Comedian Stephen Merchant assumed he would be bulking up for his part in X-Men – so was disappointed to discover he simply needed to shave his eyebrows off.

He appears in the upcoming X-Men instalment Logan, and said he had expected to be undergoing a body transformation that would see him become muscly like his co-star Hugh Jackman, who plays Wolverine.

He told The Jonathan Ross Show: “When they said I was going to be in it I thought I was going to be an X-Man.

Stephen Merchant
Stephen is joining the X-Men (Ian West/PA)

“I was like ‘Do you need me down the gym? What time do you need me there?’ They were like, ‘We just need you in the barbers at nine.’”

Stephen explained: “I play a giant albino mutant, it’s typecasting. I had to shave my head for the role.

“To be honest there aren’t a lot of pale-faced, stick thin men in Hollywood so it was either me or they would have done CGI.”

Hugh Jackman at the Japan Wolverine premiere
Stephen thought he’d be beefing up like Hugh Jackman (Shuji Kajiyama/AP)

The 41-year-old also had to dye his eyelashes white for his role as mutant Caliban, and said: “It was annoying when I was doing it, I kept asking the producers if I could go out into the real world just for fun, just to go into an old people’s home with a scythe and just point.”

Stephen has previously spoken about having a nude scene cut from West End play The Mentalists, and told Jonathan he is unlikely to appear in the buff on film either.

Stephen Merchant
Stephen has forfeited his eyebrows for the part (Ian West/PA)

He said: “I think there’s some things you should keep private, I don’t think I would because then it’s just out there forever and it just sits there in the world.”

X Factor judge Nicole Scherzinger, also being interviewed on the programme, agreed: “Actually I was going to do a movie and they asked me to get nude and I was like no, I mean unless it’s like for Martin Scorsese or something but no, you don’t need to.”

The Jonathan Ross Show airs on Saturday on ITV at 9.50pm.