When Outlander star Sam Heughan auditioned to play Superman

Before he became Jamie Fraser on Outlander, Sam Heughan had a lot of jobs, including playing Batman in a stage show. And yes, there is video of that.

Heughan never played the Caped Crusader onscreen, but he still has a fondness for the character. “I’m excited about the new Batman movie. I think that looks fantastic,” Heughan said on the Just for Variety podcast. “I think the other superhero movies kind of lost their way a bit. They’ve become, I think, a little too obese in a way, but anything character-based — I mean, Batman’s a great one because he’s not a superhero. He’s just an interesting character. Something with a good backstory.”

Heughan sounds like he’s thought about superhero movies a fair bit, as well he might have; in addition to playing Batman on stage, he tried to play Superman on the big screen when he auditioned for the 2006 film Superman Returns. The role ended up going to Brandon Routh, but the audition process made an impact on the young actor:

"I grew up a pescatarian or sort of vegetarian-pescatarian. I didn’t start eating meat until I came to America when I was 24. It was all these delicious burgers and food…At the time I was auditioning for ‘Superman.’ I had a trainer and he was like, ‘You need to get bigger. You need to be able to fill out the cape.’ He was like, ‘Eat more protein.’ I remember the first time I had chicken or something and just suddenly, I was like, ‘Oh my God, I have all this energy. And I don’t feel hungry all the time.’"

America: Come for the movie roles, stay for the burgers.

Sam Heughan remembers the early days of Outlander

Moving on to Outlander, Heughan remembered his early days on the show, back when he had no idea how big the time-traveling epic would get. “I actually remember the first day in the car with my driver,” he recalled. “We were talking, and he was like, ‘How long do you think it will last?’ I was like, ‘It wouldn’t last more than a year, maybe two seasons,’ but here we are.”

Six seasons later, the show is a bona fide mega-hit for Starz, built on the back of solid performances and bold storytelling. For instance, Heughan says that his toughest time on the show was when Jamie was raped and assaulted. “It was pretty graphic,” he said. “As an actor we love a challenge. I do. I want to go to some dark places, but it was pretty tough to shoot. It was pretty intense.”

"I think I’m pretty good at switching off. But actually at that time, it was just a very strange place because I had so many prosthetics and so much makeup. I was having super early calls, 4 a.m. calls, and wouldn’t be finished until 7 or 8 in the evening. I was staying in a very small hotel next to the studio. It almost became this weird little prison. I just literally was just in it the whole time. And I do remember it just being very, very intense, but it was also toward the end of the season. After that, I think I did take some time out and go get up into the Highlands of Scotland."

That wouldn’t be the last time that Outlander would explore sexual assault. Jamie’s wife Claire Fraser (Caitriona Balfe) experienced it at the end of season 5, but by then, attitudes around how to approach such material had changed.

“Eight years ago when we were shooting Jamie’s trauma or Jamie’s assault, it was a very different world,” Heughan said. “We showed more of it. But now, this time, we really wanted to do something more abstract, but still get into the mindset of the victim.”

Outlander is currently in the midst of its sixth season, with a seventh confirmed to be on the way. New episodes air on Starz on Sunday.

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