Ruby Rose Explains Why She Got Emotional Over Batwoman Casting

The announcement that Ruby Rose will play Batwoman in The CW’s Arrowverse was huge for fans and it turns out it was huge for Rose as well.

During an appearance on The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon, Rose revealed that she got emotional when she found out she had been cast as the superhero.

“I found out that I got cast as Batwoman,” Rose said. “It’s a game changer. I found out an hour before I did the premiere for The Meg and I was so nervous during the red carpet that I basically skipped everybody, because I was worried that… because I kept like spontaneously crying. I feel like I’m probably going to do it now. I kept thinking like what do I say, because everyone always says, ‘So what have you got planned next?’ And I kept thinking, either I’m going to put my foot in it and accidentally say something or I’m going to just start crying, and they’re going to be like… she doesn’t look so good. But yeah, I’m so thrilled.”

Rose went onto explain that the role is meaningful for her personally as well. Batwoman will be the first openly lesbian superhero to lead her own television series should the in-development Batwoman series be picked up by The CW after the character debuts during the Arrowverse crossover this December. Rose, who is also openly gay, said there wasn’t anything like Batwoman on television she could identify with as a child.

“I get to be Batwoman,” Rose said. “I feel like the reason I kept getting so emotional was because growing up watching TV I never saw someone on TV that I could identify with, let alone a superhero. [Tearing up] I said I wouldn’t do that and I’ve always had this saying, well not me, Oscar Wilde, which is ‘be yourself because everyone else is taken’ and so I always lived by that motto and the second motto when I came into the industry was ‘be the person that you needed when you were younger’ and I feel like one motto sort of led me to the other and I just kept crying about it.”

And Rose plans to use her new role to inspire and give children a hero they can look up to. She told Fallon that she is looking forward to visiting kids in hospitals to empower them that they, too, can be superheroes.

“It’s like the third thing I thought about, not only can kids watch this growing up and relate to it and feel empowered and think they can be a superhero, but also I can go on and do these things like visiting hospitals and kids and people in need,” she said. “It’s a really amazing opportunity, obviously. I’m very excited.”

First introduced in 1956, Batwoman largely disappeared from continuity until 2006, when she was reintroduced and reinvented. An openly gay Jewish woman, Batwoman has a military background and has proven herself every bit Batman’s equal on the pages of comic books. She’s even served as the primary featured hero for Gotham City in Detective Comics while Batman wasn’t in the picture. Fans will get their first look at Rose’s take on the character in the big Arrowverse crossover event this December on The CW.