One of the best interviews I managed to get at Comic Con this past weekend was a revealing interview with Arrow star Stephen Amell. It has a little bit of everything. Talk about The Flash and the role of television in the DC Franchise, some scoop about season three, and a little reveal that’s going to make shippers of a certain pairing, very, very happy. I have the transcription below, but I highly recommend watching the video too. A lot of Stephen’s awesome personality comes through during our time together. There’s a big reason why he’s a leading and popular TV man!
The conversation starts mentioning a very appropriate hat he’s wearing, The Flash. Stephen was due that evening to be the host in Hall H for the DC/Warner Brothers Entertainment night which previewed among other things The Flash pilot.
Loving the hat. Excellent choice.
You had to be in the pilot to get one.
Really?
Spoiler alert. (table laughs while Stephen gives us a big smile). I’m so excited, we’re screening that (The Flash) tonight in Hall H. I want to see how people react when I go to tweet.
So Oliver’s kind of under the delusion that he gets to have a normal life.
Delusion is the correct word.
How long is that delusion going to last?
About twenty minutes. This will be an interesting year. Granted I know what happens, but if you go back and see the first episode of season two, all of the themes that played throughout the season are really touched upon in the episode. Same as the pilot. When you watch our first episode in season three, all of the themes that echo throughout are really, really present in our season premiere. But delusion is the right word.
Are you really happy that you don’t have to answer any more Justice League movie questions?
Yes, yes. And by the way, okay, there’s a Flash show. We have Firestorm, we have Canary, we have The Atom. The actual Justice League film, I don’t know when it’s coming out. You can watch the Justice League on television. The reason that I’m happy to not have to answer the question anymore is because I think that it undersold what we’re doing on TV. I would put our degree of difficulty, producing 23 episodes of television every year, spinning off the show, giving people the confidence to green light other DC properties, there’s 5 DC properties on television now, I would put that degree of difficulty up with producing a 250 million dollar film. They’re very different things. And I never wanted to feel as though our existence was only going to be justified if we were part of the cinematic universe. That has nothing to do with anything. We are stamping out our own spot. So I’m glad people know that now.
The current (description) said that there will be a first date with Felicity. So obviously that romance was kind of guided by hiatus. Is there going to be other ladies in Oliver’s life this year?
There’s one lady in Oliver’s life. Just one.
Is that counting any of the… (sorry, can’t make out the rest of the question).
No, there’s one woman in Oliver’s life this year.
Is that his sister?
No, it’s Felicity.
Oh, it seems like he’s got Sarah and Laurel out there…
The ship has sailed on those romances. I don’t think that we’ll ever see Oliver and Sara or Oliver and Laurel together again. I mean they’ll be together but just not together. They’ll be teammates. We discover in the pilot the way that Oliver feels about Felicity. Because of that if we just introduce random love interests it will kind of undersell what we do in the premiere.
Has there been a decision or choice that Oliver has made that you personally have trouble justifying?
I can’t think of a specific choice. I will say that the story line where Oliver has a child really hit home with me. (When) We filmed that episode my daughter was five months old. Shooting those scenes with Susanna…the most important scene that I ever shot in this show is that Oliver finds out that this girl lost the baby. Aside from the feelings that it stirred up in me personally, it was my last scene with Susanna Thompson, whom I love and adore and miss. It was really difficulty to divorce my personal feelings from that scene. Some of them actually shone through. That was really difficult. We live in a pretty fantastical world on Arrow and I’m able to divorce Oliver’s reasoning from my own.
Can you talk about the dynamic between Thea and Oliver?
It’s all about unspoken things. Oliver made a commitment to be more honest with her, and when Oliver and Thea finally meet up, he is more honest with her. He reveals things that he’s never told her.
You think he regrets not telling her things?
I think he regrets very much.
How aware are you of the direction of the character throughout this season and the seasons to come eventually?
The coolest thing that we talked about I really do think we are moving to a spot where we will refer to my character as The Green Arrow. We are moving to a spot where we are just going to continue to embrace the fundamental classic elements of the character because we’ve got that license now. 46 episodes in people like it, they by into it. Unless this character is evolving, The Hood to Arrow to The Green Arrow then people are going to lose interest. I always want there to be a journey for him and this season’s journey is really interesting.
Does that evolution include the goatee?
No. (Everyone laughs).
This interview took place during the Arrow press room at San Diego Comic Con on July 26, 2014.
