While some celebrities like to stay away from using social media to connect with their fanbases, Arrow star Stephen Amell is as active on Facebook as he is on Starling City’s sets. He recently shared with fans the main two reasons why the snowy midseason finale fight with Ra’s al Ghul was one completely free from warmth-creating shirts. And “moistening up the place” wasn’t one of the answers.
To give thanks for reaching 3 million followers on his Facebook page, Amell posted a lengthy video answering fan questions, and as you can imagine, our last hour with the bow-carrying vigilante was a popular topic. When asked how cold he was filming the shirtless fight, Amell guaranteed his discomfort and then explained why it happened that way.
We had been planning to do that fight shirtless for a variety of reasons. The first one, I proposed it to the producers because I didn’t want my stunt double Simon doing one single thing. I love you, Simon. It turns out, though, that Batman and Ra’s Al Ghul fighting on top of a mountain shirtless is a very iconic image from the comic books. So we wanted to honor that as well.”
Another person like myself would have just put on more clothing, like a ski mask, to have a fight in the freezing cold, thus making the stunt double thing a non-issue anyway. But I can’t knock anybody for wanting to do the same things that Batman does, because I AM THE NIGHT. I still would have assumed the setting would have been recreated, though, instead of actually filmed in such frigid conditions. He says at one point that the temperature was around 2 degrees Celsius. Time for some campfire arrows, buddy.
See all those swords in the picture up top? Someone asked Amell if there was any significance to the swords that he and Ra’s al Ghul used in the fight, and his answer may surprise you.
No. Good question, though.”
He also cheekily shared that it was a League secret how that particular piece of sword-holding furniture got brought up the mountain. Maybe IKEA made it. I’ll look the next time I’m on the evil villain version of their website.
You can check out the entire Q&A below, which is quite a delightful watch, even if you’re not a huge Arrow fan. Plus, it’s only Part 1!
Post by Stephen Amell.
Maybe in the next one, Amell will talk about a future episode where Arrow and Ray Palmer are fighting some bad guys while wearing bikini briefs.
