Just prior to his appearance at the 2014 San Diego Comic-Con, The CW released the first photo of Colton Haynes as ‘Arsenal’ in Arrow. It was well received by fans of the comics and of the popular series, and while at Comic-Con, I had the opportunity to ask Haynes during our roundtable interview what it was like to put the suit on.
Haynes also talked about his character’s relationships in the third season and about whether we can expect to see a certain body part missing from his character in upcoming episodes.
Colton Haynes Arrow Interview
What did it feel like to put on the suit for the first time?
Colton Haynes: “I actually…I haven’t said this yet…I tried a prototype of the costume on which we were going to premiere in the last episode of the second season, and it looked nothing like how it looks now. It looked awesome, but this is just a whole level of badassness. We decided with the departure of a few of the big characters, the storyline needed to aid to them saying goodbye so we saved the costume for this, for the first episode of season three.
It’s the coolest costume in the world. And yet basically, if I lost a bunch of weight, all you have to do is put a bunch of fake stuff in the costume, and you look super buff. I ate two plates of donuts last night so, yeah.”
What was wrong with the first costume?
Colton Haynes: “Nothing was wrong with it. I think they just… It was almost the same. It just didn’t have a little bit of the black in it, because I think now it’s got black and red. But I think just over time they just decided to add stuff.”
What’s the relationship like between Oliver and Roy in season two? Will it change a little bit and become more traditional like the comics? After how dark last season was, is it different to be playing in that new space for you?
Colton Haynes: “Well, it’s different but different in a good way. Everyone was telling me episode 20, ‘Seeing Red’, episode 19 or 20 – it’s your big episode. So I’m like, ‘Okay, hopefully I can get the script soon. I can learn all of my lines.’ I didn’t have one line the entire episode. I was in every scene, but I actually ended up pulling – I don’t know what the muscle was – we were doing all the angry faces and I had this thing where I couldn’t move the bottom of my chin.
But, anyway, now I don’t have to do that scowling because Roy has a little bit of a lighter side now. He has this funny thing with Felicity. They’re turning into this little…it’s like the scene from Bridesmaids where they’re trying to one-up each other. That’s basically me and Felicity this season. It’s nice to see a little lighter side because we go back to the cartoons and comics and stuff and it’s a little quippy. It’s not as dark this season.”
You came from Teen Wolf which was groundbreaking in the way it represented gay characters, and Arrow is the first show based on a superhero to incorporate a gay character. How do you feel about working on two shows that are giving visibility to people that aren’t often represented in the genre?
Colton Haynes: “We’ve done it and Teen Wolf‘s really done it so well. I think we need to continue to do it. My brother has been married for five years; he’s been with his husband for 15 years and they just had a baby. So in that aspect, that’s the longest relationship of anyone in my entire family, so that’s my level of commitment. I think they need to keep incorporating it. Now we need to bring male characters into it. I think it helps. It’s normal and they should keep doing it.”
What’s going to happen with your relationship with Thea now that she’s potentially a darker character?
Colton Haynes: “This is the part…there is a scene coming up between us, but we’re not that far into the episodes yet. I think Roy realizes that he messed up. The one person that shouldn’t have been lying to Thea was Roy because the love each other. But then he got caught and I think he’s just trying to busy himself right now with going out on patrols with Team Arrow and things like that. I do think that they have an understanding that there was love there and that he meant that he really did want to go away with her. So I think that we’re definitely going to see an interesting relationship with John [Barrowman’s] character, between Roy and Malcolm.”
Becoming Arsenal, will we see a change in your physical appearance?
Colton Haynes: “It’s funny. People keep asking me that and I’ve asked that myself. I’ve asked about that and the drug addiction and things like that, and they haven’t ruled it out. They have reminded me that it’s really expensive to CGI an arm off and I really don’t want to cut my arm off so… I don’t know. I don’t think we’ll see the missing arm anytime soon, but I think we are going to see a bunch of people from his past give some other characters a run for their money. I think we are going to see a little bit of Roy’s family this year too. We will hear more about them.”
How are your archery skills?
Colton Haynes: “Well my stunt double Curtis Braconnier’s archery skills are phenomenal. Yeah, I can do it if I stand still. But then they’re like, ‘Back to your training. Try a double barrel move with a kick and a thing,’ and I can’t do it. I can’t walk and chew gum at the same time. I just say I’m Curtis’ dialogue double because he does everything for me.”
