‘Arrow’s Stephen Amell Initially Earned Less Than His Co-Stars

For fans of The CW‘s Arrowverse, Stephen Amell is a household name. The actor’s starring role as Oliver Queen/Green Arrow on Arrow launched what is now a franchise of four, soon to be five, connected DC Comics-inspires series for the network. However, despite that significant role, Amell wasn’t always at the top of the pay scale. Turns out, he was initially paid less than his costars.

Amell was an guest on Michael Rosenbaum’s “Inside of You” podcast this week and the actor was candid about many elements of being the lead of Arrow, including the complex matter of his paycheck for the first few seasons of the series. According to Amell, while he had a fair initial deal for someone with no real history as a leading man, the network was looking to save a bit of money at first.

“I didn’t really care what the deal was,” he said. “It was a fair deal. I had no quote. I had never been a series regular before; I was a series regular on Hung, technically, but I wasn’t going to be bumped up to a series regular price until the fourth season, if there was a fourth season, which there wasn’t. It was a very, very fair deal. I mean, the first thing they did was try to hire me as a Canadian.”

Hiring Amell as a Canadian would have meant a lower salary and that he wouldn’t be eligible to receive residuals, but fortunately, Amell’s agent stepped in and shut that down.

“That’s the first conversation that they have and my agent shut it down immediately. Basically, the business affairs person comes back, semi-embarrassed, and says, ‘You know, I gotta ask…’” Amell recalled.

Of course, even with a better salary and residuals handled, his initial contract left him making less money than other actors on the show. Amell said by the end of the second season, he was only the fourth or fifth highest paid cast member.

“The only issue I had in the first couple of years was, I think, that up until the end of the second season I was the fourth or fifth highest paid cast member, because I had no quote,” he said. “They gave me what they termed as a ‘gift’ after Season 2; it’s them raising my salary without asking for anything in return. My thing was very simple. I just said, ‘Quite frankly, I work way more than everybody else.’ Especially in Season 1 and Season 2, it was way more disproportionate than it is now. I think somebody was making X. They’re like, ‘OK, your new salary is going to be X minus, like, $1,250 per episode.’ And I go, ‘What are you doing? That’s not the most amount of money.’ They said, ‘Yeah, no. It’s the most amount of money over the course of 23 episodes, because the person above you is not all episodes produced.’ I was like, ‘OK, technically you’re right…’ That leaves a little bit of a s–tty taste in my mouth. Just a little,” he added.

While the salary situation was unpleasant for Amell, another potentially unpleasant situation ended up being a positive one. He also told Rosenbaum about an incident with Rick Gonzalez (Wild Dog) that left him with a greater respect for his co-star. According to Amell, Gonzalez pulled him aside and politely called him out for interrupting his read of an important scene. It was a show of professionalism that truly resonated with Amell.

“The fact that he pulls me aside, it’s squashed, my level of respect for him, which was already high, jumps up even more and then you go on about your day,” he said.

Arrow will return with new episodes on Monday, Oct. 15th, at 8 p.m. ET on The CW.