Arrow Star Stephen Amell Admits He Had “Short Fuse” on Set of CW Series

Stephen Amell is headed back to television next week with NBC’s Suits LA, but before he steps into the shoes of former federal prosecutor Ted Black on the Suits spinoff series, he’s looking back on his time wearing a different sort of suit — his time portraying Oliver Queen on The CW’s Arrow. Speaking with Variety, Amell opened up about his time making the popular DC inspired series and admits that he had a “short fuse” on set, acknowledging that he was learning as he went and that he had also made himself a little too accessible to fans which, in turn, didn’t have the most positive results.

“The first two or three years of Arrow, I was gripping so tight. I was white knuckling it,” Amell said of filming Arrow. “The hours were long. By the time we got to the fifth episode of the first season, I’d worked more on that show than I’d ever worked on anything in my life.”

He added, I was never a monster. I was never disrespectful — but I had a short fuse. And you learn as you go.”

[RELATED: Stephen Amell is Right About the Arrowverse]

Amell also particularly addressed some of his interactions with fans. During Arrow’s run, Amell was a regular fixture on social media, engaging with fans and viewers as well as attended numerous fan conventions as well. For Amell, some of his time on social media led to trying to address what he called “hypercritical people” and their comments about the series — something he says he’s learned to handle differently now.

“There used to be a lot of hypercritical people, specifically with Arrow,” he said. “I would see it and almost try to police it.

“Social media has become a zero-sum game — there is no winning,” he added. “I learned the hard way.”

While Amell admits that he had a “short fuse” while making Arrow and that he has learned to handle reactions to the series differently now, the actor is still pretty protective of the series that kicked off The CW’s Arrowverse and, in many ways, opened the door to the live action DC Universe as we currently know it. Last fall, Amell reacted to a joke about Green Arrow in an episode of Peacemaker, saying at the time that he “didn’t f-cking appreciate that at all.”

“That was a little unnecessary,” Amell said last fall. “I didn’t f-cking appreciate that at all…Okay. I am just going to come right out and say this. There was just such…between the movies and Peacemaker a little bit, our show was kind of treated like sh-t. I get it, we’re on The CW, I get it, it’s TV. But I also get the fact that when people think about the most recent iteration of DC, they don’t think about the Snyder Cut — they think about the Arrowverse. We got crapped on for years, and years, and years, and this just seemed excessive. I’m not actually made, but I just remember hearing that and just being like, ‘F-ck those guys,’ like seriously. I’m up here. I’m working just as hard as anyone else. Do you know how hard it is to play a superhero with no superpowers for 23 episodes a year? It’s really, really, really hard and I’m not looking for a prize, but, like, maybe don’t sh-it on our show,”

As for Suits LA, the eagerly anticipated series arrives Sunday, February 23rd on NBC. It follows Ted Black (Amell), a former federal prosecutor from New York who has reinvented himself representing the most powerful clients in Los Angeles. His firm is at a crisis point, and in order to survive, he must embrace a role he held in contempt his entire career. Ted is surrounded by a stellar group of characters who test their loyalties to both Ted and each other while they can’t help but mix their personal and professional lives. All of this is going on while the events that led Ted to leave everything and everyone behind he loved years ago slowly unravel.

What do you think of Amell’s comments? Let us know your thoughts in our comment section!