Last night’s episode of Arrow was one of the most action-packed of The CW series’ entire run so far, and star Stephen Amell has nothing but praise for the stunt team that made it possible.
Videos by ComicBook.com
In “The Slabside Redemption,” Amell’s Oliver Queen and Bronze Tiger (Michael Jai White) make their way through Slabside Supermax prison trying to save prison guards whose lives are threatened in a riot orchestrated by Ricardo Diaz (Kirk Acevedo). The result was a number of intense action scenes that required a lot of work, something Amell took to Twitter to acknowledge.
Very proud of tonight’s episode. It was a logistical quagmire because of the amount of stunt work involved. All departments had to be on their games and the producers had to have a ton of faith in us and in particular the stunt department. I hope it showed!
— Stephen Amell (@StephenAmell) November 27, 2018
“Very proud of tonight’s episode,” he wrote. “It was a logistical quagmire because of the amount of stunt work involved. All departments had to be on their games and the producers had to have a ton of faith in us and in particular the stunt department. I hope it showed!”
And Amell went on in a separate tweet to acknowledge part of why some of the scenes were particularly complicated for him personally — he had a fractured hip.
True story: I suffered an occult fracture to my left hip right before we started filming tonight’s episode. I couldn’t make it worse I could simply delay the healing process if it hit it on something. Also couldn’t complain bc it happened in a wrestling match. I’m an idiot.
— Stephen Amell (@StephenAmell) November 27, 2018
“True story: I suffered an occult fracture to my left hip right before we started filming tonight’s episode,” he explained. “I couldn’t make it worse I could simply delay the healing process if it hit on something. Also couldn’t complain it happened in a wrestling match. I’m an idiot.”
Injury notwithstanding, Amell was very pleased with how the episode came out and during a recent visit to the set of Arrow renewed is oft-repeated call for the Arrow stunt department to get more recognition.
“[This week], they just turned the stunt department loose,” Amell said. “It was the shortest script that I’ve ever read because it had such little stage direction in it. It was basically Beth going to James Bamford and saying, ‘This is through line of what happens to Oliver from start to finish. Do what you can in the time that you have. Go.’ There’s some specific stuff like Stanley gets Oliver with a needle and Oliver’s tied up or whatever, but all that choreography, that was something that the stunt department I think really excelled in. We’re not going to get nominated for a stunt Emmy, because we don’t get nominated for a stunt Emmy. But we should get nominated for a stunt Emmy.”
Arrow airs at 8 p.m. ET on The CW.
