People who watch "Torchwood," or actually any show, associate the characters on it with the actors. So when people see me at an airport or on the plane with them, they don't see John Barrowman, the actor. Instead, they expect me to have a lot of the same qualities as my character, Capt. Jack Harkness, the immortal, time-traveling guy and leader of a secret organization called Torchwood that saves the world from aliens.

I get it. But, man, I'm not that guy.

When the show was moved to the United States with Starz this year, I was flying back and forth from Britain a lot while I was looking for a home in the States.

I've actually had seatmates ask me to hold their hands during rocky flights. I oblige, but little do they know that I'm really the guy who wants to scream for my mom to hold my hand. I do find helping someone else calms me down. As does alcohol.

I fly Virgin Atlantic a lot and the service is always incredible. The attendants really believe in customer service. But they believe in it so much it was almost a problem for me.

The flight I was taking was really turbulent and an attendant could see that I was getting nervous. She came over to me and was being really solicitous. Passengers were looking at me kind of weird, like, "What's wrong with this guy?" I finally asked her if she could grab a magazine and pretend she was showing me something.

There's always that fear that some sci-fi fan is on board and will shoot video and plaster it up on YouTube with me whimpering like a 2-year-old girl. The producers might frown on that.

I do, however, love our fans, and don't mind signing autographs in airports or on planes. Several years ago, I was flying from London to Orlando. Most of the passengers were on holiday for Easter weekend. There were tons of children on board.

The attendant came up to me and said passengers saw me come on the plane and were talking about me. During the flight, the attendants were going to do some games and raffles with the kids. She wondered if I would help out and play the role of Captain Jack.

It was a lot of fun, especially when they asked me to make an announcement as Captain Jack. I got on the speaker and said: "Ladies and gentleman, this is Captain Jack Harkness. Welcome. Let me assure you, there are no aliens on board." I think I heard a couple of folks muttering, "Thank God."

The kid's drawing contest was pretty funny, since a few of them drew Captain Jack with the Easter Bunny. Maybe that will make it on a show.

Science-fiction fans have very strong opinions about things. Actually, everything. A lot of characters on our show have been killed. Well, actually, everyone but me and Eve [the actress Eve Myles] has been killed off. When Ianto Jones, my love interest, died last season, a lot of fans were really angry.

I was flying in Britain on a small puddle-jumper and was seated next to a fan. Everything was great and the guy seemed really polite. Then he started talking about Ianto, and wouldn't stop. I wanted to say, "Dude, seriously, Ianto's not real." But didn't.

I also wanted to throw myself out the window. But unlike Captain Jack, I'm not immortal, so that wasn't an option either.

By John Barrowman, as told to Joan Raymond. E-mail: joan.raymond@nytimes.com