Malin Akerman is best known for playing a blonde beauty in romantic comedies — she was Katherine Heigl's maneater sister in '27 Dresses' and, in 'The Heartbreak Kid' played Ben Stiller's marginally unhinged bride.

But now she's donned a tight latex outfit, spent two months in boot camp and learned to kick ass as superhero Silk Spectre II in the big screen adaptation of the cult graphic novel 'Watchmen'.

The Swedish-born former model reveals how she relaxed after long days of beating up baddies, discovering muscles she never knew existed, and the pain of wearing that rubber suit.

Hi Malin. Expectations are so high for 'Watchmen'. What can you tell us about it?

Visually, it’s fantastic. All round though, it’s just an amazing film.

Have you read the graphic novel?

I have and I have to be honest and say if I weren’t doing the film, I probably would never have read it. But once I did, I couldn’t believe how great it was and I kept telling my family and friends: "You have to read this book!" It was wonderful source material for me too. Watchmen is not what I thought comic books were like.

What pre-conceptions did you have about graphic novels?

I guess I just thought it was more of a guy’s thing. You know? I thought it was all 'pow!' and 'wham!' and I was never really into that. But then, picking up 'Watchmen', I was surprised by how good it was. It’s really one of the best novels I’ve ever read. It’s so incredibly interesting and it’s a book you can pick up and read over and over again and you can always get something new from it. There is just so much information, so many theories. It’s so layered and complex.

Was the graphic novel always with you on set?

Always. It’s not often you have source material like this. Normally when you’re doing a film you try to create a back-story for your character, but with 'Watchmen' I had it all there for me so you have to try and match that. The work, in that sense, is done for you. On the other hand it’s difficult because you want to be as allegiant to the novel as you can, so it was a big challenge for me to keep my character as close to the novel as possible.

How many times have you read 'Watchmen' now?

Wow, I couldn’t say. I’m sure I’ve read it at least six times, but every time you pick it up there’s always something new so I’m going to read it again. I don’t think I’ll ever be done with it.

What can you tell us about your character, Silk Spectre II?

I’m the only character who is not masked and in the new group of crime busters of Watchmen I am the only female. So that hopefully catches your eye in one way or another [laughs]. I mean, the latex suit I wear is kind of hard to ignore.

Speaking of the outfit, what was it like to wear?

Well, let me start off by saying that I think latex is super sexy when you see it on someone else, but when you’re the one who is wearing it, it is like putting a rubber band on your whole body.

So it’s not something you’d recommend for everyday wear I take it.

Not at all. It takes on whatever temperature it is and then magnifies it. So if we were shooting outside and it was freezing, it made me extra cold and if it was indoors and hot, it made it extra hot.

Let’s talk about Silk Spectre. How would you describe her?

Basically, 'Watchmen' deals with an alternate world and super heroes are people who live among us. However in the beginning of the film, we’re all retired. My character is the second Silk Spectre who was raised by her mother who was a superhero and was kind of forced into this life without any choice. But she didn’t really question it. Ultimately she ended up with Dr Manhattan, who becomes less humanised as the story goes on.

We get introduced in the beginning of the film where I’ve been a superhero for 10 years, but I’ve retired and am now living with Dr Manhattan and I’m questioning my relationship with him.

So things aren’t going well between the two of you.

No. Basically I play a woman who is coming of age. She’s trying to figure out who she is and what she wants. One of our men gets killed and that is what stirs things up for her. My character is definitely a regular woman who is vulnerable, who is going through a big crisis where she’s in love with another man and starts to realise that and leaves her previous man. She’s on a quest to find out who she is and if she wants this life for herself, instead of her mother who just forced her into it.

She’s also a woman who has the ability to kick some major ass. Most women aren’t out on the streets fighting crime, but I think that’s the only major difference between her and a regular woman. It’s a beautiful coming of age love story.

What type of physical training did you do to prepare for the role?

A month before we were shipped off to Vancouver, I trained for five days a week. It was boot camp training and I have never been so sore in my life. Oh my god, they kicked my ass! It was out of control. The latex suit showed all my contours so it was something I had to do. The guys had foam suits which had the muscles already cut into them. I had two trainers who would be screaming at me and I was almost in tears every day I was doing it. The first week, after every workout, I felt sick to my stomach and felt like I was going to faint because my body wasn’t used to it.

Sounds grueling. How long did the workouts last for?

Not that long really. It was about an hour and half, but it was constant. It wasn’t like an hour and a half of a nice, fun aerobics class. It was intense torture. Towards the end we were doing dead lifts of 155 pounds. It was things I never imagined myself doing. They pushed me to the limits.

You look like someone who loves to work out though.

Not at all. I’ve danced my whole life and I was a professional figure skater for many years so I kept active, but I’ve never been someone who goes to the gym and lift weights. If anything, I’ll go to an aerobics class or something that’s fun. I don’t have the willpower to stand at a machine.

How soon did you notice all the hard work was paying off and you were physically ready?

It happened in about two and a half months. There was an amazing difference. I felt great and then I’d look in the mirror and go: ‘Wow, there’s a muscle I didn’t even know existed!’

You sound like you could take almost anyone on and win.

No, not really [laughs]. I’m pretty good at the fighting when it’s choreographed, but I’m not sure how I’d do in a real fight. I thought I could when we were shooting though. When I was in Vancouver I felt very tough. Now, I don’t feel so tough. When you’re kicking the asses of 10 to 20 stuntmen, it feels great. I know it’s fake, but it still felt good. It made me feel like a superhero.

What is your favourite scene?

I love the jailbreak scene with Nite Owl and myself where we’re breaking Rorschach out of jail. We kick ass down the long hallways of the jail and I loved every second of filming that scene. We had so much fun.

It sounds like an exhausting film to make.

It was — not only physically but emotionally as well because the material is quite dark. It’s not a light comedy by any means. But we had such great people working on the film that it made it easier to deal with the content.

Is it true you shared an apartment with another co-star, Matthew Goode, who plays Ozymandias?

I’m such a people person that that is why we decided to share an apartment because I thought it would be so sad to get home at the end of the day and just have dinner by myself. But by the end of the day, we were zombies. We’d just plonk ourselves in front of the TV and that was it, then we were up at 4am.

What would you watch to relax?

We loved the Discovery Channel and watched a lot of 'Planet Blue'. We also watched a lot of documentaries — and I remember we loved one on Marlon Brando. We also caught up on some classic films like 'Out of Africa' and movies like that.

'Watchmen' director Zack Snyder seems to have boundless energy.

He does. I don’t know how he did it. Some days were 18 hours long and for Zack, he’s the first one to get there, last one to leave and he never failed with his energy. But you’d see as soon as we wrapped for the day, you’d see his body hunch over as if to say: "Ah, I’m done." He was fabulous. He gave us all energy when ours was fading. Every day he was excited and thrilled. I think because it’s such a passion for him, to see this novel come to life.

What would you fight for in life?

I have a soft spot for children, so if I ever saw someone hurting a child I’d go and hurt them myself. It is not acceptable in my world, at all. Anything that has to do with kids, I’ll fight for and I know I will be like that for the rest of my life. They’re born so beautiful and they deserve the very best.

What did you identify most with your character?

She’s a regular woman and she has a career that’s very different from anything else, but apart from that I really identified with her. She goes through what a regular woman goes through. Love, trying to figure out what you want to do in life, who you are — she goes through all the steps and phases we go through.

What would you like to tell 'Watchmen' fans?

I would tell them to expect something that is very allegiant to the novel. They are going to be very happy with the way this film was made. Zack has made the most incredible film and he is such a big 'Watchmen' fan that having someone like him at the helm of it all, we really couldn’t go wrong. It’s a really great show.