'Arrow' Star Stephen Amell Couldn't Breathe in the Flash Costume

The upcoming "Elseworlds" Arrowverse crossover is set to turn the shared universe of The CW's DC Comics shows on its head -- at least for three nights -- and as promos have revealed, part of that means Arrow star Stephen Amell is suiting up as The Flash. But while Amell may be used to suiting up as the Green Arrow on his own show, it turns out that speedster duds are a bit tight.

In an appearance at Heroes and Villains Fan Fest in San Jose on Saturday, Amell told fans he couldn't breathe when he put the Flash suit on for the first time.

"When I'm on Arrow and when I get new leather pants, we call it new pants day," Amell said. "For two days I can't breathe with these pants on. So, when I put the flash suit on for the first time, it was like that except for my entire body. In between takes, if it looks like I'm uncomfortable it's because I am."

Amell isn't the only one of the Arrowverse's stars to mention that their super suits can be a little on the tight side. Supergirl's Nicole Maines, who plays Nia Nal/Dreamer, recently told reporters at a visit to the show's Vancouver set that her first experience with her own yet-to-be-debuted super suit was also a tight one.

"Constricting. Tight," Maines said when asked what it was like wearing Dreamer's costume at first. "For the first time it was for a fitting, so they have the model and they have your sizes, but when you first put it on in person, they kind of realize, 'Okay, this needs to go up more, this needs to be hemmed,' or 'wow, you can't get your arm through this.' So, constricting."

Fortunately, though, it sounds like the super suits do eventually become more comfortable for the actors to wear. Amell explained to fans at Heroes and Villains that his Flash suit did finally break in for him -- at the end of the Elseworlds shoot.

"Funnily enough, the Flash suit broke in," Amell said. "On the last day of the crossover."

Tight and uncomfortable super suits notwithstanding, "Elseworlds" may be the most ambitious Arrowverse crossover yet. The event will include the live-action debut of Kate Kane/Batwoman (Ruby Rose) and will also see the appearances of Dr. John Deegan (Jeremy Davies), The Monitor (LaMonica Garrett), and Nora Fries (Cassandra Jean Amell). And if Amell's comments are any indication, it sounds like "Elseworlds" may be even better than last year's "Crisis on Earth-X".

"The crossover is fucking bananas," Amell explained during a recent Facebook Live. "It's crazy... I think that this will be the best crossover event that we do. And not just the best but the best by a really, really wide margin. And I think that last year was fantastic."

"'Crisis on Earth X', I think that's what it was called, that was pretty crazy and getting to play doppelgängers was pretty crazy," Amell continued. "When Greg Berlanti first talked to me about why he wanted to do crossovers, it was because it's for the fans. It's so people can watch characters and scenarios that combine their favorite things on TV or introduce them to new things on TV. But you also get this license to do things that we could never do in the vacuum — especially on Arrow — that we can never do in the vacuum of just our show."

The three-night "Elseworlds" event will begin with The Flash on Sunday, December 9th, before carrying over to December 10th's Arrow and December 11's Supergirl.