Gal Gadot’s star turn as Wonder Woman earlier this year was so definitive that it’s now hard to imagine anybody else doing it. However, Underworld star Kate Beckinsale has revealed that she was once in talks to play the famous DC character some years ago.

The 44 year old star told Yahoo in a new interview this week that back in the mid-noughties she was in the running to play Wonder Woman, but the pitiful state of female characters being written for superhero movies put her off.

“The incarnations that I was seeing were…, they weren’t this one [the 2017 film],” she told the interviewer, and her tone apparently suggested that she wasn’t too impressed with what they were offering.

Kate BeckinsaleKate Beckinsale could have played Wonder Woman

Furthermore, Beckinsale didn’t see the appeal of wearing spandex for a role. “I don’t know if I was desperate to be in a leotard. I’d already done the rubber trousers. You have to take in that you have a child at some point and how much could you possibly embarrass them.”

More: Kate Beckinsale sends her daughter naked pictures of ex Michael Sheen to cheer her up

Also, the pressure of being a well-known comic book star would have been too much pressure for her young daughter Lily at the time, she felt. “That’s such an oppressive thing,” she laughed. “If your mother is Wonder Woman, you’re gonna have issues.”

However, the British star is enthusiastic about the changes that a huge box office smash for a female-fronted blockbuster like Wonder Woman does for the industry. “Now, for my daughter’s generation, they’re not questioning that at all,” continued Beckinsale.

“You know, Wonder Woman smacked everybody at the box office… That’s normal to them and that feels like a short period of time for quite a big change. It’s nice to have been part of moving that needle. It’s nice to have that.”

More: Kate Beckinsale wins Best British Actress prize at London Critics’ Circle Film Awards