalled how he and Kate kissed for the first time on a failed screen test for roles in Stop-Loss.

He recalled: "We met during a screen test for a movie that neither one of us got the part … in the end, but it was a row where they were testing, you know, just guys and girls like chemistry reads and chemistry tests and stuff.

"It was that period of time where they were making like a lot of Iraq war kind of drama stories, you know, it was at that late 2000s period.

"Anyway, so, I had to come in, I had to, like ... Kate had to do reads with like eight guys or something like that. There was a kiss in the scene and this is what she says, I'm not making this up … She like had to make out with - I think Justin Timberlake was there that day - had to make out with a bunch of guys, just for the scene.

"And apparently, she went home. She just told this story recently of spring break to her mom. She said that I was the best kisser that day."