Paul Blackthorne Interview: ‘Arrow’ Season 5 and an Emotional Quentin Lance

Arrow star Paul Blackthorne
Paul Blackthorne from ‘Arrow’ at Comic Con 2016 (Photo © Richard Chavez / Showbiz Junkies)

Season five of The CW’s Arrow will find Quentin Lance (Paul Blackthorne) still reeling from the death of his daughter, Laurel (Katie Cassidy). During roundtable interviews at the 2016 San Diego Comic-Con, Blackthorne said season five opens with Lance wrestling with some old demons. Blackthorne didn’t say how that will affect his relationship with #TeamArrow, but he did reveal he’s enjoying the changing dynamics between characters that the writers have laid out this coming season.

Arrow season five premieres on October 5, 2016 at 8pm ET/PT.

Paul Blackthorne Interview:

How does he move forward and how does he support the idea of what the Arrow is about?

Paul Blackthorne: “Well, we don’t know what the Arrow (Stephen Amell) is going to be about coming into season five. We don’t know that yet, how that’s going to evolve. Lance is in a bad way. I think it’s one of the worst ways ever, believe it or not. I think it is. Yeah, it’s the worst way. He’s suffering badly.”

Are we going to see that play out this season?

Paul Blackthorne: “Yes. And there’s some interesting dynamics as to who he’s relating with these days as well. It was a nice surprise that the writers sort of threw up. We’ve started that now and it’s been enjoyable. So, yeah, you know every year the dynamics and relationships shift a bit. You know, ‘Love you. Hate you. Hate you. Love you,’ it all changes. They’ve done the same thing this year. It’s a nice shift among the characters.”

How difficult was it to do the scene in Legends of Tomorrow where Quentin breaks the news to Sara?

Paul Blackthorne: “Well, it felt like just doing a scene in Arrow, to be honest. Sat in the Arrow bunker and just wondering who the crew was – they were different. But, no, it was from a character point of view not much fun telling one daughter the other daughter’s dead. Not much fun. Nice to play; good stuff to play around with from an acting point of view. And the stuff we’ve been shooting the past few weeks we’ve been back, I hadn’t quite realized how heavy it was all going to be. I just seemed to burst into tears about every 10 minutes or so. (Laughing) There we go, season five. It’s good, though. Good stuff.”

You have such a good sense of humor and Lance is always so serious. Have you asked them to give you any comedic material to break things up?

Paul Blackthorne: “No, I would never ask for comedic material. I was terrified when I saw the bees script. I remember thinking, ‘What is this, an episode of Seinfeld or something? Why is this all so funny?’ Of course it was a brilliant move because it was the episode right before Laurel got killed and everything went dark for the last four episodes. I’m terrified of comedy but if you just stick to the truth…you don’t have to try and be funny. If you try and be funny you might as well forget about it. So I just sort of stuck to the truth of Lance and how he generally reacts to things as a grounded individual and it was kind of funny then.

I was caught by surprise when I saw some of it back. I was, ‘That’s quite funny!’ And then there was the piggyback thing when I Curtis and I are chasing the bees around, and that was a completely weird improv sort of moment. ‘Why am I suddenly piggybacking a 6’5″ man with huge hair? What is going on?’ But it happened and it stayed in the cut so that was funny.”

Watch the full Paul Blackthorne interview:

(Interview by Fred Topel. Article by Rebecca Murray.)