'Doom Patrol' Star Brendan Fraser Talks His Unsuccessful Superman Audition

Brendan Fraser may be carving out his place in the DC Universe as Robotman in Doom Patrol, but it's not his first brush with superhero status. It turns out that the actor once auditioned to play Superman.

In a recent interview with Syfy Wire, Fraser addressed the longstanding rumor that he had almost been cast as Reed Richards in Fantastic Four by revealing that while Mr. Fantastic wasn't something he was up for, the Man of Steel was.

"I auditioned for Superman [in what would become Superman Returns]," Fraser revealed. "I even wore the suit."

The film Fraser is referring to is the early 2000s script J.J. Abrams which actually entered pre-production with the working title Superman: Flyby. While that film never got made -- Superman Returns eventually ultimately was the Superman project that made it to the screen in 2006 -- Fraser remembered the project fondly, referring to the script as "Shakespeare in space".

"It was cool, it was pretty cool. I mean, I didn't get the job. It went away," Fraser said. "Brett Ratner was a bit "woo hoo" in those days, and that's well documented. And that was a script J.J. Abrams wrote but it never got made. And it was freaking Shakespeare in space. It was so cool. It was worlds colliding and, it was really, really cool. But you know, I hear he's done well since then."

Fraser himself seems to be doing pretty well when it comes to comic book roles now. While another actor, Riley Shanahan, physically portrays Robotman on Doom Patrol, Fraser gives the misfit hero his voice as well as portrays his human, pre-accident self, Cliff Steele. It's that journey from narcissistic race car driver Steele to the deeply human Robotman that Fraser told ComicBOok.com was what drew him to the role.

"It's not a new conceit. Cliff will learn to become a better human as a robot than he was as a human encased in a robotic environment, a car, an engine," Fraser said. "That's the journey he's gotta take, so that was enough of a hook for me."

Doom Patrol is now streaming on DC Universe with new episodes airing ever Friday.