"I am proud to say that I am a G-Double-E-K," John Barrowman declares.
It's not something you'd expect to come out of Barrowman's mouth. With his impressive stature, dashing good looks and enough charisma to make George Clooney jealous, the Doctor Who and Torchwood star looks like he'd be more comfortable in an Armani commercial than professing his geekdom. If you didn't know better, you'd never suspect the 41-year-old dreamboat of being Scottish, either; Barrowman speaks with a flawless American accent that he learned after moving to the U.S. when he was nine.
"I didn't get rid of my accent," he explains. "I just learned how to speak like American kids because they made fun of my Scottish accent and I didn't want to be bullied. When I'm back in the U.K. with Scottish people, I actually go back to my Scottish accent."
But even across the pond, Barrowman is better known for his American dialect, playing the charming, omnisexual Captain Jack Harkness on BBC's Doctor Who and its spinoff, Torchwood. Don't be fooled, though: Barrowman is the first to admit that he is just as fascinated by his shows' mythology and minutiae as any of his fans.
"I grew up watching Doctor Who," he says. "I'm of the Star Wars generation; I love science fiction. Star Trek: The Next Generation, Battlestar Galactica – love 'em."
Which is why it was a dream come true when he landed the role of Jack during the first season of Doctor Who's revival in 2005. Barrowman was initially only supposed to appear in a few episodes, but the huge fan response prompted the BBC to develop a spinoff called Torchwood (an anagram of "Doctor Who"), in which Captain Jack and his crackerjack team of specialists investigate alien activity in Cardiff, Wales. The show has become such a pop culture phenomenon in the U.K., the U.S. and Canada that it's almost too much for Barrowman's inner geek to handle.
"I love every morning, getting up to go to work because that little boy inside of me jumps with excitement every time I know I'm going to fight an alien or shoot a rocket gun or be on a spaceship or be with the Doctor or get onto the TARDIS," he gushes. "So every time I'm working on it, I'm really, really happy."
Barrowman was thrilled when Torchwood was renewed for a second season (premiering Aug. 8 on Space) because the cast and crew were more comfortable in their roles and had learned how to tell their story better.
"I always describe it as in Season 1, we were learning how to walk and in Season 2, we're running," Barrowman explains, adding that viewers will see a lot more character background and development for Captain Jack and the other Torchwood players. "He is a lot more comfortable with his immortality. You learn about how the team around him became a part of Torchwood and you also learn about his feelings and relationships with each of them, which I think is really important."
And it certainly didn't hurt that for the season premiere, he got to perform a steamy kissing scene with James Marsters of Buffy fame – a scene that reportedly took many, many hours to film.
"I got to kiss James quite a lot, yes," Barrowman brags. "But it should be one of his best episodes out of his career, too! He got to kiss me!"
That sound you just heard? Millions of fangirls and boys fainting from overexcitement.
Torchwood has become well-known for having a much more adult tone than Doctor Who, often depicting sexual relationships and encounters of all kinds. Characters frequently carry on affairs with coworkers and cheat on their significant others – subject matter British audience practically ate up with a spoon. American audiences were a little more hesitant about Torchwood's racier themes, but Barrowman got them in the end (pun intended), something he sees as a sign that viewers are ready for more mature content.
"The reason [Torchwood has] gone down so well in America, which TV executives should look at, is the fact that their audience isn't uptight," he says. "It's the executives who are treating the audience like they're uptight because they're pandering to programming for one specific audience and forgetting about everyone else out there."
Barrowman also believes that Doctor Who and its spinoffs have attracted a more mainstream audience because the shows tell more intricate, emotionally-resonant stories than the original series did.
"The stories have changed. There are stories that people can actually relate to," he says. "A lot of people who argue that the stories are too risqué - they're too 'in your face,' they're too heavy for young people – they're afraid of dealing with those situations and they're afraid of seeing real life on television. What we're doing is actually what people deal with in their everyday life - we just do it in the realm of science fiction."
Another reason for Torchwood's success is the open communication between writers, producers and actors on the show. Everyone is open to others' ideas, from how to deliver a line to how the characters react to different situations
"I like the writers to create the story and create the fantasy for me so that I can then go and try to make it work. But if I'm on set and we're doing it and a director will ask me to do something that is completely out of context from what Jack would do or what any of them would do, we can actually say something," Barrowman explains. "The producers trust enough and we know the characters well enough that we just know they wouldn't do or say something."
But other than the occasional suggestion, Barrowman doesn't like to discover the important plot points until absolutely necessary – his geek sensibilities tell him that it's way more fun to be caught off guard.
"I like to be as surprised as the viewers are," he says. "That's why I consider myself one of those geeks, too."
Torchwood Season 2 premieres Friday, Aug. 8 at 9 p.m. ET on Space.
+ Read more with John Barrowman on TV Casualty
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