This week, it was announced that Ruby Rose has been cast as The CW’s Batwoman — and the actress hasn’t been able to stop crying since.

“It’s a game-changer,” she said while appearing on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon Wednesday. “I found out an hour before I did the premiere for [The] Meg and I was so nervous doing the red carpet that I basically skipped everybody.”

“I kept spontaneously crying and I feel like I’m probably going to do it now,” she continued. “Everyone always says, ‘So what have you got planned next?’ And I thought either I’m going to put my foot in it and accidentally say something, or I’m going to start crying.”

The character will be introduced in the annual crossover event this winter between three of the network’s DC shows: The Flash, Arrow and Supergirl. The CW is also currently developing a stand-alone series around the character, whose real name is Kate Kane.

If Batwoman is picked up, it will mark the first TV series focusing on an LGBT superhero.

“Armed with a passion for social justice and a flair for speaking her mind, Kate Kane soars onto the streets of Gotham as Batwoman, an out lesbian and highly trained street fighter primed to snuff out the failing city’s criminal resurgence,” reads the official logline. “But don’t call her a hero yet. In a city desperate for a savior, Kate must overcome her own demons before embracing the call to be Gotham’s symbol of hope.”

The Orange Is the New Black alum, who is openly gay, told Fallon she was “thrilled” to bring the character to life.

“I get to be Batwoman — I mean, like, what?” she said. “I feel like the reason I kept getting so emotional is because growing up watching TV, I never somebody on TV that I could identify with, let alone a superhero.”

“Not only can kids watch this growing up and relate to it and feel empowered and think that they can be a superhero, but also I can go and do these things like visiting hospitals and kids and people in need,” she added. “It’s an amazing opportunity.”

And Rose has a particularly special connection with the role: It turns out that when she was younger, growing up with “not a lot of money,” she would make her own toys.

“I made bat wings out of recycled cardboard boxes and I would sleep in them and run around in them and I would jump off high things,” she recalled. “I just lived in them. And now I’ll get ones that aren’t made of cardboard.”