Though many fans know Stephen Amell for his time as Oliver Queen on The CW’s Arrow and its many spin-offs, he’s been acting professionally for a lot longer. While speaking with his former co-star Colton Haynes on his YouTube series “How’d You Do It?,” Amell offered a hilarious anecdote about one of his first movies: that might be him on screen, but it’s not his voice. After Haynes opened up about a potential project early in his career where the producers “used his face” and “dubbed in someone else’s voice,” Amell couldn’t help but laugh because the same thing happened to him early in his career as well.
Videos by ComicBook.com
“I had a movie that I did with Mischa Barton,” Amell started. “It was a Richard Attenborough film, and I was so bad in it and so what they didn’t want that they dubbed my voice for the entirety of the movie. It’s called Closing the Ring, find it, go buy it, watch it.”
When prompted that a trailer for the film was online that they could watch on the series, Amell declined with a laugh. However if you’re curious yourself, you can watch it in the player below.
Amell starred in the film with a stacked ensemble cast which also included Shirley MacLaine, Christopher Plummer, Neve Campbell, and Pete Postlethwaite. Released in 2007, the film marked the first movie by Oscar winner Richard Attenborough in eight years and would go on to become the final film he directed. With 18 total reviews, Closing the Ring sits at 33% and “Rotten” on RottenTomatoes, the film’s official description reads:
“In the 1940’s a girl secretly marries a WWII pilot who crashes in the hills near Ireland. 50 years later his wedding ring resurfaces — along with the secrets that have kept the widow, her estranged daughter and devoted friend each from finding true love.”
Amell no doubt won’t find himself in a similar place moving forward as his work on Arrow has made him a household name around the world. He can next be seen in the wrestling-related drama series Heels, which is currently on hiatus due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. You can check out the series synopsis as well as details about Amell’s character, Jack Spade (which he will seemingly provide the voice for), below.
“Written by Michael Waldron (Loki), with Mike O’Malley set as showrunner, Heels is about the men and women who chase their dreams in the world of small town pro wrestling. Set in a close-knit Georgia community, it follows a family-owned wrestling promotion as two brothers and rivals — one of them played by Amell — war over their late father’s legacy. In the ring, somebody must play the good guy and somebody must play their nemesis, the heel (Amell). But in the real world, those characters can be hard to live up to — or hard to leave behind.”
In the ring, Amell’s Jack Spade is the charismatic villain, or heel, of the Duffy Wrestling Association (DWA). In the real world, he’s its hard-working owner, a husband and father trying to make ends meet while fighting to realize his impossible dreams. He has the mind of an artist in the body of a warrior, and a Steve Jobs-ian need for perfection — and for control. He says he’ll do whatever it takes to build the DWA into an empire. Will he go so far as to risk his marriage, or his relationship with his brother?”
