Stephen Amell Adelanta el regreso de Arrow: ¡Flashbacks, Gadgets, Triángulos amorosos y más!
Por Jim Halterman 24 de Abril, 2013 9:00 AM
The final four episodes of Arrow Season 1 kick off tonight, as viewers will be treated to consecutive new installments up through the May 15 finale.
There’s so much brewing in these remaining hours that it was the perfect time to sit down at The CW offices with none other than Stephen Amell, who has finished production for the season and gleefully previewed what’s on tap, offering various hints as to what we can expect both this spring and into next fall.
Read on for teased and tidbits from our chat...
-------------------------------------------
Ollie/Diggle Strife: Emily Bett Rickards told us earlier this week about Felicity going out in the field but Amell explained why this will take place: “Oliver and Diggle have a little bit of a falling out because Diggle is really after getting Floyd Lawton and he’s becoming a little bit obsessive,” the actor said, “Oliver doesn’t share the same commitment because there’s still an overall goal and there’s things that we’re learning and that rubs Diggle the wrong way. So, at least momentarily, he is not at my disposal and I have to send young Miss Smoak into the field.”
Pre-Island Ollie: Episode 21 will feature flashbacks with a pre-island Oliver, who is quite different than the Ollie we know today: “I had never really played the guy before except for one real quick scene in the pilot and it went really well,” Amell said. “Both Marc [Guggenheim] and Andrew [Kreisberg] actually had wished we had gotten to shoot more of it.”
In the flashbacks, we’ll see Ollie with Laurel, as well as Moira, and Amell couldn’t help but gush about his TV Mom, Susanna Thompson: “She’s wonderful in the episode because she just plays Moira Queen, the doting mother [and] she’s not privy to all this conspiratorial behavior. She just loves her children and loves her husband and she’s just happy go lucky. Susanna is really wonderful.”
Olicity? We know that Felicity has moony eyes for Ollie, but does he see her more as a little sister or as a woman? “I think he sees her as a woman," Amell said. "I think that every day that he sees Felicity he finds out how capable she is…by the time we get to [episodes] 22 and 23, 23 especially, with the stakes as high as they are, it’s not ‘you’re the IT girl in the Arrow cave,’ it’s, ‘you are a member of the team. On equal footing with myself and Diggle and we need you as much as you need us in this scenario.”
And while Ollie may not be thinking romance just yet with fan fave Miss Smoak, Amell teased that “just based on her knowing more about me than just about anyone at this point in my present day life, she can probably challenge me in ways that other people can’t and that’s always attractive.”
The Dark Archer Lays It Out: There are definitely more fights coming involving Amell and John Barrowman (Tommy’s father, Malcolm Merlyn, aka The Dark Archer). The actor also helped clear things up in terms of the journey we’ve been on for the past few months.
“Our entire mythology of our season and the reason almost everybody is doing what they’d doing is laid out by Barrowmen in this eloquent monologue,” Amell said. “It’s nice because it pays off what we’ve been setting up and, just as a viewer, I would like it because you sit there and you go, ‘Oh wow. These guys, they had a plan.’”
And while Amell admitted that viewers would find out about this plan, he wasn’t as clear about Oliver: “I think it would be sort of sad if Oliver didn’t find out but who’s to say?”
Love Triangles Stirred Up: “Love triangles very rarely stay quiet for very long,” Amell said. “It’s less between Oliver and Laurel this week than it is between Oliver and Tommy and we are going to get some, if not, moments of Oliver and Laurel together, we’re going to get some clarification to how he feels this week but I would expect to see my character and Katie’s character together a lot more before the end of the season and that’s not good for Tommy.”
Island Drama: For Amell, the last two episodes of the season should both be considered the season finale. "It’s the culmination of Edward Fyers and his plan and it’s a moment of transcendence for Oliver," Amell said, adding that the island story from now into season two is already pretty solid: “I think they have a really cool idea and really have it mapped out for what the island is going to be in season two and that will hopefully push us towards a couple of those episodes like episode 14 where it’s a little more island-centric.”
Thea Kicking Ass: While we’ll see Thea and Roy continue their quest to find the vigilante: “Oliver does catch wind of this before the end of the season, which leads to some interesting interaction between the three of them. And then it’s time for Thea in the finale to, I think, really stand on her own and have a few heroic moments of her own.”
A Mask In Ollie’s Future? While Ollie’s smoky eyes and hood are Arrow’s current look, Amell said we could see a mask on Ollie’s somewhere down the line: “We really view Oliver right now as The Hood or Arrow 1.0 and that goes along with the season. He’s living in the year 2013 and he’s using a wood bow that he made on the island. Things are going to change with him as time goes on.”
Watch for Felicity to introduce new gadgets for Ollie to use when fighting the bad guys.
Islanders in Starling City? While thus far the flashbacks on the island and present are separate, Amell wouldn’t’ be surprised if they crossed over: “It does sort of seem like inevitability that eventually some aspect of the island will touch Oliver’s life in the present day. Just name a character from the island…Slade, Shado, Edward Fires, Yao Fei…any of those people showed up in the present day? I think that would be awesome.”
Season 2 Hints: While there’s much to wrap up in four episodes, Amell hinted that we will see bits of the next season by the end of year one: “Whether it’s Diggle’s involvement with a certain organization that we’re seeing over the next couple of episodes or me confronting Roy with Thea right there in a particular scene, while we are servicing a lot of our storylines for season one, you do start to see little Easter eggs along the way for season two.”
http://www.tvfanatic.com/2013/04/stephe ... ts-love-t/
Por Jim Halterman 24 de Abril, 2013 9:00 AM
The final four episodes of Arrow Season 1 kick off tonight, as viewers will be treated to consecutive new installments up through the May 15 finale.
There’s so much brewing in these remaining hours that it was the perfect time to sit down at The CW offices with none other than Stephen Amell, who has finished production for the season and gleefully previewed what’s on tap, offering various hints as to what we can expect both this spring and into next fall.
Read on for teased and tidbits from our chat...
-------------------------------------------
Ollie/Diggle Strife: Emily Bett Rickards told us earlier this week about Felicity going out in the field but Amell explained why this will take place: “Oliver and Diggle have a little bit of a falling out because Diggle is really after getting Floyd Lawton and he’s becoming a little bit obsessive,” the actor said, “Oliver doesn’t share the same commitment because there’s still an overall goal and there’s things that we’re learning and that rubs Diggle the wrong way. So, at least momentarily, he is not at my disposal and I have to send young Miss Smoak into the field.”
Pre-Island Ollie: Episode 21 will feature flashbacks with a pre-island Oliver, who is quite different than the Ollie we know today: “I had never really played the guy before except for one real quick scene in the pilot and it went really well,” Amell said. “Both Marc [Guggenheim] and Andrew [Kreisberg] actually had wished we had gotten to shoot more of it.”
In the flashbacks, we’ll see Ollie with Laurel, as well as Moira, and Amell couldn’t help but gush about his TV Mom, Susanna Thompson: “She’s wonderful in the episode because she just plays Moira Queen, the doting mother [and] she’s not privy to all this conspiratorial behavior. She just loves her children and loves her husband and she’s just happy go lucky. Susanna is really wonderful.”
Olicity? We know that Felicity has moony eyes for Ollie, but does he see her more as a little sister or as a woman? “I think he sees her as a woman," Amell said. "I think that every day that he sees Felicity he finds out how capable she is…by the time we get to [episodes] 22 and 23, 23 especially, with the stakes as high as they are, it’s not ‘you’re the IT girl in the Arrow cave,’ it’s, ‘you are a member of the team. On equal footing with myself and Diggle and we need you as much as you need us in this scenario.”
And while Ollie may not be thinking romance just yet with fan fave Miss Smoak, Amell teased that “just based on her knowing more about me than just about anyone at this point in my present day life, she can probably challenge me in ways that other people can’t and that’s always attractive.”
The Dark Archer Lays It Out: There are definitely more fights coming involving Amell and John Barrowman (Tommy’s father, Malcolm Merlyn, aka The Dark Archer). The actor also helped clear things up in terms of the journey we’ve been on for the past few months.
“Our entire mythology of our season and the reason almost everybody is doing what they’d doing is laid out by Barrowmen in this eloquent monologue,” Amell said. “It’s nice because it pays off what we’ve been setting up and, just as a viewer, I would like it because you sit there and you go, ‘Oh wow. These guys, they had a plan.’”
And while Amell admitted that viewers would find out about this plan, he wasn’t as clear about Oliver: “I think it would be sort of sad if Oliver didn’t find out but who’s to say?”
Love Triangles Stirred Up: “Love triangles very rarely stay quiet for very long,” Amell said. “It’s less between Oliver and Laurel this week than it is between Oliver and Tommy and we are going to get some, if not, moments of Oliver and Laurel together, we’re going to get some clarification to how he feels this week but I would expect to see my character and Katie’s character together a lot more before the end of the season and that’s not good for Tommy.”
Island Drama: For Amell, the last two episodes of the season should both be considered the season finale. "It’s the culmination of Edward Fyers and his plan and it’s a moment of transcendence for Oliver," Amell said, adding that the island story from now into season two is already pretty solid: “I think they have a really cool idea and really have it mapped out for what the island is going to be in season two and that will hopefully push us towards a couple of those episodes like episode 14 where it’s a little more island-centric.”
Thea Kicking Ass: While we’ll see Thea and Roy continue their quest to find the vigilante: “Oliver does catch wind of this before the end of the season, which leads to some interesting interaction between the three of them. And then it’s time for Thea in the finale to, I think, really stand on her own and have a few heroic moments of her own.”
A Mask In Ollie’s Future? While Ollie’s smoky eyes and hood are Arrow’s current look, Amell said we could see a mask on Ollie’s somewhere down the line: “We really view Oliver right now as The Hood or Arrow 1.0 and that goes along with the season. He’s living in the year 2013 and he’s using a wood bow that he made on the island. Things are going to change with him as time goes on.”
Watch for Felicity to introduce new gadgets for Ollie to use when fighting the bad guys.
Islanders in Starling City? While thus far the flashbacks on the island and present are separate, Amell wouldn’t’ be surprised if they crossed over: “It does sort of seem like inevitability that eventually some aspect of the island will touch Oliver’s life in the present day. Just name a character from the island…Slade, Shado, Edward Fires, Yao Fei…any of those people showed up in the present day? I think that would be awesome.”
Season 2 Hints: While there’s much to wrap up in four episodes, Amell hinted that we will see bits of the next season by the end of year one: “Whether it’s Diggle’s involvement with a certain organization that we’re seeing over the next couple of episodes or me confronting Roy with Thea right there in a particular scene, while we are servicing a lot of our storylines for season one, you do start to see little Easter eggs along the way for season two.”
http://www.tvfanatic.com/2013/04/stephe ... ts-love-t/
- 'Olicity,' La primera misión en solitario de Felicity y más Info de Emily Bett Rickards y Marc Guggenheim (huffingtonpost.com):
'Olicity,' La primera misión en solitario de Felicity y más Info de Emily Bett Rickards y Marc Guggenheim
Por Laura Prudom 24/04/2013 11:02 am EDT
"Arrow" returns on April 24, and as the episode's title "Home Invasion" suggests, things will hit close to home for Oliver (Stephen Amell), and his allies Diggle (David Ramsey) and Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards).
The Huffington Post recently caught up with Rickards and executive producer Marc Guggenheim to preview what's ahead in the final four episodes of Season 1 and discuss the show's compelling relationships, including the unexpected popularity of what fans have termed "Olicity," the chemistry between troubled vigilante Oliver and tech-guru Felicity -- despite Oliver already being caught up in a potent love triangle with his ex-girlfriend Laurel (Katie Cassidy) and best friend Tommy (Colin Donnell). Superheroes really are chick magnets.
But first things first: Guggenheim previewed what fans can expect from "Home Invasion," which will see our hooded hero "torn between the two closest people in his life ... Diggle and Laurel. It’s really about, 'Where do Oliver’s deeper loyalties lie?' The choice that he makes in Episode 20 will have far-reaching consequences for the remainder of the season."
That conflict stems from the reemergence of Deadshot (Michael Rowe), the assassin who killed Diggle's brother. "In Episode 16, Diggle learned that Deadshot, who he previously thought Oliver had killed, was still running around alive. So, he’s been kind of obsessed with finding his brother’s killer and bringing him to his version of justice. That all comes to a head in ["Home Invasion"]," Guggenheim said. "But unfortunately, it comes to a head at the same time as Laurel is facing a new problem of her own. So Oliver finds himself torn in two different directions."
And while Laurel is never far from Oliver's mind, it's obvious that the writers are also paying attention to the sudden popularity of the "Olicity" dynamic. Guggenheim was recently teasing fans on Twitter with Oliver and Felicity quotes from upcoming episodes, and the executive producer admitted, "That's just been so much fun to do ... I had no idea it would be engendering such a response."
As for whether fans would be satisfied with those lines in context, Guggenheim was coy. "I think there’s a lot of really great moments between Oliver and Felicity in the final four episodes of the season. That’s really what people will respond to. There’s a scene that they share in Episode 22 where just the chemistry is just so palpable. I was actually just on set telling Stephen that you really feel there’s a lot of chemistry and heat between the two of them. So, the shippers are only going to get louder post-Episode 22."
Still, the EP added, "the final four episodes really are about this love triangle of Oliver, Laurel and Tommy. That’s the love triangle that we began the series with so we felt it appropriate to finish the season with a focus on it. That love triangle really starts to come to a boil with Wednesday’s episode, Episode 20. That kicks us off for the remaining three episodes of the season after that. The truth of the matter is that we sort of have to play that out first before we can play out Oliver and Felicity. But I love the fact that people are shipping them. It really is exciting. There’s nothing but love for Felicity among all the people involved in the show. So, stay tuned. But in the meantime, I gained a lot of satisfaction by teasing people."
Read on for our conversation with Rickards on her reaction to the Oliver/Felicity shippers and what's ahead for our favorite IT whiz, including a solo mission and characters she's hoping to work with.
People have really embraced Felicity so passionately, both in terms of her character and her chemistry with Oliver. What's your reaction been to that, being at the center of it all?
It’s so interesting to me because before Felicity, I haven’t been able to explore a character on TV as well as this, and seeing that evolve and watching the fans' reaction, watching the show, knowing what we felt in the scene, knowing what we felt reading it, is all strange along the same lines. It’s really interesting to see what people can pick up on. Because as Felicity, my first scene I ever did -- that I thought was going to be the only scene I was going to do with Oliver -- obviously I was thinking, “OK, Felicity thinks he’s hot.” He walks in there and he’s got that jaw and I’m sure he’s got abs, and I’m in glasses and a really unflattering pink-colored shirt -- which is flattering for Felicity. [Laughs.] I’m glad they want that to happen, because it’s the girl behind glasses trying to win the superhero, and that’s just sort of sweet. It would be nice for it to happen, but it’s also nice having the tension, because everyone loves the tension, the tightrope.
Marc has been teasing the fans on Twitter, throwing out Oliver and Felicity lines from Episodes 21 and 22 ...
He is good at that isn’t he? He has some good lines coming out.
Do you think they'll be what fans are expecting, in context? Do you think they'll be satisfying or disappointing when we actually see them?
I don’t think even I can guarantee Felicity’s delivery on any of these lines, because a lot of them are momentary. They only happen once a certain way, because they are all very unfiltered, those lines that Marc's giving out, with the underlying double entendres ... I think they'll always be happy with how they come out -- I sure hope so.
What can you preview about this week's episode and what Felicity will be up to when Deadshot resurfaces?
She’s doing her thing behind the computer. She’s tracking people, she’s finding people, she’s trying to help the team, and she’s also trying to keep the camaraderie and relationship between Oliver and Diggle and Felicity strong. She doesn’t want it to falter or tip more. With tension -- and breaking through tension -- in any sort of relationship, friendship, family, love, that sort of thing, you get through tension and it makes us stronger. I think what Felicity would always rather do is avoid tension completely. We get to see the balance of Felicity, Oliver and Diggle’s trio waiver. The scales are tipping.
Are the guys actually going to come to blows with Felicity caught in the middle?
Yeah, Felicity gets to spend a little bit more time with Oliver, which I’m sure everyone will be happy with, and she gets to spend time with Diggle too, and she’s trying to be neutral -- she's Switzerland. She knows that they need to figure it out, but she’s just trying to help it move along faster, because there are lives at stake. “Come on, guys! There are people going to die here. There are arrows being shot, and somebody has a gun!"
Next week's episode, "The Undertaking," will see Felicity's first mission in the field alone. What can you reveal about that?
We get to see her out in the field and she’s playing a character, which is also kind of fun. The character has a name actually, so that’s kind of cool. We get to see her sort of step across dangerous borders, and she’s voluntarily putting herself out there. She does volunteer herself to do it. It is extremely dangerous. She has her superhero on standby, but that is the last resort. Her going out on the field is a last resort, and Oliver coming into the field that she’s on is also a last resort, so there are stakes and danger with both situations. We do [also] get to find out a little bit more about Walter [Colin Salmon], and I think the audience will be really happy with where it leads.
We've seen Diggle and Oliver trying to train her in hand-to-hand combat. Is she going to be fighting while she's out in the field?
Not quite. She doesn’t get into close quarters combat quite yet. I think what the training with Diggle and Oliver is doing is building her confidence as well. Just being able to protect yourself in any sort of way or feeling strength, you do become more confident, and I think that’s really important for her. She does volunteer herself in this episode to go out on to the field, and that has to come from confidence. It has to come from some sort of self-security in some way. In Episode 3, there was no way that she was going to be, ”Hey, I’m going to go out and look at a gun." She would be like, “I’m never going to look at a gun ever.”
We don't know much about the penultimate episode, "Darkness on the Edge of Town." Is there anything you're allowed to tease?
The finale …people think it’s going to be big. It’s going to be huge. [Episode] 22 could be a finale -- 22 is also huge, so if you think 22 is huge, what is 23? I don't know: it's enormous.
Might we see a Dark Archer encounter before the end of the season? Obviously, she wouldn't be going head to head with him, but perhaps crossing paths?
We don’t see them going head to head. We do see Felicity learning more about the Dark Archer, as Diggle, Felicity and Oliver learn more about the Dark Archer ... There are episodes that are going to revolve around the Dark Archer, which is really fun, but no.
Felicity has mostly been involved with her core trio so far. Have you had the opportunity to work with characters outside of Diggle and Oliver in the final few episodes?
No Roy, no Thea -- hopefully in Season 2. We do get to see Felicity meet more characters out and about. I was thrilled, personally as a selfish Emily Rickard sort of thing: ”I get to work with more of the cast!” because we hang out, but working with them is totally different. So yeah, Felicity does get to meet more characters, and that’s exciting. It's just nice to see people meet ... I always find it really interesting watching people meet on the street, do you know what I mean? And we never actually get to see it unless you’re really looking for it, and you never really know who the people are, so it’s always interesting in a show or a movie to see characters meet, just cross paths, or say hi, or “Sorry, I bumped into you.” Those things are always really cool. I love that sort of stuff. Felicity gets to say hi to Laurel at some point, but you’ll have to watch for that.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/2 ... 44718.html?
Por Laura Prudom 24/04/2013 11:02 am EDT
"Arrow" returns on April 24, and as the episode's title "Home Invasion" suggests, things will hit close to home for Oliver (Stephen Amell), and his allies Diggle (David Ramsey) and Felicity (Emily Bett Rickards).
The Huffington Post recently caught up with Rickards and executive producer Marc Guggenheim to preview what's ahead in the final four episodes of Season 1 and discuss the show's compelling relationships, including the unexpected popularity of what fans have termed "Olicity," the chemistry between troubled vigilante Oliver and tech-guru Felicity -- despite Oliver already being caught up in a potent love triangle with his ex-girlfriend Laurel (Katie Cassidy) and best friend Tommy (Colin Donnell). Superheroes really are chick magnets.
But first things first: Guggenheim previewed what fans can expect from "Home Invasion," which will see our hooded hero "torn between the two closest people in his life ... Diggle and Laurel. It’s really about, 'Where do Oliver’s deeper loyalties lie?' The choice that he makes in Episode 20 will have far-reaching consequences for the remainder of the season."
That conflict stems from the reemergence of Deadshot (Michael Rowe), the assassin who killed Diggle's brother. "In Episode 16, Diggle learned that Deadshot, who he previously thought Oliver had killed, was still running around alive. So, he’s been kind of obsessed with finding his brother’s killer and bringing him to his version of justice. That all comes to a head in ["Home Invasion"]," Guggenheim said. "But unfortunately, it comes to a head at the same time as Laurel is facing a new problem of her own. So Oliver finds himself torn in two different directions."
And while Laurel is never far from Oliver's mind, it's obvious that the writers are also paying attention to the sudden popularity of the "Olicity" dynamic. Guggenheim was recently teasing fans on Twitter with Oliver and Felicity quotes from upcoming episodes, and the executive producer admitted, "That's just been so much fun to do ... I had no idea it would be engendering such a response."
As for whether fans would be satisfied with those lines in context, Guggenheim was coy. "I think there’s a lot of really great moments between Oliver and Felicity in the final four episodes of the season. That’s really what people will respond to. There’s a scene that they share in Episode 22 where just the chemistry is just so palpable. I was actually just on set telling Stephen that you really feel there’s a lot of chemistry and heat between the two of them. So, the shippers are only going to get louder post-Episode 22."
Still, the EP added, "the final four episodes really are about this love triangle of Oliver, Laurel and Tommy. That’s the love triangle that we began the series with so we felt it appropriate to finish the season with a focus on it. That love triangle really starts to come to a boil with Wednesday’s episode, Episode 20. That kicks us off for the remaining three episodes of the season after that. The truth of the matter is that we sort of have to play that out first before we can play out Oliver and Felicity. But I love the fact that people are shipping them. It really is exciting. There’s nothing but love for Felicity among all the people involved in the show. So, stay tuned. But in the meantime, I gained a lot of satisfaction by teasing people."
Read on for our conversation with Rickards on her reaction to the Oliver/Felicity shippers and what's ahead for our favorite IT whiz, including a solo mission and characters she's hoping to work with.
People have really embraced Felicity so passionately, both in terms of her character and her chemistry with Oliver. What's your reaction been to that, being at the center of it all?
It’s so interesting to me because before Felicity, I haven’t been able to explore a character on TV as well as this, and seeing that evolve and watching the fans' reaction, watching the show, knowing what we felt in the scene, knowing what we felt reading it, is all strange along the same lines. It’s really interesting to see what people can pick up on. Because as Felicity, my first scene I ever did -- that I thought was going to be the only scene I was going to do with Oliver -- obviously I was thinking, “OK, Felicity thinks he’s hot.” He walks in there and he’s got that jaw and I’m sure he’s got abs, and I’m in glasses and a really unflattering pink-colored shirt -- which is flattering for Felicity. [Laughs.] I’m glad they want that to happen, because it’s the girl behind glasses trying to win the superhero, and that’s just sort of sweet. It would be nice for it to happen, but it’s also nice having the tension, because everyone loves the tension, the tightrope.
Marc has been teasing the fans on Twitter, throwing out Oliver and Felicity lines from Episodes 21 and 22 ...
He is good at that isn’t he? He has some good lines coming out.
Do you think they'll be what fans are expecting, in context? Do you think they'll be satisfying or disappointing when we actually see them?
I don’t think even I can guarantee Felicity’s delivery on any of these lines, because a lot of them are momentary. They only happen once a certain way, because they are all very unfiltered, those lines that Marc's giving out, with the underlying double entendres ... I think they'll always be happy with how they come out -- I sure hope so.
What can you preview about this week's episode and what Felicity will be up to when Deadshot resurfaces?
She’s doing her thing behind the computer. She’s tracking people, she’s finding people, she’s trying to help the team, and she’s also trying to keep the camaraderie and relationship between Oliver and Diggle and Felicity strong. She doesn’t want it to falter or tip more. With tension -- and breaking through tension -- in any sort of relationship, friendship, family, love, that sort of thing, you get through tension and it makes us stronger. I think what Felicity would always rather do is avoid tension completely. We get to see the balance of Felicity, Oliver and Diggle’s trio waiver. The scales are tipping.
Are the guys actually going to come to blows with Felicity caught in the middle?
Yeah, Felicity gets to spend a little bit more time with Oliver, which I’m sure everyone will be happy with, and she gets to spend time with Diggle too, and she’s trying to be neutral -- she's Switzerland. She knows that they need to figure it out, but she’s just trying to help it move along faster, because there are lives at stake. “Come on, guys! There are people going to die here. There are arrows being shot, and somebody has a gun!"
Next week's episode, "The Undertaking," will see Felicity's first mission in the field alone. What can you reveal about that?
We get to see her out in the field and she’s playing a character, which is also kind of fun. The character has a name actually, so that’s kind of cool. We get to see her sort of step across dangerous borders, and she’s voluntarily putting herself out there. She does volunteer herself to do it. It is extremely dangerous. She has her superhero on standby, but that is the last resort. Her going out on the field is a last resort, and Oliver coming into the field that she’s on is also a last resort, so there are stakes and danger with both situations. We do [also] get to find out a little bit more about Walter [Colin Salmon], and I think the audience will be really happy with where it leads.
We've seen Diggle and Oliver trying to train her in hand-to-hand combat. Is she going to be fighting while she's out in the field?
Not quite. She doesn’t get into close quarters combat quite yet. I think what the training with Diggle and Oliver is doing is building her confidence as well. Just being able to protect yourself in any sort of way or feeling strength, you do become more confident, and I think that’s really important for her. She does volunteer herself in this episode to go out on to the field, and that has to come from confidence. It has to come from some sort of self-security in some way. In Episode 3, there was no way that she was going to be, ”Hey, I’m going to go out and look at a gun." She would be like, “I’m never going to look at a gun ever.”
We don't know much about the penultimate episode, "Darkness on the Edge of Town." Is there anything you're allowed to tease?
The finale …people think it’s going to be big. It’s going to be huge. [Episode] 22 could be a finale -- 22 is also huge, so if you think 22 is huge, what is 23? I don't know: it's enormous.
Might we see a Dark Archer encounter before the end of the season? Obviously, she wouldn't be going head to head with him, but perhaps crossing paths?
We don’t see them going head to head. We do see Felicity learning more about the Dark Archer, as Diggle, Felicity and Oliver learn more about the Dark Archer ... There are episodes that are going to revolve around the Dark Archer, which is really fun, but no.
Felicity has mostly been involved with her core trio so far. Have you had the opportunity to work with characters outside of Diggle and Oliver in the final few episodes?
No Roy, no Thea -- hopefully in Season 2. We do get to see Felicity meet more characters out and about. I was thrilled, personally as a selfish Emily Rickard sort of thing: ”I get to work with more of the cast!” because we hang out, but working with them is totally different. So yeah, Felicity does get to meet more characters, and that’s exciting. It's just nice to see people meet ... I always find it really interesting watching people meet on the street, do you know what I mean? And we never actually get to see it unless you’re really looking for it, and you never really know who the people are, so it’s always interesting in a show or a movie to see characters meet, just cross paths, or say hi, or “Sorry, I bumped into you.” Those things are always really cool. I love that sort of stuff. Felicity gets to say hi to Laurel at some point, but you’ll have to watch for that.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/2 ... 44718.html?
- Dentro de la fantástica isla de 'Arrow' (etonline.com)
Dentro de la fantástica isla de 'Arrow'
Por JARETT WIESELMAN 24 de Abril, 2013
Arrow returns from a brief-hiatus tonight with the first of four all-new episodes, leading up to the season finale, which co-star Celina Jade calls "epic." But before the final episode, boasting the eyebrow-raising title Sacrifice, we'll have plenty of island time as Jade's Shado continues to help Oliver Queen turn into Green Arrow!
ETonline caught up with Jade to talk Shado, her potential romance with Oliver and that aforementioned "epic" finale!
ETonline: How much did you know about the character when you auditioned?
Celina Jade: Absolutely nothing. When I auditioned, all I got was an episode synopsis [laughs]. I knew she was a captive and her father was held on the island -- for all I knew, it could have been one episode and that was it. Although I did do some research after I found out it was for Shado and learned who she was in the comic books.
ETonline: How closely has Shado on TV meshed with Shado in the comics?
Jade: The producers have taken creative liberties with the comic books, but she's similar in the sense that she's a skilled martial artist and an archer. In terms of her story, I don't know how her relationship with Oliver is going to develop, but there is a lot of romantic tension right now.
ETonline: Yes, there does seem to be a lot of flirting. How do you view their relationship?
Jade: I really see her as a bit of Mr. Miyagi from The Karate Kid. It's not tough love, it's not teaching him how to do martial arts -- she's very much about the philosophy of martial arts and mental strength. She's just started Oliver's training phase, and there's definitely romantic tension, but their main priority is to save her father and get off the island. It's tough -- they like each other but they need to focus on escaping.
http://www.etonline.com/tv/133281_Celin ... index.html
Por JARETT WIESELMAN 24 de Abril, 2013
Arrow returns from a brief-hiatus tonight with the first of four all-new episodes, leading up to the season finale, which co-star Celina Jade calls "epic." But before the final episode, boasting the eyebrow-raising title Sacrifice, we'll have plenty of island time as Jade's Shado continues to help Oliver Queen turn into Green Arrow!
ETonline caught up with Jade to talk Shado, her potential romance with Oliver and that aforementioned "epic" finale!
ETonline: How much did you know about the character when you auditioned?
Celina Jade: Absolutely nothing. When I auditioned, all I got was an episode synopsis [laughs]. I knew she was a captive and her father was held on the island -- for all I knew, it could have been one episode and that was it. Although I did do some research after I found out it was for Shado and learned who she was in the comic books.
ETonline: How closely has Shado on TV meshed with Shado in the comics?
Jade: The producers have taken creative liberties with the comic books, but she's similar in the sense that she's a skilled martial artist and an archer. In terms of her story, I don't know how her relationship with Oliver is going to develop, but there is a lot of romantic tension right now.
ETonline: Yes, there does seem to be a lot of flirting. How do you view their relationship?
Jade: I really see her as a bit of Mr. Miyagi from The Karate Kid. It's not tough love, it's not teaching him how to do martial arts -- she's very much about the philosophy of martial arts and mental strength. She's just started Oliver's training phase, and there's definitely romantic tension, but their main priority is to save her father and get off the island. It's tough -- they like each other but they need to focus on escaping.
http://www.etonline.com/tv/133281_Celin ... index.html
- J. August Richards Adelanta la llegada del misterioso Mr. Blank (thetvaddict.com):
J. August Richards Adelanta la llegada del misterioso Mr. Blank
Por Tiffany Vogt 24 de Abril, 2013
Some say villains are made and others say that they are born that way. But there is a school of thought that some villains choose their destiny regardless of their birthright or upbringing. This just may be the case with ARROW’s latest villain Mr. Blank. Born unable to connect with others, he relates only to his surroundings. Taking that unique ability, he found a decisively diabolical career for himself and put it to good use. In an exclusive interview, J. August Richards talked about trying to get into the mind of a sociopath, as well as what continues to draw him time and time again to the allure of genre television.
So who is Mr. Blank? Who is he and what can you share about him?
J: Mr. Blank is an assassin who has been hired to silence a few witnesses. That’s kind of how he crosses paths with Oliver. He takes his work very seriously and he lives his entire life to be invisible. As an actor that was just really interesting to delve into because I thought about how lonely that must be, and it also kind of explained to me why the character has no feelings towards people. Like the work that he has to do is not personal and he does not lament it at all. He just does it. Just like someone would enter numbers into a computer, that is what his work is to him. So it is a really interesting character to play. I don’t know why anybody thought I would be good for this part, but I really enjoyed doing it. I’m the sort of person who is very empathetic. So it was a reach, but a fun one.
I bet they were just fans of your work and they wanted to find an excuse to put you on the show.
J: (Laughs) That works for me too! Apparently Andrew Kreisberg said he saw my work on EMILY OWENS, M.D. and he thought of me for the part. I thought that was really, really cool. There no similarities between the characters, but it was really fun to do. I really enjoyed playing the villain.
What would you say was the one particular quality that you most admired about Mr. Blank?
J: You know what I really loved about this character — and I have to honest and say I feel funny admitting there is something I love about this character – but he can walk into a room and take the temperature instantly, and be 100% accurate. You know how you walk into a space in someone’s house and the space feels good, warm, inviting or if it doesn’t, it feels painful or sad – he can feel that immediately. Now he can’t feel anything for a person, but he can feel it for a room. I thought that was really, really cool.
How do you convey something like that, or do you just kind of stand there?
J: It’s so hard. ‘Cause when I first read the script, I was like, “Okay, we’re shutting off all emotion.” But then when I got to the parts or lines where he would be really analyzing a room, I thought, “No, no, no. This character is extremely dialed in.” He’s extremely emotionally available. Just not to people, only to spaces. And that was very difficult to turn off my extreme empathy and turn on my sensitivity to a space. That was very, very difficult, but fun. It was a great challenge.
Are we going to be seeing Mr. Blank in scenes with anyone besides Oliver?
J: My friend David Ramsey is on the show and unfortunately we never got to act together, which sucked for me ‘cause we’ve done probably three projects together – this being the third – and the other times we got to work together a lot. So we didn’t work together at all this time. I did a brief scene with Katie [Cassidy], a brief scene with Willa [Holland], as well as Colton [Haynes]. But not much at all. Really the majority of my stuff was with Steven [Amell].
It is almost unbelievable that you missed working with David since his character interacts the most closely with Oliver.
J: I know. I know! That really sucked.
What did it feel like to return to the genre a little bit after a couple years working on legal shows?
J: Actually, I did a fair number of appearances on genre shows like WAREHOUSE 13 and THE 4400, in addition to my work on ANGEL. I really enjoy working in sci-fi because I really feel like you are really required to act. That’s what I love about sci-fi. Sci-fi always has these large themes going on that you do not always get in contemporary dramas. So you really get to play those things out as well as you have to create so much. So it really feels like I’m really getting act when I do science fiction projects.
So when you heard they wanted you to guest on ARROW, did you think, “Oh thank god, I’m going back to genre!”?
J: (Laughs) Yes, and I’m a fan of the show. So that was a plus. The truth is: yes. Especially after I read the script because there’s a lot of stunts and there is just a massive fight scene with Stephen that I got to do. That I love. I don’t know what it is; maybe it’s ‘cause when I was a little boy I played “Star Wars” all the time and me and my friends would fight each other with fake lightsabers. But I just love fight scenes and I love stunts, and when I saw that I was getting to do that, I was in immediately.
So you find sci-fi to be more physically active and a richer tapestry emotionally for you when you do those kinds of characters within the genre?
J: Definitely both. The important thing is your work in science fiction must really be grounded in reality. For example, when I was doing ANGEL, my character hated vampires and I saw it almost like a form of racism in a way, like hating a group. So I thought, “While my character really hates a group, so what group do I hate?” I really wanted to make it real for myself, but my problem was I don’t hate any group. In fact, I feel like my purpose on Earth is to end racism or any kind of –ism. I’m really against any bad feelings towards any kind of group. But then I thought, “Oh, there actually is a group I do hate and that’s bigots of any kind.” So in my mind I kind of transferred the vampires and made them bigots. That’s how I was able to find the fire and the hate. So I find in science fiction you have to come from a real place and find real motivations to make the world real for yourself.
ARROW is really fond of its villains. Is there a particular villain on the show that you’re fond of?
J: Deadshot is very cool, obviously.
Would you have enjoy it if Mr. Blank and Deadshot had a scene together?
J: Absolutely. I’ve love a fight scene with him.
Did you see your character Mr. Blank as a villain or did you see him as something else?
J: No. I definitely saw him as a working guy. He’s a guy who takes his work very seriously and I’m a guy who takes my work very seriously. So I never ever saw him as a villain. I saw him as someone with a job to do.
There has been an interesting trend where some villains see themselves as a hero, like they saw what they were trying to do as good. Did you sense that was a part of Mr. Blank’s motivation?
J: Absolutely not. I do not think he falls into that category. I know that character well ‘cause a lot of times I feel like I’m put in that role where I play characters like that a lot. Very gray characters. But this character I just saw as performing a task, which is actually more diabolical than anything. This is just work to him. Nothing personal. It’s: “I’ve been hired to complete a service. This is my business.” That was the phrase I used in my own mind a lot: “This is my business – and I have to protect my business.” And he just saw it as a business as any other. Now that’s very difficult for a person like me who’s very empathetic, but that’s how I had to see it.
http://www.thetvaddict.com/2013/04/24/a ... -mr-blank/
Por Tiffany Vogt 24 de Abril, 2013
Some say villains are made and others say that they are born that way. But there is a school of thought that some villains choose their destiny regardless of their birthright or upbringing. This just may be the case with ARROW’s latest villain Mr. Blank. Born unable to connect with others, he relates only to his surroundings. Taking that unique ability, he found a decisively diabolical career for himself and put it to good use. In an exclusive interview, J. August Richards talked about trying to get into the mind of a sociopath, as well as what continues to draw him time and time again to the allure of genre television.
So who is Mr. Blank? Who is he and what can you share about him?
J: Mr. Blank is an assassin who has been hired to silence a few witnesses. That’s kind of how he crosses paths with Oliver. He takes his work very seriously and he lives his entire life to be invisible. As an actor that was just really interesting to delve into because I thought about how lonely that must be, and it also kind of explained to me why the character has no feelings towards people. Like the work that he has to do is not personal and he does not lament it at all. He just does it. Just like someone would enter numbers into a computer, that is what his work is to him. So it is a really interesting character to play. I don’t know why anybody thought I would be good for this part, but I really enjoyed doing it. I’m the sort of person who is very empathetic. So it was a reach, but a fun one.
I bet they were just fans of your work and they wanted to find an excuse to put you on the show.
J: (Laughs) That works for me too! Apparently Andrew Kreisberg said he saw my work on EMILY OWENS, M.D. and he thought of me for the part. I thought that was really, really cool. There no similarities between the characters, but it was really fun to do. I really enjoyed playing the villain.
What would you say was the one particular quality that you most admired about Mr. Blank?
J: You know what I really loved about this character — and I have to honest and say I feel funny admitting there is something I love about this character – but he can walk into a room and take the temperature instantly, and be 100% accurate. You know how you walk into a space in someone’s house and the space feels good, warm, inviting or if it doesn’t, it feels painful or sad – he can feel that immediately. Now he can’t feel anything for a person, but he can feel it for a room. I thought that was really, really cool.
How do you convey something like that, or do you just kind of stand there?
J: It’s so hard. ‘Cause when I first read the script, I was like, “Okay, we’re shutting off all emotion.” But then when I got to the parts or lines where he would be really analyzing a room, I thought, “No, no, no. This character is extremely dialed in.” He’s extremely emotionally available. Just not to people, only to spaces. And that was very difficult to turn off my extreme empathy and turn on my sensitivity to a space. That was very, very difficult, but fun. It was a great challenge.
Are we going to be seeing Mr. Blank in scenes with anyone besides Oliver?
J: My friend David Ramsey is on the show and unfortunately we never got to act together, which sucked for me ‘cause we’ve done probably three projects together – this being the third – and the other times we got to work together a lot. So we didn’t work together at all this time. I did a brief scene with Katie [Cassidy], a brief scene with Willa [Holland], as well as Colton [Haynes]. But not much at all. Really the majority of my stuff was with Steven [Amell].
It is almost unbelievable that you missed working with David since his character interacts the most closely with Oliver.
J: I know. I know! That really sucked.
What did it feel like to return to the genre a little bit after a couple years working on legal shows?
J: Actually, I did a fair number of appearances on genre shows like WAREHOUSE 13 and THE 4400, in addition to my work on ANGEL. I really enjoy working in sci-fi because I really feel like you are really required to act. That’s what I love about sci-fi. Sci-fi always has these large themes going on that you do not always get in contemporary dramas. So you really get to play those things out as well as you have to create so much. So it really feels like I’m really getting act when I do science fiction projects.
So when you heard they wanted you to guest on ARROW, did you think, “Oh thank god, I’m going back to genre!”?
J: (Laughs) Yes, and I’m a fan of the show. So that was a plus. The truth is: yes. Especially after I read the script because there’s a lot of stunts and there is just a massive fight scene with Stephen that I got to do. That I love. I don’t know what it is; maybe it’s ‘cause when I was a little boy I played “Star Wars” all the time and me and my friends would fight each other with fake lightsabers. But I just love fight scenes and I love stunts, and when I saw that I was getting to do that, I was in immediately.
So you find sci-fi to be more physically active and a richer tapestry emotionally for you when you do those kinds of characters within the genre?
J: Definitely both. The important thing is your work in science fiction must really be grounded in reality. For example, when I was doing ANGEL, my character hated vampires and I saw it almost like a form of racism in a way, like hating a group. So I thought, “While my character really hates a group, so what group do I hate?” I really wanted to make it real for myself, but my problem was I don’t hate any group. In fact, I feel like my purpose on Earth is to end racism or any kind of –ism. I’m really against any bad feelings towards any kind of group. But then I thought, “Oh, there actually is a group I do hate and that’s bigots of any kind.” So in my mind I kind of transferred the vampires and made them bigots. That’s how I was able to find the fire and the hate. So I find in science fiction you have to come from a real place and find real motivations to make the world real for yourself.
ARROW is really fond of its villains. Is there a particular villain on the show that you’re fond of?
J: Deadshot is very cool, obviously.
Would you have enjoy it if Mr. Blank and Deadshot had a scene together?
J: Absolutely. I’ve love a fight scene with him.
Did you see your character Mr. Blank as a villain or did you see him as something else?
J: No. I definitely saw him as a working guy. He’s a guy who takes his work very seriously and I’m a guy who takes my work very seriously. So I never ever saw him as a villain. I saw him as someone with a job to do.
There has been an interesting trend where some villains see themselves as a hero, like they saw what they were trying to do as good. Did you sense that was a part of Mr. Blank’s motivation?
J: Absolutely not. I do not think he falls into that category. I know that character well ‘cause a lot of times I feel like I’m put in that role where I play characters like that a lot. Very gray characters. But this character I just saw as performing a task, which is actually more diabolical than anything. This is just work to him. Nothing personal. It’s: “I’ve been hired to complete a service. This is my business.” That was the phrase I used in my own mind a lot: “This is my business – and I have to protect my business.” And he just saw it as a business as any other. Now that’s very difficult for a person like me who’s very empathetic, but that’s how I had to see it.
http://www.thetvaddict.com/2013/04/24/a ... -mr-blank/
- Stephen Amell Teases Oliver's Relationships and the End of Season 1 (givememyremoteTV):
- Stephen habla sobre ARROW, el cliffhanger de la Season Finale, la pelea entre Oliver y Malcolm, Comic-Con, Season 2, y más (collider.com):
Stephen habla sobre ARROW, el cliffhanger de la Season Finale, la pelea entre Oliver y Malcolm, Comic-Con, Season 2, y más
por Christina Radish 24 de Abril, 2013 at 10:16 am
With just three episodes left until the Season 1 finale of The CW drama series Arrow, things are about to get epic, and there are sure to be twists and turns and shocking reveals, as everything is coming to a head. With life-threatening decisions, extreme danger, sacrifices and huge life questions, not everyone might make it out alive.
During this recent interview to discuss what’s to come, actor Stephen Amell (who plays billionaire playboy Oliver Queen, aka Arrow) talked about the journey he’s been on this season, why Oliver and Diggle (David Ramsey) have a bit of a falling out, that the Oliver-Laurel (Katie Cassidy)-Tommy (Colin Donnell) love triangle will be coming back into play, the inevitable showdown between Oliver Queen and Malcolm Merlyn (John Barrowman), how close Thea (Willa Holland) and Roy Harper (Colton Haynes) might get to the vigilante, how big of a role The Undertaking will have, how much fun it was to do some pre-island flashbacks, the inevitability that individuals from the island will show up in the present day, the significant cliffhanger in the finale, just how much he actually knows about Season 2, and how excited he is for Comic-Con this year. Check out what he had to say, and be aware that there are some spoilers.
Question: Now that you’ve finished filming Season 1, when you think back to the beginning, did you think that you’d be here, at the end of a season, with another one set to go?
STEPHEN AMELL: I think of it a little bit differently. When you’re shooting the pilot, you can see the end of it because it’s three weeks long. But, I could not have imagined, on July 18th, which was our first day of Episode 2 and what I consider the start of our season because, to me, the pilot is a separate entity, there is no way I could have thought forward to where we are now, 22 episodes later. There was a nice synchronicity because the director of our second episode, David Barrett, directed our finale. When we were shooting the second episode, we were expecting the same amount from the pilot with half the time and less than half the money, and I remember David Barrett basically grabbing everybody by the scruff of their neck and going, “We’re going!” And he did the same thing with the finale. The finale was 10 days and so much bigger than our typical episode, so it was good to have him back. But no, I couldn’t have anticipated being here. We didn’t even know there was going to be the full season, at that point.
When did the success set in?
AMELL: The success aspect, I need a lot of distance from. Hopefully, I’ll get a little bit, during the off season, just to think about the season, in totality. It broke down into the stretch of time from mid-July until mid-October, when the show prepared, and that shortly thereafter, it was sometime around Episode 10 or 11 that we got the pick-up for the back nine episodes. And then, I focused on getting to the Christmas break. When I came back from the Christmas break, we had 11 or12 weeks of hard work. Now, here we are.
So, Diggle and Oliver have some sort of conflict, coming up, that leads to Felicity helping out Oliver?
AMELL: That’s Episode 21. Oliver and Diggle have a little bit of a falling out because Diggle is really after getting Floyd Laughton (aka Deadshot) and is becoming a little bit obsessive, and Oliver doesn’t share the same commitment because there’s still an overall goal. That rubs Diggle the wrong way. So, at least momentarily, he is not at my disposal and I have to send young Miss Smoak (Emily Bett Rickards) into the field.
Is Oliver concerned about losing himself to the Hood?
AMELL: As things ramp up towards the season finale, he’s just focused more and more on the task at hand. Whether it’s his father’s list, the glyph, how it relates to The Glades, or the looming specter of Tommy knowing his secrets, there’s not a lot of time for him to have perspective right now. That’s why so many things are probably about to come crashing down.
Will the love triangle come back into play before the end of the season?
AMELL: Love triangles very rarely stay quiet for very long. It’s less between Oliver and Laurel this week, then it is between Oliver and Tommy. We’re going to get some clarification about how he feels, this week. But, I would expect to see Oliver and Laurel together a lot more, before the end of the season, and that’s not good for Tommy.
What would Oliver do, if he had to actually go up against Tommy?
AMELL: I think that he would do everything that he possibly can to avoid that happening, but if it were to happen, Oliver wouldn’t want to hurt him. Oliver never wanted Tommy to be involved. Everything that had happened before that had been by design. Telling Diggle was by design. Telling Felicity was a little bit earlier than expected, but by design. Telling Tommy was a life-or-death situation where Oliver didn’t want to sit with the guilt of letting Tommy’s father die because he needed to protect his secret. In a split-second decision, he did it, and he’s paying the piper because of it, unfortunately.
Does it come down to a showdown between Oliver Queen and Malcolm Merlyn?
AMELL: We had the fight in Episode 9, and there are a couple of fights to go. It’s wonderful because we have this entire mythology for the season. In Episode 21, we’ve announced that we’re flashing back to before Oliver sets sail on the Queen’s Gambit with his dad, and the entire mythology of our first season and the reason almost everybody is doing what they’re doing is laid out by Barrowman, in this very eloquent, John Barrowman-esque monologue. It’s nice because it pays off what we’ve been setting up. Just as a viewer, I would like it because you sit there and you go, “Oh, wow! These guys had a plan.” We had a plan, from the moment that we saw Malcolm in the fourth episode. Even the glyph in the second episode was the first connection where Moira sits in the car. All of that is coming home to roost right now.
Now that Roy Harper is going to become obsessed with finding The Hood, what will viewers be seeing with Oliver and Roy?
AMELL: We don’t see a ton of myself and Roy Harper this year, but there is one really good scene. I love the end of seasons, in general, that tie everything off and make you go, “Wow, where is it going to go?!” Just when you think there’s nothing, you sprinkle in a few little things. Whether it’s Diggle’s involvement with a certain organization, that you’ll see over the next couple of episodes, or me confronting Roy with Thea right there, while we are services a lot of our storylines for Season 1, you do start to see little Easter eggs along the way for Season 2.
What will viewers see in the finale, on the island side of things?
AMELL: It’s actually a two-part finale. We see the island in Episode 20, and then we actually take a break from the island in Episode 21 because the flashbacks are to before the island. Episodes 22 and 23, on the island, could have been one continuous thing, and I actually wish we shot it that way. I’m pitching that for next year. It’s the culmination of Edward Fyers and his plan, and it’s a moment of transcendence for Oliver.
What can you say about the pre-island flashbacks? Was it fun to play that version of Oliver Queen?
AMELL: It was really fun. I’d never really played that guy before, except for one real quick scene in the pilot. It went really well. Both Marc [Guggenheim] and Andrew [Kreisberg] had wished that we’d gotten to shoot more of it. I got to shoot some stuff with Katie [Cassidy]. It was just fun to play that character, and to be carefree. I think the one who really shines in that episode, for me, in a character that we’ve never seen, is Susanna Thompson. She’s wonderful in the episode because she just plays Moira Queen, the doting mother. She’s not privy to all of this conspiratorial behavior. She just loves her children and loves her husband and she’s just really happy-go-lucky. But, it was fun shooting the Oliver stuff.
Will viewers see much of his relationship with his dad?
AMELL: You’ll see a couple exchanges. The most we see, with respect to the relationship with his father, is the actual sequence between the two of them on the boat. He knows that Oliver is a little bit of a philanderer. He’s brought Sarah on the boat and his father is saying, “That’s not the best idea,” and also giving him the secret high-five underneath the table.
Will viewers see a really different side of Oliver in those flashbacks?
AMELL: It was an interesting exercise for me. We do get a little bit of the backstory, as to why Oliver would make such a decision to have Sarah come on the boat with him.
Did that have anything to do with Tommy?
AMELL: No.
In Episode 22, you introduce Dr. Markov. What can you say about that?
AMELL: We get the explanation as to what Dr. Markov’s purpose is, in Episode 21. And then, the realization of who he is, is pretty immediate in Episode 22. It’s so immediate that I really can’t say anything.
How do you think Oliver would react, if Shado or Slade showed up in the present day?
AMELL: It does sort of seem like an inevitability that eventually some aspect of the island will touch Oliver’s life in the present day. Really, just name a character from the island, whether it’s Slade, Shado, Edward Fyers, Yao Fei. If any of those people showed up in the present day, I think that would be awesome. I’m a huge fan of Lost and the most interesting switch in the storyline, for me, was when we found out they got off the island and it made you go, “Okay, that’s interesting. They got off the island. How did they get off the island?” Let’s say that Shado showed up in the present day, and she and Oliver had all of this history that they were discussing, and maybe they hugged and kissed when she showed up. But then, you switch back to the island and you start going, “Wait, how did this happen?,” because maybe their characters are in a very different place. From a story standpoint, that would be really fun. And as an acting exercise, that would be cool because you can’t play to what you know is coming. It has to happen naturally.
At this point, how much do you actually know about Season 2?
AMELL: Oh, I know stuff! I’ve asked questions. I think the story on the island is really mapped out. If you talk with Andrew and Marc, they would say that this year, in Episode 5, when we introduced Edward Fyers and faux Deathstroke, Billy Wintergreen, and Yao Fei rescued me and I was tortured a little bit, that was when they really discovered what the island could be, and we’ve pushed it that far. But, I think they have a really cool idea and really have it mapped out, for what the island is going to be in Season 2. That will, hopefully, push us towards a couple of the episodes, like Episode 14, where it’s a little bit more island-centric. As for Season 2 in the present day, I kinda know where we find Moira, Detective Lance and Laurel, but I have no idea where Oliver is, at all. They had an idea for the first scene, but it’s something different than you would ever expect. I don’t know when Comic-Con is, in relation to when we start our season, but I hope it’s something that we can film and just air as a 90-second teaser at Comic-Con. It would be one of those, “Oh, my god!,” moments.
Are you excited for Comic-Con, now that you have a season behind you?
AMELL: I am excited! And I’m more excited for everyone to see the last four episodes. Breaks are terrible. I understand why they’re necessary, but I’m so proud of the last four episodes, and the last two in particular, that I just want everybody to see them.
What’s going to surprise viewers about The Undertaking, what it really is, and what it means for the city?
AMELL: The depths of everyone’s involvement. We don’t promise anything in the show and not deliver. We’re not going to promise this massive thing that you would call The Undertaking, and have it be this little teeny-tiny thing. Even if you think of what it could be in your mind, it’s bigger than that. It’s this massive thing, and I’m glad that it pays off the way that it does.
Felicity has a crush on Oliver, but what does he think about her?
AMELL: I think that every day that he sees Felicity, he finds out how capable she is. They have to work very closely together, in Episode 21 and Episode 22. By the time we get to Episode 22 and 23, with the stakes as high as they are, it’s not the IT girl in the Arrow cave. She is a member of the team, on equal footing with myself and with Diggle, and we need her as much as she needs us, in this scenario. I think that Oliver sees her as an equal, and as a very capable individual. Just based on her knowing more about him than just about anyone, at this point in his present day life, she could probably challenge me in ways that other people can’t, and that’s always attractive.
Do you think he sees her in a sisterly way, or as a woman?
AMELL: I think he sees her as a woman.
How does Tommy leaving the club to go work for his dead affect things now?
AMELL: At this point, Oliver actually encouraged Tommy to try to develop a relationship with his father. He doesn’t know anything about Malcolm Merlyn, other than maybe he could be a better dad. He certainly doesn’t suspect anything to the affect of him being slightly evil, let alone the other Archer. I think Oliver would support it because, ultimately, Oliver wants Tommy to be happy and stand on his own. Should he come to learn anything about Tommy’s father, he may feel differently.
Is there any chance Oliver would put on a mask instead of just make-up?
AMELL: I think there is a chance, actually. We really view Oliver, right now, as The Hood or Arrow 1.0. He’s living in the year 2013 and he’s using a wood bow that he made on the island. Things are going to change with him, as time goes on. You’ve always gotta introduce new gadgets. That’s what Felicity is gonna be for. She’s gonna research some cool new thing that I’ll use. So, I do think that there could be a mask. I know that there’s no firm plans for it, but Andrew and Marc are not saying, “Absolutely no mask, ever!” It’s an evolutionary thing.
What’s Thea’s role, in these last episodes?
AMELL: Well, we don’t see a great deal of Thea in Episode 21 because it certainly has more flashbacks and longer flashbacks than we’re accustomed to. We wanted to tell the origin story of the season. But, Thea and Roy are on the trail of the vigilante. If the police can’t just catch him, they’re not going to catch him, but Oliver does catch wind of it, before the end of the season. That leads to some interesting interactions between the three of them. And then, it’s time for Thea, in the finale, to actually really stand on her own and have some heroic moments of her own. And Willa [Holland] continues to impress. I think it’s really fantastic because Willa is such a wonderful actor. I feel like she’s just sitting there, waiting to be really utilized. In the first few episodes, she was trying to get me to open up, and then we basically stopped having meaningful, adult conversations. That’s something Oliver and Thea never had. She was 12, or thereabouts, when he left on the Queen’s Gambit. I think it would be very exciting, in coming seasons, to put them more on an adult-level relationship because she is so capable and is going to be a huge asset for the show, even more so than now.
What percentage of the stunts do you do yourself?
AMELL: It’s pretty high, right now. We were making fun of my stunt double because, for the last three or four days of the finale, he didn’t do anything. When it came time for the sequence that opens the finale, where I’m chained up, he didn’t do a thing, and that’s an incredibly physical sequence. That’s because I’m getting better and the stunt coordinator and fight choreographer are getting more attuned to what I’m able to do, when they design these sequences. They’re given a great deal of freedom to choreograph them, and they are starting to play to my strengths a little bit, so I’m getting to do a ton.
Is that because you’re a competitive guy?
AMELL: Yes!
How are you preparing for Season 2 now?
AMELL: Gosh, we just wrapped Season 1, like 45 minutes ago! I’m going to go away to relax. I’m not necessarily tired at a superficial level. I’ve been getting decent amounts of sleep. I had two days off, during the finale. And I had a couple of days where I was just in a big scene, not all the big scenes. But, I think I’m structurally tried. I need to unwind a little bit. When it comes time for Season 2, I just know that, even if it’s a bigger season, which it will be, and it’s more physically demanding, which it will be, and it’s more fast-paced, which it will be, it will never be as hard as Season 1. The producers did a really good job this year, molding the rest of our cast into people that can carry episodes at a time. I don’t think any part of the fan base would complain, if all of a sudden, we announced that we were going to have a Diggle-centric episode. I think people would be legitimately excited. David [Ramsey] has earned the right for that, and I hope he gets it. And I don’t even want to single him out. So, I would like to think that Season 2 will be a little bit more like the finale of Season 1, where so many people have important storylines and so many things are coming to fruition that, while I am busy, it won’t be non-stop.
Where will the Arrow cave trio be left, at the end of this season?
AMELL: By the time we get to the finale, we get to see Diggle, Felicity and Oliver as a fully functioning, no hierarchy, all in it for each other team. It took Oliver five years to turn into what he was when he showed up in the pilot episode. And the producers have always said that, as much as fans want to see Katie [Cassidy] put on fishnets and immediately turn into Black Canary, that would disservice what we tried to prove with Oliver’s storyline. It takes time. So, we’re getting to see these characters evolve. With Diggle and Felicity being privy to this world, we’re going to continue to see them become more and more capable.
Do you feel like there’s no hierarchy with the island storyline as well, by the end of the season?
AMELL: There is a lot of synchronicity between Shado, Slade and Oliver, and Diggle, Felicity and Oliver.
In the middle of the season, Oliver had it out with his mom, but then things settled down between them. How will her involvement with The Undertaking become an issue?
AMELL: At the end of Episode 14, Oliver said specifically, “We don’t know what The Undertaking is, and until we do, she is off limits.” We’re going to find out what The Undertaking is soon, and if she’s involved, it’s not going to just go quietly into the night. So much of the season has just been people with facades. There’s the one that Oliver puts up for his family, the one that Moira puts up for her family, and the one that Malcolm puts up for Tommy. All of those, towards the last two episodes, just melt away because danger is so perilously close. So, we get to see characters interacting in a way that they haven’t, all season.
Do you think Oliver will move out of his mom’s house, anytime soon?
AMELL: God, I hope so! Even if the season ends with them skipping down the yellow brick road together, and they’re happy-go-lucky, he’s 30 years old and needs to get his own apartment.
There are various possibilities for who could be Arrow’s sidekick. Is there any chance it could end up being both Thea and Roy, and just having a big team of people helping him out?
AMELL: Of course! Things just continue to get bigger and bigger. Before the start of the second episode, you’d be wondering if Oliver would let anyone know his secret. Now, he’s let 5 people know. One of them didn’t survive, so there are four people that exist in the world, right now, who know his secret, let alone people that may be lurking around from the island, that know what he’s been up to. I don’t think it would be responsible to have any sort of cap on the size of the team that he will use or might need.
Will viewers see any more heroes that might be out there?
AMELL: There is a wonderful tease at the beginning of the finale, with respect to origins that Oliver has, that we don’t know about yet, that have happened after the conclusion of Season 1 on the island and certainly before the beginning of the pilot. It’s some really cool stuff.
How much of a cliffhanger will there be in the season finale?
AMELL: Please let people know that Episode 22 is not our season finale. There is enough in Episode 22, both in the present and on the island, that you could just say, “Okay, that’s it! I need a break until October.” The totality of the island sequences in the season finale, the final scene of the season and the penultimate showdown, however that happens, were shot in the last three days. And the cliffhanger is significant.
Is there a chance that not everyone will come our of Season 1 alive?
AMELL: There’s always a chance. It is Season 1. Really crazy stuff is happening, and no one is ever safe.
Will viewers be left to ponder anyone’s fate, over the summer?
AMELL: No.
http://collider.com/arrow-season-2-step ... interview/
por Christina Radish 24 de Abril, 2013 at 10:16 am
With just three episodes left until the Season 1 finale of The CW drama series Arrow, things are about to get epic, and there are sure to be twists and turns and shocking reveals, as everything is coming to a head. With life-threatening decisions, extreme danger, sacrifices and huge life questions, not everyone might make it out alive.
During this recent interview to discuss what’s to come, actor Stephen Amell (who plays billionaire playboy Oliver Queen, aka Arrow) talked about the journey he’s been on this season, why Oliver and Diggle (David Ramsey) have a bit of a falling out, that the Oliver-Laurel (Katie Cassidy)-Tommy (Colin Donnell) love triangle will be coming back into play, the inevitable showdown between Oliver Queen and Malcolm Merlyn (John Barrowman), how close Thea (Willa Holland) and Roy Harper (Colton Haynes) might get to the vigilante, how big of a role The Undertaking will have, how much fun it was to do some pre-island flashbacks, the inevitability that individuals from the island will show up in the present day, the significant cliffhanger in the finale, just how much he actually knows about Season 2, and how excited he is for Comic-Con this year. Check out what he had to say, and be aware that there are some spoilers.
Question: Now that you’ve finished filming Season 1, when you think back to the beginning, did you think that you’d be here, at the end of a season, with another one set to go?
STEPHEN AMELL: I think of it a little bit differently. When you’re shooting the pilot, you can see the end of it because it’s three weeks long. But, I could not have imagined, on July 18th, which was our first day of Episode 2 and what I consider the start of our season because, to me, the pilot is a separate entity, there is no way I could have thought forward to where we are now, 22 episodes later. There was a nice synchronicity because the director of our second episode, David Barrett, directed our finale. When we were shooting the second episode, we were expecting the same amount from the pilot with half the time and less than half the money, and I remember David Barrett basically grabbing everybody by the scruff of their neck and going, “We’re going!” And he did the same thing with the finale. The finale was 10 days and so much bigger than our typical episode, so it was good to have him back. But no, I couldn’t have anticipated being here. We didn’t even know there was going to be the full season, at that point.
When did the success set in?
AMELL: The success aspect, I need a lot of distance from. Hopefully, I’ll get a little bit, during the off season, just to think about the season, in totality. It broke down into the stretch of time from mid-July until mid-October, when the show prepared, and that shortly thereafter, it was sometime around Episode 10 or 11 that we got the pick-up for the back nine episodes. And then, I focused on getting to the Christmas break. When I came back from the Christmas break, we had 11 or12 weeks of hard work. Now, here we are.
So, Diggle and Oliver have some sort of conflict, coming up, that leads to Felicity helping out Oliver?
AMELL: That’s Episode 21. Oliver and Diggle have a little bit of a falling out because Diggle is really after getting Floyd Laughton (aka Deadshot) and is becoming a little bit obsessive, and Oliver doesn’t share the same commitment because there’s still an overall goal. That rubs Diggle the wrong way. So, at least momentarily, he is not at my disposal and I have to send young Miss Smoak (Emily Bett Rickards) into the field.
Is Oliver concerned about losing himself to the Hood?
AMELL: As things ramp up towards the season finale, he’s just focused more and more on the task at hand. Whether it’s his father’s list, the glyph, how it relates to The Glades, or the looming specter of Tommy knowing his secrets, there’s not a lot of time for him to have perspective right now. That’s why so many things are probably about to come crashing down.
Will the love triangle come back into play before the end of the season?
AMELL: Love triangles very rarely stay quiet for very long. It’s less between Oliver and Laurel this week, then it is between Oliver and Tommy. We’re going to get some clarification about how he feels, this week. But, I would expect to see Oliver and Laurel together a lot more, before the end of the season, and that’s not good for Tommy.
What would Oliver do, if he had to actually go up against Tommy?
AMELL: I think that he would do everything that he possibly can to avoid that happening, but if it were to happen, Oliver wouldn’t want to hurt him. Oliver never wanted Tommy to be involved. Everything that had happened before that had been by design. Telling Diggle was by design. Telling Felicity was a little bit earlier than expected, but by design. Telling Tommy was a life-or-death situation where Oliver didn’t want to sit with the guilt of letting Tommy’s father die because he needed to protect his secret. In a split-second decision, he did it, and he’s paying the piper because of it, unfortunately.
Does it come down to a showdown between Oliver Queen and Malcolm Merlyn?
AMELL: We had the fight in Episode 9, and there are a couple of fights to go. It’s wonderful because we have this entire mythology for the season. In Episode 21, we’ve announced that we’re flashing back to before Oliver sets sail on the Queen’s Gambit with his dad, and the entire mythology of our first season and the reason almost everybody is doing what they’re doing is laid out by Barrowman, in this very eloquent, John Barrowman-esque monologue. It’s nice because it pays off what we’ve been setting up. Just as a viewer, I would like it because you sit there and you go, “Oh, wow! These guys had a plan.” We had a plan, from the moment that we saw Malcolm in the fourth episode. Even the glyph in the second episode was the first connection where Moira sits in the car. All of that is coming home to roost right now.
Now that Roy Harper is going to become obsessed with finding The Hood, what will viewers be seeing with Oliver and Roy?
AMELL: We don’t see a ton of myself and Roy Harper this year, but there is one really good scene. I love the end of seasons, in general, that tie everything off and make you go, “Wow, where is it going to go?!” Just when you think there’s nothing, you sprinkle in a few little things. Whether it’s Diggle’s involvement with a certain organization, that you’ll see over the next couple of episodes, or me confronting Roy with Thea right there, while we are services a lot of our storylines for Season 1, you do start to see little Easter eggs along the way for Season 2.
What will viewers see in the finale, on the island side of things?
AMELL: It’s actually a two-part finale. We see the island in Episode 20, and then we actually take a break from the island in Episode 21 because the flashbacks are to before the island. Episodes 22 and 23, on the island, could have been one continuous thing, and I actually wish we shot it that way. I’m pitching that for next year. It’s the culmination of Edward Fyers and his plan, and it’s a moment of transcendence for Oliver.
What can you say about the pre-island flashbacks? Was it fun to play that version of Oliver Queen?
AMELL: It was really fun. I’d never really played that guy before, except for one real quick scene in the pilot. It went really well. Both Marc [Guggenheim] and Andrew [Kreisberg] had wished that we’d gotten to shoot more of it. I got to shoot some stuff with Katie [Cassidy]. It was just fun to play that character, and to be carefree. I think the one who really shines in that episode, for me, in a character that we’ve never seen, is Susanna Thompson. She’s wonderful in the episode because she just plays Moira Queen, the doting mother. She’s not privy to all of this conspiratorial behavior. She just loves her children and loves her husband and she’s just really happy-go-lucky. But, it was fun shooting the Oliver stuff.
Will viewers see much of his relationship with his dad?
AMELL: You’ll see a couple exchanges. The most we see, with respect to the relationship with his father, is the actual sequence between the two of them on the boat. He knows that Oliver is a little bit of a philanderer. He’s brought Sarah on the boat and his father is saying, “That’s not the best idea,” and also giving him the secret high-five underneath the table.
Will viewers see a really different side of Oliver in those flashbacks?
AMELL: It was an interesting exercise for me. We do get a little bit of the backstory, as to why Oliver would make such a decision to have Sarah come on the boat with him.
Did that have anything to do with Tommy?
AMELL: No.
In Episode 22, you introduce Dr. Markov. What can you say about that?
AMELL: We get the explanation as to what Dr. Markov’s purpose is, in Episode 21. And then, the realization of who he is, is pretty immediate in Episode 22. It’s so immediate that I really can’t say anything.
How do you think Oliver would react, if Shado or Slade showed up in the present day?
AMELL: It does sort of seem like an inevitability that eventually some aspect of the island will touch Oliver’s life in the present day. Really, just name a character from the island, whether it’s Slade, Shado, Edward Fyers, Yao Fei. If any of those people showed up in the present day, I think that would be awesome. I’m a huge fan of Lost and the most interesting switch in the storyline, for me, was when we found out they got off the island and it made you go, “Okay, that’s interesting. They got off the island. How did they get off the island?” Let’s say that Shado showed up in the present day, and she and Oliver had all of this history that they were discussing, and maybe they hugged and kissed when she showed up. But then, you switch back to the island and you start going, “Wait, how did this happen?,” because maybe their characters are in a very different place. From a story standpoint, that would be really fun. And as an acting exercise, that would be cool because you can’t play to what you know is coming. It has to happen naturally.
At this point, how much do you actually know about Season 2?
AMELL: Oh, I know stuff! I’ve asked questions. I think the story on the island is really mapped out. If you talk with Andrew and Marc, they would say that this year, in Episode 5, when we introduced Edward Fyers and faux Deathstroke, Billy Wintergreen, and Yao Fei rescued me and I was tortured a little bit, that was when they really discovered what the island could be, and we’ve pushed it that far. But, I think they have a really cool idea and really have it mapped out, for what the island is going to be in Season 2. That will, hopefully, push us towards a couple of the episodes, like Episode 14, where it’s a little bit more island-centric. As for Season 2 in the present day, I kinda know where we find Moira, Detective Lance and Laurel, but I have no idea where Oliver is, at all. They had an idea for the first scene, but it’s something different than you would ever expect. I don’t know when Comic-Con is, in relation to when we start our season, but I hope it’s something that we can film and just air as a 90-second teaser at Comic-Con. It would be one of those, “Oh, my god!,” moments.
Are you excited for Comic-Con, now that you have a season behind you?
AMELL: I am excited! And I’m more excited for everyone to see the last four episodes. Breaks are terrible. I understand why they’re necessary, but I’m so proud of the last four episodes, and the last two in particular, that I just want everybody to see them.
What’s going to surprise viewers about The Undertaking, what it really is, and what it means for the city?
AMELL: The depths of everyone’s involvement. We don’t promise anything in the show and not deliver. We’re not going to promise this massive thing that you would call The Undertaking, and have it be this little teeny-tiny thing. Even if you think of what it could be in your mind, it’s bigger than that. It’s this massive thing, and I’m glad that it pays off the way that it does.
Felicity has a crush on Oliver, but what does he think about her?
AMELL: I think that every day that he sees Felicity, he finds out how capable she is. They have to work very closely together, in Episode 21 and Episode 22. By the time we get to Episode 22 and 23, with the stakes as high as they are, it’s not the IT girl in the Arrow cave. She is a member of the team, on equal footing with myself and with Diggle, and we need her as much as she needs us, in this scenario. I think that Oliver sees her as an equal, and as a very capable individual. Just based on her knowing more about him than just about anyone, at this point in his present day life, she could probably challenge me in ways that other people can’t, and that’s always attractive.
Do you think he sees her in a sisterly way, or as a woman?
AMELL: I think he sees her as a woman.
How does Tommy leaving the club to go work for his dead affect things now?
AMELL: At this point, Oliver actually encouraged Tommy to try to develop a relationship with his father. He doesn’t know anything about Malcolm Merlyn, other than maybe he could be a better dad. He certainly doesn’t suspect anything to the affect of him being slightly evil, let alone the other Archer. I think Oliver would support it because, ultimately, Oliver wants Tommy to be happy and stand on his own. Should he come to learn anything about Tommy’s father, he may feel differently.
Is there any chance Oliver would put on a mask instead of just make-up?
AMELL: I think there is a chance, actually. We really view Oliver, right now, as The Hood or Arrow 1.0. He’s living in the year 2013 and he’s using a wood bow that he made on the island. Things are going to change with him, as time goes on. You’ve always gotta introduce new gadgets. That’s what Felicity is gonna be for. She’s gonna research some cool new thing that I’ll use. So, I do think that there could be a mask. I know that there’s no firm plans for it, but Andrew and Marc are not saying, “Absolutely no mask, ever!” It’s an evolutionary thing.
What’s Thea’s role, in these last episodes?
AMELL: Well, we don’t see a great deal of Thea in Episode 21 because it certainly has more flashbacks and longer flashbacks than we’re accustomed to. We wanted to tell the origin story of the season. But, Thea and Roy are on the trail of the vigilante. If the police can’t just catch him, they’re not going to catch him, but Oliver does catch wind of it, before the end of the season. That leads to some interesting interactions between the three of them. And then, it’s time for Thea, in the finale, to actually really stand on her own and have some heroic moments of her own. And Willa [Holland] continues to impress. I think it’s really fantastic because Willa is such a wonderful actor. I feel like she’s just sitting there, waiting to be really utilized. In the first few episodes, she was trying to get me to open up, and then we basically stopped having meaningful, adult conversations. That’s something Oliver and Thea never had. She was 12, or thereabouts, when he left on the Queen’s Gambit. I think it would be very exciting, in coming seasons, to put them more on an adult-level relationship because she is so capable and is going to be a huge asset for the show, even more so than now.
What percentage of the stunts do you do yourself?
AMELL: It’s pretty high, right now. We were making fun of my stunt double because, for the last three or four days of the finale, he didn’t do anything. When it came time for the sequence that opens the finale, where I’m chained up, he didn’t do a thing, and that’s an incredibly physical sequence. That’s because I’m getting better and the stunt coordinator and fight choreographer are getting more attuned to what I’m able to do, when they design these sequences. They’re given a great deal of freedom to choreograph them, and they are starting to play to my strengths a little bit, so I’m getting to do a ton.
Is that because you’re a competitive guy?
AMELL: Yes!
How are you preparing for Season 2 now?
AMELL: Gosh, we just wrapped Season 1, like 45 minutes ago! I’m going to go away to relax. I’m not necessarily tired at a superficial level. I’ve been getting decent amounts of sleep. I had two days off, during the finale. And I had a couple of days where I was just in a big scene, not all the big scenes. But, I think I’m structurally tried. I need to unwind a little bit. When it comes time for Season 2, I just know that, even if it’s a bigger season, which it will be, and it’s more physically demanding, which it will be, and it’s more fast-paced, which it will be, it will never be as hard as Season 1. The producers did a really good job this year, molding the rest of our cast into people that can carry episodes at a time. I don’t think any part of the fan base would complain, if all of a sudden, we announced that we were going to have a Diggle-centric episode. I think people would be legitimately excited. David [Ramsey] has earned the right for that, and I hope he gets it. And I don’t even want to single him out. So, I would like to think that Season 2 will be a little bit more like the finale of Season 1, where so many people have important storylines and so many things are coming to fruition that, while I am busy, it won’t be non-stop.
Where will the Arrow cave trio be left, at the end of this season?
AMELL: By the time we get to the finale, we get to see Diggle, Felicity and Oliver as a fully functioning, no hierarchy, all in it for each other team. It took Oliver five years to turn into what he was when he showed up in the pilot episode. And the producers have always said that, as much as fans want to see Katie [Cassidy] put on fishnets and immediately turn into Black Canary, that would disservice what we tried to prove with Oliver’s storyline. It takes time. So, we’re getting to see these characters evolve. With Diggle and Felicity being privy to this world, we’re going to continue to see them become more and more capable.
Do you feel like there’s no hierarchy with the island storyline as well, by the end of the season?
AMELL: There is a lot of synchronicity between Shado, Slade and Oliver, and Diggle, Felicity and Oliver.
In the middle of the season, Oliver had it out with his mom, but then things settled down between them. How will her involvement with The Undertaking become an issue?
AMELL: At the end of Episode 14, Oliver said specifically, “We don’t know what The Undertaking is, and until we do, she is off limits.” We’re going to find out what The Undertaking is soon, and if she’s involved, it’s not going to just go quietly into the night. So much of the season has just been people with facades. There’s the one that Oliver puts up for his family, the one that Moira puts up for her family, and the one that Malcolm puts up for Tommy. All of those, towards the last two episodes, just melt away because danger is so perilously close. So, we get to see characters interacting in a way that they haven’t, all season.
Do you think Oliver will move out of his mom’s house, anytime soon?
AMELL: God, I hope so! Even if the season ends with them skipping down the yellow brick road together, and they’re happy-go-lucky, he’s 30 years old and needs to get his own apartment.
There are various possibilities for who could be Arrow’s sidekick. Is there any chance it could end up being both Thea and Roy, and just having a big team of people helping him out?
AMELL: Of course! Things just continue to get bigger and bigger. Before the start of the second episode, you’d be wondering if Oliver would let anyone know his secret. Now, he’s let 5 people know. One of them didn’t survive, so there are four people that exist in the world, right now, who know his secret, let alone people that may be lurking around from the island, that know what he’s been up to. I don’t think it would be responsible to have any sort of cap on the size of the team that he will use or might need.
Will viewers see any more heroes that might be out there?
AMELL: There is a wonderful tease at the beginning of the finale, with respect to origins that Oliver has, that we don’t know about yet, that have happened after the conclusion of Season 1 on the island and certainly before the beginning of the pilot. It’s some really cool stuff.
How much of a cliffhanger will there be in the season finale?
AMELL: Please let people know that Episode 22 is not our season finale. There is enough in Episode 22, both in the present and on the island, that you could just say, “Okay, that’s it! I need a break until October.” The totality of the island sequences in the season finale, the final scene of the season and the penultimate showdown, however that happens, were shot in the last three days. And the cliffhanger is significant.
Is there a chance that not everyone will come our of Season 1 alive?
AMELL: There’s always a chance. It is Season 1. Really crazy stuff is happening, and no one is ever safe.
Will viewers be left to ponder anyone’s fate, over the summer?
AMELL: No.
http://collider.com/arrow-season-2-step ... interview/
- Emily Bett Rickards sobre los intensos episodios finales: 'Esperemos que no tengáis un ataque al corazón' (hollywoodreporter.com):
Emily Bett Rickards sobre los intensos episodios finales: 'Esperemos que no tengáis un ataque al corazón'
Por Philiana Ng 24/04/2013
After starting off on The CW superhero drama as a supporting player, the doe-eyed, socially inept tech whiz aiding Oliver Queen/Arrow (Stephen Amell) with his technological inefficiencies became a fan favorite, to the point where producers made Felicity part of the series' central mythology -- and promoted actress Emily Bett Rickards to series regular status.
For Rickards, the response was a shock to the system. "I didn't really understand what a fanbase meant," Rickards admits to The Hollywood Reporter. "I'm glad I'm playing a character who's intelligent and brave and facing huge situations, and being real in how she's facing them."
STORY: 'Arrow': Colton Haynes on Roy Harper's Journey and Season Finale
One of the few people aware of Oliver's double life, Felicity will be facing another big test when she heads back out onto the field, a task she's (hopefully) better prepared for in her second go-around. In a chat with THR, Rickards previews Felicity's return to danger, more "Olicity" moments and why viewers should prepare themselves for the final episodes of the season.
The Hollywood Reporter: Congratulations on becoming a series regular for season two. Have you thought about what next season could bring for you and your character?
Emily Bett Rickards: I get to learn more about Felicity. It's funny when I wrapped on Friday (April 12), I was like, "Wait a second, so am I saying goodbye to her for three months? How does that work?" I'm playing with that right now. I'd be so sad if I had to say goodbye forever. I'd probably be crying right now.
THR: Can you talk a little bit about the Oliver and Felicity moments? Those tend to bring out another side to Oliver that we don't see a lot of.
Rickards: The moments between Oliver and Felicity, they're interesting because they really organically happened when Stephen and I are on-set. Stephen and I don't talk about "Olicity," and Felicity and Oliver don't talk about Olicity. It's really interesting. I've never been able to explore a character this deeply especially going into the second season. Those moments are proof of a friendship, which is important in any relationship too, that's just going to grow and become stronger and more honest.
THR: Felicity gets back into the field in an upcoming episode. What should we expect there?
Rickards: She ventures out once again. We saw in episode 15, she was all dolled up in an art gallery with her bomb collar and that was the first time we saw Felicity in the field, which she didn't quite like because she had a bomb collar around her neck. She volunteers to do it again in episode 21. There's a huge period of time [between], and she's been training with Diggle (David Ramsey) and Oliver, learning more and she's significantly more involved since [episode] 15 for her own morals and judgments. She's changing in how she looks at things. She's becoming more emotionally involved in what is going on with the undertaking, the book, the Glades. She wants to protect people who are going out in the field. She puts her life at risk. She's not working behind a computer, she's dealing with people, which is hard for her.
THR: With her being so socially awkward?
Rickards: She's extremely socially awkward, but I think that's why it's so important for her to go out. You go and you face your fears, and that's maybe the simplest fear -- not to be underrated -- because there are lives at stake and there are guns all around. There are a lot of armed people around, lots of danger when she goes out and she's doing it by herself, so that'll be interesting for the audience.
THR: Will she get herself into a bind?
Rickards: She needs help and she gets help. You've seen her do a little bit of training. You've seen her fall on a mat with Diggle and Oliver, but what we can expect, looking at Felicity she's not going to be able to take on a big, bulky guy. There's just no way. She's going to need help if she gets into a terrible situation which might happen.
THR: Will different shades of Felicity be uncovered?
Rickards: What I like about when she goes out the second time, she is able to fully commit. She becomes braver, she realizes she can play a character and do this, that she doesn't have to be herself.
THR: It seems like on any given day, one other person is let in on Oliver's secret that he's Arrow. Is there a limit to how many people can know?
Rickards: In "The Huntress Returns" we had Felicity, Diggle, Tommy (Colin Donnell) and Helena (Jessica De Gouw) all on-set and in the same scene -- we're coming in and out of the Foundry -- and you could just see Oliver be like "There are too many people who know my secret!" That's extremely dangerous for his protection and our protection. He's playing a dangerous game with people he's telling.
THR: How would you describe the final episodes of the season?
Rickards: When we get to episode 22, Stephen has said this too: It is so big that it can be the finale. You would expect that to be the end, and then we're going to episode 23, and it's even bigger. If we ran both episodes 22 and 23 on the same night, there'd be a lot of strokes happening. [Laughs]
THR: Any specific moments you can point to?
Rickards: There are some Olicity moments, don't worry, and there's a really nice Diggle/Felicity moment too. You get to see her be introduced to a few more characters on the show. I can tell you she doesn't meet Roy [Harper, played by Colton Haynes]. People are expecting her to meet Roy in this season and she doesn't.
THR: Where does Felicity end up at the end of the season?
Rickards: The season finale's called "Sacrifice." If the audience wants to play treasure hunter and really look at the title, every single character in the show is sacrificing something huge. I think every scene you break down, there's a huge sacrifice. You guys will be invested in it, and heartbroken and moved and hopefully you don't have a stroke.
THR: Have the producers given any clues as to what's in store for Felicity and Oliver's partnership in season two?
Rickards: What I know is she's a strong part of that team. She is Team Vigilante, Team Arrow. She is that and I know that. I haven't been given any clues about Olicity, I don't know who Felicity is going to be meeting.
THR: What do you want to see in the new season?
Rickards: I want to see Felicity's home life. I would love for the fans to see her -- for my own selfish purposes -- do some combat. I would love to work with our stunt director.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-f ... nal-444885
Por Philiana Ng 24/04/2013
After starting off on The CW superhero drama as a supporting player, the doe-eyed, socially inept tech whiz aiding Oliver Queen/Arrow (Stephen Amell) with his technological inefficiencies became a fan favorite, to the point where producers made Felicity part of the series' central mythology -- and promoted actress Emily Bett Rickards to series regular status.
For Rickards, the response was a shock to the system. "I didn't really understand what a fanbase meant," Rickards admits to The Hollywood Reporter. "I'm glad I'm playing a character who's intelligent and brave and facing huge situations, and being real in how she's facing them."
STORY: 'Arrow': Colton Haynes on Roy Harper's Journey and Season Finale
One of the few people aware of Oliver's double life, Felicity will be facing another big test when she heads back out onto the field, a task she's (hopefully) better prepared for in her second go-around. In a chat with THR, Rickards previews Felicity's return to danger, more "Olicity" moments and why viewers should prepare themselves for the final episodes of the season.
The Hollywood Reporter: Congratulations on becoming a series regular for season two. Have you thought about what next season could bring for you and your character?
Emily Bett Rickards: I get to learn more about Felicity. It's funny when I wrapped on Friday (April 12), I was like, "Wait a second, so am I saying goodbye to her for three months? How does that work?" I'm playing with that right now. I'd be so sad if I had to say goodbye forever. I'd probably be crying right now.
THR: Can you talk a little bit about the Oliver and Felicity moments? Those tend to bring out another side to Oliver that we don't see a lot of.
Rickards: The moments between Oliver and Felicity, they're interesting because they really organically happened when Stephen and I are on-set. Stephen and I don't talk about "Olicity," and Felicity and Oliver don't talk about Olicity. It's really interesting. I've never been able to explore a character this deeply especially going into the second season. Those moments are proof of a friendship, which is important in any relationship too, that's just going to grow and become stronger and more honest.
THR: Felicity gets back into the field in an upcoming episode. What should we expect there?
Rickards: She ventures out once again. We saw in episode 15, she was all dolled up in an art gallery with her bomb collar and that was the first time we saw Felicity in the field, which she didn't quite like because she had a bomb collar around her neck. She volunteers to do it again in episode 21. There's a huge period of time [between], and she's been training with Diggle (David Ramsey) and Oliver, learning more and she's significantly more involved since [episode] 15 for her own morals and judgments. She's changing in how she looks at things. She's becoming more emotionally involved in what is going on with the undertaking, the book, the Glades. She wants to protect people who are going out in the field. She puts her life at risk. She's not working behind a computer, she's dealing with people, which is hard for her.
THR: With her being so socially awkward?
Rickards: She's extremely socially awkward, but I think that's why it's so important for her to go out. You go and you face your fears, and that's maybe the simplest fear -- not to be underrated -- because there are lives at stake and there are guns all around. There are a lot of armed people around, lots of danger when she goes out and she's doing it by herself, so that'll be interesting for the audience.
THR: Will she get herself into a bind?
Rickards: She needs help and she gets help. You've seen her do a little bit of training. You've seen her fall on a mat with Diggle and Oliver, but what we can expect, looking at Felicity she's not going to be able to take on a big, bulky guy. There's just no way. She's going to need help if she gets into a terrible situation which might happen.
THR: Will different shades of Felicity be uncovered?
Rickards: What I like about when she goes out the second time, she is able to fully commit. She becomes braver, she realizes she can play a character and do this, that she doesn't have to be herself.
THR: It seems like on any given day, one other person is let in on Oliver's secret that he's Arrow. Is there a limit to how many people can know?
Rickards: In "The Huntress Returns" we had Felicity, Diggle, Tommy (Colin Donnell) and Helena (Jessica De Gouw) all on-set and in the same scene -- we're coming in and out of the Foundry -- and you could just see Oliver be like "There are too many people who know my secret!" That's extremely dangerous for his protection and our protection. He's playing a dangerous game with people he's telling.
THR: How would you describe the final episodes of the season?
Rickards: When we get to episode 22, Stephen has said this too: It is so big that it can be the finale. You would expect that to be the end, and then we're going to episode 23, and it's even bigger. If we ran both episodes 22 and 23 on the same night, there'd be a lot of strokes happening. [Laughs]
THR: Any specific moments you can point to?
Rickards: There are some Olicity moments, don't worry, and there's a really nice Diggle/Felicity moment too. You get to see her be introduced to a few more characters on the show. I can tell you she doesn't meet Roy [Harper, played by Colton Haynes]. People are expecting her to meet Roy in this season and she doesn't.
THR: Where does Felicity end up at the end of the season?
Rickards: The season finale's called "Sacrifice." If the audience wants to play treasure hunter and really look at the title, every single character in the show is sacrificing something huge. I think every scene you break down, there's a huge sacrifice. You guys will be invested in it, and heartbroken and moved and hopefully you don't have a stroke.
THR: Have the producers given any clues as to what's in store for Felicity and Oliver's partnership in season two?
Rickards: What I know is she's a strong part of that team. She is Team Vigilante, Team Arrow. She is that and I know that. I haven't been given any clues about Olicity, I don't know who Felicity is going to be meeting.
THR: What do you want to see in the new season?
Rickards: I want to see Felicity's home life. I would love for the fans to see her -- for my own selfish purposes -- do some combat. I would love to work with our stunt director.
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/live-f ... nal-444885
