How Stephen Amell Felt About Playing a Villain — and More Things We Learned About ‘Arrow’ at Heroes and Villains Fan Fest: San Jose

Lots of Arrow stars were on hand at Heroes and Villains Fan Fest San Jose to talk about the hit series.

It was enough to fill three full panels: Original Team Arrow (Stephen Amell, David Ramsey, Emily Bett Rickards), Men of Arrow (Manu Bennett, Rick Gonzalez, Echo Kellum), and Women of Arrow (Willa Holland, Katrina Law, Juliana Harkavy). The actors answered fan questions and discussed what it’s like to be in the Arrowverse.

Here are a few of the things we learned from those panels, including a bit about filming the recent crossover, Crisis on Earth-X.

1. Wardrobe Wins and Woes

When a member of the audience asked Emily Bett Rickards if she has a favorite Felicity outfit, the actress responded without hesitation, “Pants.” She elaborated, “When she wears pants it’s my favorite. Look at all the things I can do.”

Stephen Amell added, “Whenever we are shooting a scene either in the loft or Oliver’s apartment, we always hear Emily say, ‘Well, Felicity would be barefoot right now, right?’” Bett Rickards confirmed this, stating, “Girl has never worn heels in her own apartment. They sit by the door, they’re put on on the way out.”

Conversely, Katrina Law talked about how she enjoys wearing heels, especially in action scenes.

“I like wearing heels. I like feeling tall. I feel sexy in them whether there’s a man around me or not. I have no problem running down the street in five inch heels, and even in The Oath, which is the new show I’m on, I’m wearing these [high heel] boots, and I’m running faster than the boys. So I’m kind of like, ‘Bring it.’”

Willa Holland agreed. “It’s another way to prove that we can still do anything.”

Holland also commented that she likes Thea’s fashion sense. “This is actually her jacket. I stole it from wardrobe,” she said, indicating the coat she was wearing on stage.

2. Stunts

Being a superhero show, Arrow is heavy on the action. The cast members gave some insight into that aspect of filming.

Both Juliana Harkavy and Echo Kellum fielded questions about handling their weapons of choice. Kellum joked, “I just end up injuring a lot of the crew.” He revealed that sometimes he does physically throw the T-Spheres and sometimes it is put in digitally.

Rick Gonzalez teased Kellum by telling the audience, “He’s hit me in the face with it.” To which Kellum replied, “That has nothing to do with us being on set.”

Harkavy talked about the extensive training she does in order to play Black Canary. “For me, during hiatus, I was trying to workout six days a week, and really just go as hard as I could, and do two days a week of fight training.” She followed up with, “I’ve hit myself in the head with that bo-staff so many times, it’s a miracle I can even see.”

All three ladies at the Women of Arrow panel praised the stunt team lead by James Bamford. “They are so truly talented. We always say the Emmys should have a category for stunts because the show wouldn’t be what it is without them,” said Harkavy.

“They are the hard-core ones. As much as we get to have fun and play, we’re playing, whereas they are actually working. They’re amazing,” Law added.

3. Switching Places

A popular question among the three panels was, “If you could be another character, who would you want to be?” The question ranged from being limited to the Arrowverse to encompassing all of television and film. Here are some of the answers:

In the case of switching characters within the Arrow cast, Amell chose Prometheus and Bett Rickards went with Damien Dahrk. “I wouldn’t mind Slade,” said David Ramsey. “I couldn’t do it as good as Manu [Bennett]. Manu just tears up the scenery, but it’s just a great character.”

Bett Rickards noted, “We all chose villains. Do we need to have a chat?”

In a hypothetical DC/Marvel crossover, Law was quick to say, “I want to be Wolverine.”

The Original Team Arrow cast were asked about being someone in the DC universe. Amell went with Jimmy Olsen, “just to mix it up,” and Bett Rickards chose Batgirl. Ramsey stayed with a villain and named Darkseid as his choice.

Broadening the scope, the Men of Arrow were asked who they would be in any universe, show, or movie. Manu Bennett claimed Boba Fett right away.

Gonzalez went in a totally different direction. “I would want to be a character maybe on M*A*S*H or The Love Boat.” This got a big laugh from Kellum, who chose Kramer on Seinfeld. And this, in turn, made Gonzalez chuckle and reveal something that he enjoyed shooting for an upcoming episode. “I literally told Echo, I feel like you’re Kramer walking into my place. […] it was, like, an amazing moment; it felt like a sitcom.”

 

4. Crisis On Earth-X

Not surprisingly, there was a lot of talk about the four-way crossover event, Crisis On Earth-X.

A fan asked Amell what it was like to play a pure villain. “I enjoyed it a little too much,” he laughed. “I really liked playing that version of Oliver.” Amell added, “The most important thing for me about playing that version of Oliver was that his love for Kara was as pure and as real as Good Oliver’s, or Earth One Oliver—I wanted to make sure the Dark Arrow’s love for Overgirl was as pure as Oliver’s love for Felicity.”

“I’m not saying that they have the same outcome, or chemistry, or, you know, likability,” Amell continued, “being Nazis and all.”

Bett Rickards mumbled into the microphone, “Murky waters.”

“I didn’t set out to play him as evil, I just set out to play him with a different set of ideals. [It was] a lot of fun,” concluded Amell.

Amell said he found out that Colin Donnell (Tommy Merlyn) would be back for the crossover when he received a text from Donnell about a month before shooting, saying he was trying to work out his schedule. He contacted one of the executive producers asking for the crossover scripts, telling them: “If I get one more question about the crossover having not read any of the four scripts, I am going to go insane.”

Amell read all the scripts in order and “just assumed that it would be Josh Segarra as Evil Prometheus.” Then he got to the first page of the Arrow script. “I was, like, ‘Whoa!’ I was fired up.”

The Women of Arrow were asked how they thought their characters felt about missing the two weddings. “Nyssa might have something to say to her husband about it,” Law joked. Holland indicated that Thea might feel a bit more slighted. “Like, really? It’s been this many years, guys. Wow. Shade. Shade.”

Holland also shared her idea for the next big crossover.

“I think we should all be on vacation in Hawaii. Wouldn’t you love to see us all actually happy for once?” The crowd responded with cheers. Holland continued, “Everyone would be awake, and alive, and getting massages. […] That would be the best crossover.”

5. Role Play

The Arrow cast members talked about their characters—what it’s like to play them and what they admire about them.

Bennett said he was relieved that they “humanized Slade rather than demonized” him. “I’ve always been of the idea that Deathstroke from the DC comics has more integrity than just being a crazy Mirakuru guy.”

The Women of Arrow were asked what they like about their characters. “I like Dinah’s loyalty. I like her ferocity. I like her intelligence,” expressed Harkavy, adding, “And I like her metahuman Canary Cry.”

Holland highlighted Thea’s independent nature, and Law spoke about Nyssa’s softer side due to her relationship with the Lance sisters. “[It has made her] a more sympathetic human being. She’s gone from this hard-core black and white type of person to softer, more vulnerable, and kind of seeing the world as more of a gray,” described Law.

Bett Rickards talked a little bit about playing Felicity’s doppelganger. “I was really happy that she made an appearance because I wasn’t sure if she was going to. [The] couple snippets in the crossover was my favorite scene—most exhausting scene.”

She and Amell described how difficult it was for her to shoot, and that they didn’t interact between takes like they usually do. “I was in a really dark closet right before my mark,” she revealed.

“I think what she was going through was just absolutely terrifying,” Bett Rickards said. “I feel so much for her, and hope she made it out.”

Arrow airs Thursdays at 9/8c on The CW.

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