Before “Watchmen,” when was the last time you saw superheroes in a big-screen movie get naked in love scenes? Chances are: never, because most superhero flicks aren’t rated R. But “Watchmen” changed all that with the romance between Dan Dreiberg/Nite Owl II (played by Patrick Wilson) and Laurie Jupiter/Silk Spectre II (played by Malin Akerman), who steam up the screen with their nude scenes as the two superhero characters who fall for each other.

This isn’t your parents’ superhero love story. “Watchmen,” based on the graphic novel co-created by Dave Gibbons and Alan Moore, is an intense tale filled with morally ambiguous characters and explicit scenes not meant for very young kids. For versatile actor Wilson, “Watchmen” was a chance for him to take on a role that’s very different from the husbands or hunky good guys he usually plays on the theater stage and on the big screen. Watchmen” is also a departure for Akerman, who was in danger of being typecast as flaky types in romantic comedies such as 2008’s “27 Dresses” and 2007’s “The Heartbreak Kid.” At the Los Angeles press junket for “Watchmen,” Wilson and Akerman revealed how the vulnerabilities they exposed while playing these superheroes weren’t just physical but also emotional.

Were either of you “Watchmen” fans before signing up for this movie?

Akerman: No, we were not. My first experience with the novel was the script. It was script that threw me for a loop, and I had no idea what I had just read and what had happened to me. So I ran out and got the graphic novel and was blown away. It’s an amazing novel and the thing that was so nice about it was the script was so faithful to the source material, which made it even more exciting to have the thought of doing a film that will be appreciated because it’s keeping the allegiance — which is hard sometimes when you’re making a film out of a novel.

Wilson: My first experience was with the script. I had heard of it, but like most comic-based scripts that I had read over the past few years, I always call my one of best friends, who’s a huge comic-book fan, and I always ask him … Then I said, “I got ‘Watchmen.’” And he said, “Oh, God!” And I knew it came with a great excitement and fear. And he said, “If you are ever to do a comic-book movie, this is the one to do.” So I knew I was getting into something pretty special, and so when I read this … What, he [Dan Dreiberg] is impotent? And he’s a flabby failure? What kind of a book is this? I was really blown away by how complex the characters are.

Then once I got the absolute edition and saw all the details and where it came from, I think ignorance was bliss. I looked at it like I would … study Arthur Miller: every picture, every word, every pose, every line, everything over ns dove and over. Let’s face it: The book is so dense and there’s stuff you don’t notice until four or five times through. It really became an obsession for a lot of us to really be as faithful as you could. You can only have one chance to read it for the first time. I’m actually grateful that it came with the role, because I felt like I was reading the entire thing through Dan [Dreiberg’s] eyes.

How scary is it to tackle a movie that has such high expectations?

Akerman: I think it’s more an excitement. For sure, the pressure is intense. But once we started shooting, all that went away. And it became team work. We all became fans, so we were pressure on ourselves … Zack Snyder [director of "Watchmen"] is one of the biggest fans, so to have him leading us through it, we let go of all the pressure and just said, “We have the best man at the helm who’s leading through this journey.” And because of that, we were able — at least while we were filming — to let go of the bigger picture, and just concentrate on the characters and the roles and making it the best film that we can make it. And, of course, once it was a wrap on the film, we go, “Oh, God! Let’s see what happens now. This is the moment of truth.”

I think it would’ve been a lot different if it had been a different director who wasn’t as confident as Zack. Then you start to get nervous, because it is a fantastic piece of material, and all you to do is do it justice. It really deserves it. Yes, the pressure is on, but I have faith and confidence that people will be pleasantly surprised.

How did you prepare for the relationship and the nude scenes between your two “Watchmen” characters?

Wilson: When you have source material like this … everything is answered in the comic. So you constantly go back to that. If you’re adding lines, 95 percent of the time, they’ve lifted straight from the comic. There’s little said about the relationship, what it was before, but you get the impression that they met, had a brief moment or a look or two, and of course the blue guy [Dr. Manhattan] shows up and Dreiberg goes away.

Luckily, the intimate scenes we shot late in the movie, so we had gotten to know each other quite a bit. But truthfully, the script was so detailed that you felt like every question you had about these characters was answered. So you didn’t have to go digging around … It’s all right there. Specifically with these two characters — Dan and Laurie — it’s probably the most human struggle of the film. That they were costumed superheroes is almost a by-product, an after-thought, because this struggle that they have as people is very human and very relatable. So you never felt like you had to cut any corners for the genre or add in any emotion that wasn’t there, because it’s all there.

Malin, can you talk about being the only female star of this group and that outfit you had to wear?

Akerman: Yes, that outfit is very provocative, but what I love about her is that she is one of the boys … A lot of times, you get a female character in a film of men, and all she’s there for is the sexuality of the female touch. But here, she is one of the boys. She, for me, did not lead with her sexuality.

For me … it’s a story of her coming of age. She’s been sheltered her whole life. She’s had a stage mom of types who pushed her into a career that was not her own choice. Now we see her breaking up with one man, trying to find true love, trying to figure out who she is, find her own independence. The costume was designed by her mother, which is kind of crazy, when you think about it. My mother [in real life] wouldn’t put me in something like that and send me out on the streets. But essentially, she [Laurie] starts to own it. The costume spoke for itself, and hopefully a diversion from crime fighting. I loved playing Laurie for all those reasons.

Hopefully, women will go see this film, and she’ll be one of the reasons why they feel like they can connect to this, because there is that love story that’s a reality … We all go through soul-searching in our lives. We all go through heartbreak. Most of us have had turmoil with one or more parents. All of these things are relatable and raw. And she gets to have the fun with a few boys in the film too, which isn’t all that bad. [She laughs.]

Can you talk about doing the stunts in this movie?

Akerman: We did all our training. We did all the fight coordination. We got trained by [fight choreographer] Damon Caro. We also had stunt doubles. We would shoot the whole thing and then they would shoot the whole thing with our stunt doubles. So if our kick wasn’t high enough or low enough, then most likely, they sued the student doubles edit.

Wilson: We also had very specific fighting styles we learned. Malin had trained for weeks before we got to Vancouver, but when most of us got to Vancouver, it was all about learning the skills that you needed for your character. That was as much informed by acting as it was by martial arts … So that was really fun. And that [fighting] even informed costume decisions. It’s very specific in the comic that Dan’s close-fisted a lot, so if it’s a big fist, he’s got really strong gloves with something tough on the outside of it. It was very much a team effort to get the fighting style and the right look for these guys.

How would you describe Dan Dreiberg as a person?

Wilson: Each of these characters is so interwoven with each other, but I think Dan has the most human side of all the men [in "Watchmen"]. It’s a pretty well-developed struggle. I think the most difficult part is his loss; you have to try to find out where the loss comes from. You can’t play him as downtrodden, because that’s inactive. He’s striving for something. He’s striving to be a part of society again and where he fits in, which is why he’s got this relationship with Hollis [Mason, the original Nite Owl], what that means to him and how Hollis adjusted to it, being the first Nite Owl. I remember when I read it, it was the character I identified with.

When I talked with Zack, I said, “I know this guy. I’m not this guy, but I know this guy.” There’s actually a line in the back of the absolute edition, something to the effect of “feeling like a soldier coming back from war and not feeling like a part of society.” So I said, “OK, that’s something I can look at and latch on to, for whatever reason.” It was pretty clear how to play him, at least for me.

Patrick, how much weight did you gain for this role?

Wilson: I put on about 20 pounds. Nobody told me to. That was the first question that I asked Zack: “Am I [going to be] in a fat suit? Do you want me to gain a bunch of weight?” There’s always somewhat of a controversy about his [Dan Dreiberg’s] weight, because in the first several chapters, it [his weight] is as much emotional as it is physical. The weight of the world, the weight that he feels, the emotional weight — all of those, if you want to get deep. But I certainly think that he’s gone soft. So that’s sort of the model I went for. In sports terms, if I’m more of the wide receiver who’s gone soft, I felt that Dan was much more the linebacker who’d gone soft. So there’s much more of a strong, powerful base.

I knew that the suit would hide more of the gut or the flab, so I really just cut out all of the cardio. And I’m a runner, and I didn’t run from July to March of the next year, which for me, was the longest [I had gone without running] in about 20 years. And I ate my guts out as much as I could. All those big, high-calorie buckets that you see in the stores, I bought that and mixed it with whatever — peanut butter and ice cream — to put on the weight. It was tough. I’d never been north of 200 [pounds], and when you’re having to do that and fight, I definitely felt the weight of it.

Do you think the “Watchmen” novel and the movie have the same themes?

Akerman: I absolute think that … the themes are the same. We might’ve tweaked certain things to make it possible to put on film, but essentially, what you get in the novel is what you get in the film, more or less. And that’s the nice thing about because it hasn’t been compromised.

Wilson: It raises that same question of how far you would really go to prevent nuclear war. “What sacrifices would you make for world peace?” Which is any war or any battle. When President [George W.] Bush said, “You’re either with us or against us,” that puts it in a black-and-white term, creating this monster about who are the terrorists. That’s interesting politically about this film: Is it a Reagan-era film? Is it a Bush-era film? Is it an Obama-era film? What does it say? That’s the exciting about the film. It raises the questions “What is good? What is evil? And how far would you go to preserve what is the ideal peace? What do you have to sacrifice for peace.”

Akerman: And the nice part, too, is that there’s no clear [idea of] this is the villain and this is the good guy. Everybody has their struggle. It’s bad versus good within yourself, which is human nature… It explores the extremes of human nature. As awful as the Comedian can be, you sort of sympathize with him at the end when he lets it all out. He’s alone. He has no friends around him when he’s going through his hardest times. It’s this film that really turns everything around in your body. You feel like you’ve gone through a whirlwind of a tour after you’ve read the novel and hopefully watch the film.

It’s really fantastic and beautiful — there’s so much going on — and timeless. The politics, the conspiracy theories, the awful rapes. Everything that happens continues to happen in our world. It just is one of those things that you hope certain things will end, but you never known because throughout the history of man, it’s been going on. It’s so smart and amazing.

Malin, can you talk abut filming scenes and using your imagination with Billy Crudup when he had on all the special-effects gear?

Akerman: That’s a lot of imagination. The first week was the most difficult, because Billy walks out in white pajamas with blue LED lights all over and a skull caps and dots. He’s a big Christmas tree. He’s supposed to be this massive, god-like creature, and here comes Billy in this crazy suit. So he got laughed at the first week from all of us.

But as soon as they called “action,” he gets into the character, and he’s such a fabulous actor that you forget and you really get into the performance. Everything around you disappears. It was more when they in between [scenes] … his pants were drooping because the battery packs were too big. It was silly.

We had a lot of laughs and a lot of moments, but he was such a good sport about it that he said, “You know what? I’m just a glorified lighting scenario for you guys.” But ultimately, Billy Crudup as an actor was phenomenal. He just brought it

Malin, what can you say about your movie “Couple’s Retreat”?

Akerman: It was fabulous. It’s a wonderful ensemble cast. Vince [Vaughn] and Jon [Favreau] are good friends from a long time ago. They’re hilarious. They go off and do a lot of improv, and sometimes you can’t get in a word edgewise, because they’re off on their own trail. So who knows how it’s going to end up? It was a fantastic experience, they’re amazing comedians, and we had a blast. We got to go to Bora Bora for three-and-a-half weeks. You can’t really complain.

Patrick, what about your film “Barry Munday”?

Wilson: It’s a very different type of movie. We shot it after “Watchmen.” It’s a small, quirky comedy. It’s a very hard sell, so I won’t even try to tell you the whole story. But just know that it’s about a man who has his testicles taken off. I know it doesn’t sound funny, but trust me, it was a great little comedy that we did: me and Judy Greer and Billy Dee Williams and Jean Smart. It was a hilarious cast. It was one of the oddest, quirkiest way to tell a love story about complete opposites and how they get along. Because this woman files a paternity suit, and it’s all about maybe he did one thing right before he lost his manhood, which is create a child. It’s actually pretty sweet.

Did you have to change your voice for that role?

Wilson: No. I didn’t do any funny eunuch voice, if that’s what you’re asking.

The “Watchmen” novel wasn’t written to have a sequel, but do you think Hollywood will try to make a sequel to the “Watchmen” movie?

Wilson: I don’t know where you’d go. I’ve never heard one good idea, really.

Akerman: It would be a tough one to beat. “Watchmen” is the ultimate the way it stands. I would love to work with the same crew, any day, hands down. It would be amazing to see a script. It’s kind of perplexing how you’d go about it.

Patrick, can you describe the challenges of wearing that bulky costume?

Wilson: It was pretty constricting. The cape was about nine pounds, I think, which doesn’t seem like a lot until you’re swinging it around while you’re fighting, and you move and a minute later, it catches up to you and whips you around … All those suits are pretty constricting. But I know that they have come leaps and bonds from what they used to be. I can probably watch the Michael Keaton “Batman” and feel like, “I know what you’re going through” …

Our designers and the guys at Quantum that created the suits were very receptive to the problems that we had and what we wanted to fix and make different to even stretch that genre, so they were the same problems that someone else had on another superhero movie. It wasn’t terrible. Mine was like a scuba suit on steroids.

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