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Published On: Tue, May 17th, 2016

Paul Blackthorne talks ‘Arrow’ season 5, Quentin Lance, Laurel coming back

The CW series Arrow may have shocked fans with “Canary Cry,” an episode in which Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell) and the team are struggling to come to terms with the death of one of their own, loss of Laurel Lance, played by Katie Cassidy. Diggle (David Ramsey) is overwhelmed with guilt for the decisions that he made, Lance (Paul Blackthorne) refuses to believe his daughter is really gone and goes to Nyssa (Katrina Law) for help to bring her back. Collider spoke with Blackthorne about the twist and the effects on his character, asking if he has any sanity left.

arrow season 3-katie-cassidy-black-canary“None left, whatsoever, let’s face it,” he tells Collider during an exclusive interview. “Obviously, in the past, Sara has come back a couple of times now. The toughest thing, beyond Laurel’s actual death, is reconciling why, even though Sara has come back before, Laurel can’t come back. Also, she was the one responsible for bringing Sara back, so why can’t someone do that for her? That’s the toughest thing for Lance.”

Blackthorne touched on the challenge of the hospital scene, the difficulty of the hospital shoot and how hard that was.

“It’s all miserable stuff. They say that, in acting, it’s great if you can surprise yourself, and I surprised myself. When we were shooting that scene in the hospital, it was described as, ‘He’s in shock and disbelief,’ but I wasn’t expecting the whole idea of touching her and trying to get her to move. The thought of being in denial of her death and that whole aspect of grief coming through was extraordinary. He’s trying to wake her up and it was like, ‘Oh, yeah, that’s what happens with grief.’ The first stage is denial and going, ‘Wake up!’ I went deep with that stuff and was immersed into it. It was pretty heavy, but it was great writing. It was an opportunity to pick up the ball and run with it.”

Now it’s time for revenge. “Obviously, he’s got his feelings of revenge toward Damien Darhk (Neal McDonough). I think everybody has got a bit of a bone to pick with him, haven’t they? Lance would never have any ill feelings toward Oliver for what happened to Laurel. It’s not Oliver’s fault that Darhk plunged one of his arrows into her heart. Without a doubt, all of his anger is directed at Darhk. That guy is a piece of work. And it’s funny because this was telegraphed way back when Darhk said, ‘I’ll kill your daughter, if you don’t do what I say.’ Nobody listened. Nobody took him seriously. From a story point of view, it was telegraphed, all the way along, through the season, but it was such a massive surprise to actually see it happen. It was a pretty shocking storyline.”

Looking ahead to a fifth season Blackthorne says that he “…enjoyed working with Team Arrow. That was a lot of fun. Any involvement there is great. I’d love more Team Arrow. The shift in the relationship between Lance and Oliver is great. There’s an element of father figure there, but only to a degree because Oliver knows the world and Lance is just a small part of it. Lance is always going to revere him, in that sense. So, it would be nice to see some development, in that way. But, who knows? I always sit down with the producers, a week before we start shooting, and go, ‘Okay, what’s happening this year? Really?! It’s going to be this and it’s going to be that?! Really?!’ It’s always interesting to see what each year’s dynamics are going to be about.”

 

Arrow airs on Wednesday nights on The CW.

Check out the full interview at Collider

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About the Author

- Sierra is a copy writer for The Dispatch, focusing primarily on pop culture and stories linked to the latest Christian headlines, both in the U.S. and overseas.

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