Steve Carell has admitted he can relate to his new film Alexander And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day - but he has learned to laugh off those kind of days.

The 52-year-old Foxcatcher star - father to Elisabeth, 13, and John, 10, with actress wife Nancy - stars as dad-of-four Ben Cooper in the Disney film, which follows the exploits of calamity-prone 11-year-old Alexander (played by newcomer Ed Oxenbould).

Steve revealed: "We've never had a day exactly like this one, but we've had bits and pieces over the years that would add up to a day like this.

"If you're a parent, you've had a day where your son or daughter doesn't have a diaper on and they decide to pee and you have to deal with that; diaper bags breaking open and diapers going everywhere; not being able to find things; stuff falling out of the fridge when you don't have any time to clean it up."

The comedian - star of The 40 Year Old Virgin and Anchorman - feels everyone can learn a good lesson from the film - that you just have to laugh off those kind of days.

He said: "You have to be able to laugh at yourself. Bad stuff's going to happen. It happens for everybody, you can't avoid it," he said.

"I do like the lesson that you have to sort of go along with it and accept it. Alexander, at one point, says: 'You have to have bad days to appreciate the good ones'. And I think there's truth in that. It's all relative and bad days sort of give context to the good."

From vomiting children and a botched job interview, to the driving test from hell and an escaped kangaroo at an Australia-themed children's party, everything that could go wrong in the movie, which co-stars Jennifer Garner, does.

Steve said: "Jen and I are both parents, and we'd keep a very close eye on whether these things were relevant to us as we were going through [the film].

"I didn't want it to be one of those movies that's just full of cliches, I wanted to present a family that is loving, but not in an overly sentimental way. A real family, a modern kind of family, and a family that I identify with."

:: Alexander And The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day is out now.