Dougray shapes up to star in new telly blockbuster

Nicole Kidman, who credit it with maintaining their slender frames.

Although Dougray is trying to look the part for his latest role, he has already nailed another side to the character, who is a former military colonel in command of Gotham’s private security firm The Crows when Batman quits the city.

Dougray said: “I have to fire a gun, which I’m good at. I can do that. And I have to punch and I can do that as well.”

It’s a new challenge for the Glenrothesborn actor who broke out in the 90s playing Lewis in Crow Road, Terry in dark comedy film Twin Town and starring in Hollywood blockbuster Deep Impact.

Since then, he’s gone for comedy or drama. He had roles in Bletchley Park drama Enigma, thriller Ripley’s Game and he played Ian in Desperate Housewives.

He was even tipped as a replacement for Pierce Brosnan as James Bond in the early noughties, although the role went to Daniel Craig.

Dougray couldn’t take the part of Wolverine as he was work ing on Mission: Impossible 2.

He said: “Wolverine was a part I got offered and I turned down three times and I didn’t want to do it.

“Then they persuaded me to do it and I was about to do it and then the movie I was doing at the time, Mission: Impossible 2, overran so I couldn’t do it in the end. It’s so part of my past that I never think about it.”

Batwoman is in the DC Comics stable – part of the Arrowverse which began with Arrow and includes The Flash, Supergirl and Legends of Tomorrow.

The new series, which will be shown on CW in October and will air in the UK on Sky One shortly afterwards, will see Dougray star alongside the f irst openly gay superhero character Batwoman, played by Austrian actress Ruby Rose.

He said it’s the first time he’s been drawn to a comic book character since Wolverine.

Dougray added: “Comic book stuff wasn’t something I had to do.

“I’m excited to do this becaus e i t ’ s new and Batwoman is a character that people don’t know a lot about, so I think from that point of view, it’s exciting for everyone – for the network, for the audience.”

Batwoman was introduced as a love interest for Batman in 1956, largely as an answer to a publication that accused Batman and sidekick Robin of promoting a gay lifestyle. Robin also got a girl pal in the form of Batwoman’s niece Batgirl.

Batwoman was dropped but rebooted in 2006 by, among others, Scots comic writing legend Grant Morrison, who reincarnated her as a lesbian and established the red-haired, red, black and grey costumed superhero.