Oliver and Felicity opened their hearts to each other at the end of last season and escaped Starling City to spend time together in their own paradise. In Arrow Season 4, this “normal” life will come to an end and they will be drawn back into the fight.
This summer, Emily Bett Rickards spoke with reporters about portraying fan favorite Felicity, Oliver and Felicity’s relationship, Felicity’s personal struggles and how Felicity is a hero. Read on for edited excerpts from the interview.
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Is it a bit overwhelming seeing what a fan favorite Felicity has become?
That’s a hard question, because it’s awesome, but Felicity, for me, there’s more of a definitive line . My life has changed a lot because of her, but I’ve learned so much from her. 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 and when you escape into whatever it is, you’re learning something about yourself. I hope that’s potentially what she is doing to a certain aspect. But, yeah, it’s shocking. It’s interesting. It’s a little bit — it’s rewarding. It really is.
Are you happy that Oliver saw the light that he could be happy with Felicity?
I think that it’s awesome that someone could recognize that they’re happy. I don’t find that that’s something that people actually say like “Oh, I’m happy.” I’m like “How are you?” “Good.” Auto-pilot, move on. But I think the acknowledgement for himself, finding out that he was happy and possibly grounded more than he has been in the past ten years, because now he’s maybe safe or secure with people he loves. I think that is really important and a big life hurdle for Oliver.
Felicity had to deal with a lot of drama in Season 3. Are we going to see a return of a lot of the levity in Season 4?
I am hoping and I think so. I mean, we did leave the end of Season 3. Starling City is not exactly in the best shape. That is something that you can expect. But her emotional security is stronger than it was. I think this whole push/pull thing with Oliver and Ray on top of the secret life was a little bit too taxing on her sense of self, hence why she was crying a lot and maybe didn’t feel as strong – that’s how I personally felt about that.
I believe that she’s a really strong, independent woman and she’s caring and she’s generous. I feel 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 a lot of 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 aren’t on a regular basis.
Is it frustrating to see everyone around you suiting up in some sort of suit? You got to wear the ATOM suit, but it there any costume envy on set?
I don’t think Felicity really wants a suit. You’ve gotta give respect to her that she loves her computer. She really does and I think she’s a hero behind it. She’s all geared up in all this tech. They don’t get the tech. I mean, they have cell phones and bluetooth, but who cares? I do believe that she feels like she’s a hero there and she’s playing her part. Just because she doesn’t have a suit doesn’t mean she’s not kicking ass.
Could she get a moniker like Oracle?
Mayyybe….
Driving off into the sunset seems like a great idea and it would be fun, but it could also eventually be kind of boring. Do you think that she’ll want to get back into the grit of things?
I feel like when we find her again, we see her with a void and I don’t know if she necessarily knows exactly what it is yet. I do feel that this life that she’s chosen in this Arrow realm – before she left her day job – she didn’t realize how much she appreciated her purpose and what strength it was giving her to have this new dynamic in helping people and how that good that was making her feel.
I think that when you go away and you live your happy life for a little bit and escape, you can get bored because there’s not the testing or the obstacles and maybe she’s not helping people in the way she wants to.
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Arrow Season 4 premieres Wednesday, October 7 at 8pm ET on the CW.
(Image courtesy of the CW)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
Contributing Editor and Writer for Collider, BuddyTV, TV Fanatic, CliqueClack, and other publications. TV criticism, reviews, interviews with actors and producers, and other related content. Founder of TV Diehard.
