Lea Michele On Ashton Kutcher Chemistry In 'New Year's Eve' (VIDEO)

When Lea Michele and Ashton Kutcher raised eyebrows with their hands-on walk on the red carpet at the "New Year's Eve" premiere on Monday, it must have been a real relief for Michele. Rewind a little while back, and she wasn't even sure she could handle acting along side the "Two and a Half Men" star.

Speaking with New York Magazine, the "Glee" star recalled the casting process and a conversation she had with the film's director, Garry Marshall. He wanted to know who she was interested in having as her love interest, a question she could hardly answer at all.

"I didn't mention Ashton's name just because, I gotta say, I kinda felt like he was a little out of my league," she told the magazine. "You know, this guy's like, the hottest guy, and then when they called and said that Ashton was doing it, I was really freaked out. I thought I should have picked someone else and said, 'You have to use this person!' so I wouldn't have been nervous. But I'm so glad, because he challenged me, and it was a really great pairing, I think."

The nervousness was amplified because the pair didn't know each other beforehand, but that actually ended up being a good thing; the unfamiliarity, she told The Hollywood Reporter, is why they worked so well together.

"I think it was really good in this movie that Ashton and I didn't know each other because we were supposed to be strangers meeting in an elevator," she said. "I think if we were playing two people who have known each other their whole lives we would have definitely worked hard to create a certain rapport with each other, but not knowing each other really helped with this film."