Stephen Amell says no ‘faking’ in fights for ‘Arrow’ PHOTOS
Stephen Amell spent hours a day for weeks fighting, kicking and lifting to prep for his role as Oliver Queen, Green Arrow, the famed crime fighter from DC Comics.
“There’s no faking it for this show,” he says.
Amell portrays playboy Queen, who is stranded on an island alone and then returns to civilization with revenge in mind. Each episode will flash back to a time when Oliver was on the island and then bounce back to the present, when Oliver is engaging in a secret agenda as an arrow-slinging vigilante.
“There were about three scenes in the pilot (episode) that I didn’t do,” he says. “If I hurt myself in any way, they’d have to scratch (the episode) and redo everything. They didn’t want to risk that.”
Queen’s childhood best friend, Tommy Merlyn (Colin Donnell) is one of the first people to welcome him back and he wants to pick up right where they left off.
“The friend who left on the cruise is not the friend who comes back from the island. Something is not quite right,” Donnell says in CW preview interview.
Arrow’s incarnation of Deadshot will be portrayed by Michael Rowe, and the character is set to make his debut in the third episode, entitled ‘Lone Gunman’, which is due to air on October 24th.
Other regulars include Katie Cassidy (Supernatural) as Dinah Laurel, David Ramsey (Dexter) as John Diggle, Willa Holland (The O.C.) as Thea Queen, Susanna Thompson (Kings) as Moira Queen and Paul Blackthorne (Justice League: Doom) as Detective Quentin Lance. Other actors set to guest star alongside Kelly Hu and Michael Rowe include John Barrowman (Doctor Who) and Byron Mann (Street Fighter), while Australian actress Jessica De Gouw (Tricky Business) will also appear as Helena Bertinelli, a.k.a. The Huntress.