“Arrow” star Stephen Amell regaled fans at the Salt Lake Comic Con with his stories about the show, his scenes, his past and his love of the character. He even thrilled the audience with a performance of the “Arrow” opening voiceover (which he couldn’t remember fully, since this season has a new voiceover). Of course fans also wanted to know what we could expect from season three. And SpoilerTV was there for all the teasers.
Amell says he’s seen four episodes from the new season already. In fact, he told the crowd, “Last night I watched the director’s cut for episode 3.04 and it was awesome! It is our 50th episode. It is worthy of a 50th episode and it has a scene and a confrontation in it that has literally been two and a half years in the making.”
While he doesn’t expand any more on that scene, he does highlight a lot of characters making returns and entrances on the show. “I can tell you that we have Caity Lotz coming back as Canary in our first episode. We have Mr. Barrowman (Malcolm Merlyn) joining us as a regular this year. We have Ra’s al Ghul. We do another fun travel episode where we go to Corto Maltese (a DC Comics fictional country). That’s exciting. Oliver is in Hong Kong. That’s also very interesting. We always have flashbacks and we get my good friend Colin Donnell - Mr. Tommy Merlyn - in the flashbacks this year.”
And don’t forget a crossover episode of "The Flash." “Spoiler alert,” Amell says, “I’m in the pilot episode of ‘The Flash,’ which is really exciting. And we have another character that’s crossing over in the fourth episode of ‘The Flash.’ And episode 1.08 of ‘The Flash’ and 3.08 of ‘Arrow’ are a big two-night crossover extravaganza.”
In addition, “Arrow” will feature a Felicity-central episode, which Amell says is titled “The Secret Origin of Felicity Smoak.” The actor was thankful because it gave him some rare time off. “I recently got four days off out of an eight-day shoot, which is a record for me,” he says. “I don’t have another day off until January. Felicity and Felicity’s mom afforded me four days of vacation. It was lovely.”
As for a relationship between Oliver and Felicity, Amell jokingly told the fan who asked about the coupling it was none of her business. But when the panel moderator pointed out it would be a risk for the two characters to get together, Amell countered by saying, “If we don’t take chances with our hearts, what are we even doing here?”
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At his panel, the “Arrow” heartthrob also talked about everything from kissing scenes to on-set injuries. Here are the highlights:
“When I was in Toronto and I got that first job on “Queer as Folk,” it was as a spin instructor – and I was a spin instructor at the time. I told my agent, ‘If I can’t get this job on ‘Queer as Folk’ as a spin instructor, I’m quitting the business.’ It worked out.”
On kissing scenes:
“My first regular job in the business was [playing] a ho. It was a hooker on “Hung.” After playing a hooker, everything else is relatively easy. But it does get a little bit funny. I feel like I have a good trick for it, especially if you’re kissing somebody that you’ve known for a long time. When you’re in rehearsals, the first time you have to kiss them - kiss them really passionately, but on the nose. It sort of cuts the tension.”
On how he taps into his emotions for important character deaths:
“As an actor, it’s not really my method to use experiences from my own life. In the instances of major characters who have died on the show, oftentimes it’s me being sad that I’m losing a friend. That was the case with Colin Donnell; that was the case with Susanna Thompson (Moira Queen). It was sad because you spend time with these people. It’s been two consecutive years that I’ve got a phone call from the producers saying, ‘We’re killing [so-and-so].’ I’m like, ‘Oh, really? Are we sure?’ Then the evil, creative side of me goes, ‘Oh, that’s gonna provide so much story.’”
On his “Arrow” audition:
“The breakdown for ‘Arrow’ came out. My cousin Robbie, who is playing Firestorm on ‘The Flash,’ says, ‘Have you read ‘Arrow?’’ I said, ‘I don’t even know what that is.’ He said, ‘It’s an origin story of The Green Arrow. I read the pilot script and I could only picture you.’ So I went in. When I walked in, I was the first guy to audition. I read the scene from the pilot where Oliver is being tortured by the three dudes. And then there was a much longer scene where I tell the three guys how I’m going to kill them. I read it and I finished and I look up and everybody is just staring at me. There were five people in the room and they said, ‘Can you please go outside?’ I went outside. I come back five minutes later and there were like 31 people in the room. There were other steps to go through but I got the part right there.”
On which other superhero he’d like to play:
“Iron Man. There is no better moment than when Tony Stark stands up and says, ‘I am Iron Man.’ I would love if there was just a moment where Oliver Queen was standing in front of a bunch of people and said, ‘I’m the Arrow, what the hell are you gonna do about it?’”
“I grew up in Toronto. I played football, I played rugby. I swam, I played volleyball. I love sports. Track and field – I used to do high jump. I was staying in shape. I was in L.A., I was hiking all the time but I wasn’t going to the gym. I was just staying active because my body is my instrument in the vocation that I chose. And I happened upon ‘Arrow’ and now I get to do all these cool things.”
On how he likes to do his own stunts (even though he’s a little afraid of heights):
“I’ll always say, ‘Of course I’m going to do this.’ And if they won’t let me do it, I’ll demand to do it shirtless because then it has to be me. But then I’ll get 60 feet in the air, about to swing down and sweep Felicity off of a landmine, and I’ll be trying to look cool while really peeing a little bit in my pants.”
On playing a comic book character:
“We aren’t playing the television versions of Green Arrow and Black Canary and Flash and Firestorm and Arsenal. We’re playing THE versions. We’re trying to play the definitive versions as they exist right now. I’m very respectful of the fact this is a character that has been around since November 1941. And I meet people all the time that have spent their entire lives reading Green Arrow. So to be a modern interpretation and to hopefully live up to what they have experienced along the way, it’s very important to me.”
On how John Barrowman injured him in season one:
“It’s the scene in episode nine of season one where Malcolm - we don’t know it’s Malcolm yet - is just beating me senseless. He’s kicking me while he’s on the ground. And it was John’s first night in the costume. The costume is incredibly claustrophobic. He doesn’t have peripheral vision and he can’t really see down. And boy, oh, boy - he kicked me as hard as he possibly could in the leg. I felt bad because of how he felt. If you see him, tell him it still hurts.”
On his friendship and rivalry with David Ramsey (John Diggle):
“[In season on] he had come up as Diggle and whispered something into my ear. He said the dirtiest thing I had ever heard in my entire life. By the way, he’s not even on camera, okay? It’s a close-up on me. From then on, it was ‘on.’ If he messes up one of his lines, I almost pee my pants, I get so excited.”
Watch SpoilerTV's video of Stephen trying to recite the Arrow introduction sequence:
Related: Watch SpoilerTV's video interview with "Arrow's" Manu Bennett.
