Emily Bett Rickards Interview: ‘Arrow’ Season Four, Olicity, and a Happier Felicity

Emily Bett Rickards Interview on Arrow Season 4
Emily Bett Rickards at the 2015 San Diego Comic-Con (Photo by Richard Chavez / Showbiz Junkies)

Emily Bett Rickards plays fan-favorite Felicity Smoak on The CW’s Arrow, and at the 2015 San Diego Comic-Con she talked about what it’s like to take on such a popular character.

“My life has changed a lot because of her. I’ve learned so much from her,” said Rickards. “Also, she’s become a fan favorite – and I’m a fan of her. I’m happy that people are able to relate to her because I find that when you can relate to something when you can escape into your role, you’re learning something about yourself and helping with yourself in your own life. I hope that’s what she’s potentially doing, to a certain aspect. But, yeah, it’s shocking, it’s interesting, it’s rewarding. It really is.”

Sitting down to discuss the series during roundtable interviews, Rickards reflected on “Olicity,” the fan’s nickname for the relationship between Felicity and Oliver [played by Stephen Amell], and how that relationship stood at the end of season three. “I think that it’s awesome that someone can recognize that they’re happy,” said Rickards in answer to a question about Oliver finally seeing the light. “I don’t find that that’s something people actually say. Like, ‘Oh, I’m happy.’ ‘Are you? Oh, good.’ But I think that acknowledgment for himself, finding out that he is happy and possibly grounded more than he has been in the last 10 years because now he’s safe and more secure with people he loves, I think is really important and a big life hurdle for Oliver.”

Rickard’s Felicity plays a big part in the flash-overs between Arrow and The Flash, bringing the two worlds together seamlessly in her own way. “I find that she has a really important role in connecting the worlds because she’s so easily willing to make friends. I don’t think she makes…she’s not very great with people all the time. But, she’s always willing to help people, and she’s generous, and that bridges the gap between any turmoil or torturing.”

As for the tone of the show in season four, Rickards acknowledges season three was a very heavy one for Felicity, but she’s hopeful there will be a little more humor or light moments in the upcoming season. “Her emotional security is stronger than it was. I think this whole push-pull thing with Oliver and Ray [played by Brandon Routh] on top of the secret life is a little bit too taxing on her sense of self, hence why she was crying a lot,” explained Rickards.

“I believe that she’s a really strong and independent woman. I feel that she’s caring and she’s generous, and I feel that that is her innate ability. But you also need to be able to pump yourself up, and I feel like she was really taxing herself and accepting scenarios that weren’t exactly giving her energy; they were taking a lot of it away, and she wasn’t aware of it, which we are.”

Watch the full interview with Emily Bett Rickards on Arrow‘s fourth season: