Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum - Ep 21: Stephen Amell

Episode Date: August 28, 2018

Stephen Amell (Arrow, The Flash, Hung) discusses the beginning of his career, the surreal experience of getting cast on Arrow, and his experience with crossover episodes. Stephen opens up about his first marriage, what went wrong, and dealing with depression towards the end of their relationship. We end the episode on a high note, Stephen tells the fairy tale story of meeting his now wife and becoming a father. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum, my good friend, Rob Hollis. How you doing, bud? I'm doing good. How are you? We got a great guest today. We do who? We always have great guests. Yeah, but who do we have this week? You guys watch a show called Arrow.

It's one of the biggest shows out there. That's huge. It's one of the, you know, this guy has millions of followers. He's a charitable guy. He's everywhere. He's a really good looking guy. He's named Stephen Amel. He's a honk.

He's got a huge following. We get really inside of Stephen. And in fact, he was on. Unqualified on Ana Farris's podcast. Yeah, they had a live show at a comic line. And yes, of course, and they obviously produced this show. And guess what? He said the smartest thing that Anand Sam ever did was bringing you onto their network.

He says the show, he says he never opens up about his divorce and he did. I got him to open up about it. But he said it was like, I don't know, it felt natural. And look, we talk about his divorce. We talk about so many things about just get in and listen to this. Yeah, I think you just listen to this. I think you're going to really dig it. This episode of Inside of You is brought to you by...

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I know the guys there too They're a freaking amazing guys Stephen Amel folks It's my point of you You're listening to inside of you With Michael Rosenbaum Inside of You Inside of You with Michael Rosenbaum

Was not recorded In front of a live studio audience I have a feeling Not a lot bothers you No is that true I'm pretty easygoing I'm very particular

but I'm pretty easy going Do you think you've always been easy going Or do you think that I've been pretty easy going Since I moved out to L.A. Properly in 2010 But the working on Arrow And I can pretty much tell you

What I'm going to be doing Every day down to the minute, right? So my structure My time has become incredibly valuable You have purpose every day you do things that have some kind of purpose in your life? Even if that means doing nothing, right? But I need to walk.

You need that. I'm becoming a little, like when I walk into a room, I need stuff to be organized. Okay. Do you think this room is organized? This is the, uh, this is the basement. This is the podcast screening room. For the most part, it's pretty organized, right? It's pretty organized.

I cleaned up quite a bit before we started, though. You had a bunch of shit everywhere. Really? Was it dirty? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, because, you know, I had band practice. And then I had an interview for, like, I did this movie called Urban Legend when I was,

like 26 and it was a 20th anniversary so they asked that they'd come interview me but so they trashed my place and then they you know they didn't really clean it really clean up so that's why it was a little messy but uh thanks rob for you know taking credit for cleaning my house you're welcome at the at the very least there's some serious organization going on with the DVDs and that's critically important to me how many people do you know have DVDs still uh I one who's that my buddy Jeff Brown. He has every DVD. Blue Ray slash Blu-ray. Slash Blu-ray. I think that he sold them when he moved to New York, but he would have everything. And I mean everything. We would go through his stuff. I have laser discs upstairs in my bedroom, like Jaws, Collectors Edition with the Peter Benchley

book. I have alien. I have, you know, people are like, you know, why don't you just sell these? I'm like, first of all, get $10 for this collection. And it's all alphabetized, which is weird to some people, but why would you want to have a DVD collection and not know where to go find Jaws? That makes perfect sense. No, because I was looking at it and I'm looking at the TV DVDs up there and you have Game of Thrones right after Friends. So I recognized immediately that it was alphabetized. That sort of stuff is important. But you know what happens? Sometimes it gets like a little messy, especially when you're talking about TV shows and box sets. So this side is a little messier than the other side. I guess you guys would have to be here to see what we're talking about. No, but why would you sell it? It's art. It is art. You come down here and it kind of adds a little fun to the room, doesn't? It adds a little bit like, hey, this guy's dated. Do you own a DVD player? well here's the great thing i have a blue ray player which is part of my xbox so you could play right whatever you want in the in the xbox right do you own xbox no do you have a playstation i haven't had a gaming system since super nintendo stephen emel thank you for allowing me to be inside of you today this is uh we just we just we always just start i was coming down from hermosa

thought i was going to be late i was worried you're a busy guy your time's important and i was like fuck dude he said three o'clock and i keep going hey man what about three 30 you're like no three good. I'm like, fuck. Yeah, but I live right around the corner from you. Where do you live? Without giving the address away. I live less than a mile from you. So this is easy.

Yeah, I still drove like an asshole because I have to pick up my wife afterwards, but but yeah. And I would have, and it's uphill and I would have come in. That's a sweat. I would have sweat bad. Yeah. Are you a sweater? I'm a sweater.

Not really more so than other people, but I have a tendency to always, do a workout or always not give myself enough time to cool down from a workout or a shower or steam before I have to go and do something and I'll just be fully sweating. Do you think it's important to sweat when you're working out? Yes. What happens when like for me I uh, I seem to do the same things, you know, three times a week. I go down and I lift a little, but I don't really sweat. Am I missing something? I think it's just important to sweat. I don't know. I mean, I don't really understand people who don't sweat i'll do like a power yoga class with something like that or even today it was at the i was at this gym on the sunset strip and i was doing the same workout as other

people and i was dripping with sweat and they're not sweating see you're in wonderful shape like i'm looking at you know i'm not looking at you in a sexual well maybe but you get a great body you know you're i never have seen a bad picture of you i'm sure there are some no they exist yeah they exist but like i look at you and i'm like i'm sort of envious and then i'm sort of like god man he's got that's kind of suck to always be in shape. Is it both? Is it like, it's both.

The only time that it's annoying is that every once in a while on the show, I felt like they haven't put together the proper infrastructure. Like if it's a priority for you, if you guys want me to be shirtless on the show, then why the fuck are their donuts at craft service? If you want me to go work out, build it into my day. Make my call time 8 o'clock, but it's 8 o'clock in the gym.

And it's maybe 9.30 in the makeup. up trailer yeah and i've always so i've i've rebelled against not i rebelled but you know i've just every once in a while on the show they'll be like we want you to do the shirtless thing and i'll go no i mean i didn't know to say no in the early days of things but yeah have you taken enough pictures rob i mean how many clicks can we get jesus christ guys doing a photo shoot you know i'm waiting for you to go to stop taking the goddamn pictures rob and i have a really good relationship i've noticed on the show of listening to the show Yeah, you, this is so cool.

Like, when you get friends, peers, other celebrities that, like, listen to the show, it's kind of like, I love that. The first time that I heard the show was somebody who actually covered Smallville, this guy, Craig, who now... Craig from Cryptonsite. Exactly, right. So he now does the equivalent for Green Arrow and Flash and Supergirl and... Such a nice guy.

Super nice guy. And I met, like, one of the first times that I met him at Comic Con, I got to introduce him to John Barrowman. And it was like, he's a, he's a good guy and does good work for the show. Right. But he mentioned the show that you did with Tom Welling. Smallville. Smallville. And I had never heard Tom speak or be interviewed or...

Yeah, real private guy. Or anything. And as a result of him being private, you know, he's mythologized to me, you know? Like, all the stories that I hear about him, I'm sure are like these kind of, wise tales that exist because the first time that I met him be it like his behavior on set or his salary or you where are you were you hearing this shit from i'm hearing it from crew members in vancouver who worked on smallville right we got a ton of people sure who you know and they still wear the shirts from the 200th episode party or like the rap party or the final season or like we got

John, J.D. J.D. J.D. still on there? J.D. is still on there. Oh, what a great. I remember snort in my nose, got some, did some coke with J.D. Back in season one. He goes, yeah, bud, I go, dude, I want to hang out with you.

We got to hang out. He's like, you sure, buddy? That's how he talks, right? Yeah, yeah, okay, all right. And then we went out, and one night, we snort. I don't know, but he doesn't do it anymore, but we just got really coked up, and, you know, I don't do that anymore either, but I'm just being honest and open.

You didn't know a lot about Tom, other than you heard these stories on Tom from the other crew members and like just these ideas the ones that I hear are that he wore shorts all the time sandals sandals oh yeah because he would get really hot he's like what are we at we're a waister pants are coming on and I started doing it but then I couldn't be in character because Lex Luther without pants sure I just I had to be somewhat in character sure so me wearing short I couldn't I couldn't I can't even change out of dress shoes that are uncomfortable and wear sneakers or something like that even if it's a close up because you just feel like you're out of character. That's right. I get that. And I'm a guy who can jump in and out of character.

I could be laughing and action and go. But when it comes to what I'm wearing, me too. Yeah. So can you do that too? Or are you really kind of serious in the zone? No, you know what? I try to be whatever the person on set needs me to be. If they want to laugh and joke and all that stuff, that's great. David Ramsey, you know, he and I are always goofing around. Same with, same with Emily. But somebody like Paul Blackthorne is incredibly serious and comes prepared down to the letter of the line and and is a little on the methody side so i'm all about focus and all i just don't understand when someone's doing a tv show every episode unless it's like a 10 episode like breaking bad how you could stay method how you could

stay without to me that's just so much that's more energy than letting go yeah and i work based off of the nature of how i have to work in the show which is that i'm if i'm if i'm I'm in there. I'm probably in every scene for the entire day. And I've got a ton of lines. So I learn more the shape of the script and then just roll with the punches, whereas somebody like Paul, they might have episodes where he's really busy and he might have an episode where he's got two speeches. And so maybe you hold onto them a little tighter than you would otherwise. I don't know. Do you learn lines the day of or the night before? And do you ever say, guys, it's too heavy already. You guys? You guys, it's too heavy already. You got to write me maybe one heavy and then the next one's light and then two or something do you

ever like we got to balance this out or you just roll with the punches no i read the script three times and that's it wait wait wait wait wait i read you memorize lines that fast i read the script three times because i never know what we're doing on that particular day it's easier for me to just show up and know when do i start and when do i when do i finish but i read the script three times and then I've been saying speeches as Oliver for so long that by the time we block the scene and have gone through it a couple of times, I just, I know it. That's it. That's how you work.

You read it three times. And when you get on set and you read the lines with the actor or something, but then you got it. Unless it's a big speech. But you don't have big speech. No, even then. Even then. Even then. Because I tend to think that sometimes these scripts are written and I can tell stuff that has been put

in the script to satisfy people either at the studio or the network. Right. So it's not like I'm going to take a speech that's one thing and put it in a completely different direction. But if that speech has 80 words in it, by the time I say it, it tends to have like 55. So they let you run with it like, hey, I'm going to make this my own. I'm not going to give you word. Are they like word Nazis?

Like, you got to hit this. No. Thank God. If that was the case, would that be a different scenario, how you prepare? Of course. I'm not changing the direction. We're still starting at point A and finishing at point B. And I'm also very cognizant of knowing the entire script so that if I have to say something that's a direct callback to something that somebody else said, then I always make sure to do that.

But I just like to, I just like to drill it down just a little bit. I went off on a tangent. So we were talking about you started to listen to the podcast. So I'm guessing you listen to Tom. I listen to Tom. I mean, I didn't even really have any idea what his voice sounded like. Tom Welling, so my co-star, he was Clark on Smallville. So all you knew was what you heard.

The most popular stories are, as you guys got into the later seasons, Peter Roth would fly up on a private jet and ostensibly beg Tom to do another season. And I had to bring this up with him almost immediately in Detroit, D.C. When I, the first time I met him in D.C. And he just looks at me and he just goes, no. That never happened. That never happened. Well, you know what? Peter Roth, the president, he did take me out to dinner a couple of times to try and get me me to do a couple extra seasons but at that point I had done seven and I was just I was different I was shaving my head every day I was kind of I felt like I did it yeah I did it I did six seasons seven seasons seven well you're in your seventh right going into seven going to seven and

for me I was just like I you know I want to do comedy I want to do this is like it was hard for me because I'm always like joking around I always wanted to do more comedy but I remember those dinners and I was like I worked on that network WB which turned into CW for so many years and I I remember I had done so many shows, and I probably, if you add it up, had the most years of anybody. I was a veteran for the CWB. And I remember we were having dinner, and it's like, where are you from, Michael? You just want, why don't we just cut to the chase?

You want me to do an extra season or two, and you haven't done any research. What do you, your secretary could have said, he's from Indiana, here's this, remember this? But he was, he was a nice guy. He was out there. He was a great, he is a great guy. Yeah, he's not dead. No, he's, no, he's, he's a great guy.

He is really. You know, is a, he's old school. He's old school. That's the way that my manager describes him. He's old school. I mean, he even, he and I go to lunch sometimes after, after a season, just to chat and just sort of the state of affairs. And whenever he's introducing me to someone, he's like, this is one of our stars.

You know what I mean? Yeah. And it's just, I don't know, there's something old Hollywood about it. We had a really good relationship. I think it was sort of severed when I renegotiated. So when you were listening to the Tom podcast. Yeah. What did you get from it?

Was it exciting? Was it like, oh, my God? I just like tearing the stories because there's such a similarity between the journeys. Listening to the titular character of a long-running comic book show and just his experiences and talking about some of the crew members that are still there or, you know, Glenn Winter. Glenn Winter, yeah. Went off to direct Supergirl and a bunch of stuff. Great guy.

What a nice guy. He basically set the template for our show. He was the director of photography for the pilot. and then he directed this 16th episode of season one and created this transition shots between the, either between scenes or for the first five years of the show between the present day and the flashbacks

and again, just sort of the movement of the characters and all the different things that he did photographically became the show. Isn't that something? Yeah. And he was the DP on that, right? Did he direct it? He directed it.

He directed the pilot. No, David Nutter directed the pilot. He directed every pilot. He directed everything. thing one of the things that he said to me when he hired me because he told me that i had the job several days before i officially had the job before before i've been approved by by warner brothers and by the c w and he was like i found tom welling and i found jared and jensen and i and it was just like you're right yeah i of course yeah um he's he's he's amazing the way that like the

the the energy and the spirit that he brings to the pilots but no glen directed the 16th episode and you know, like you're... The pilot's one thing, but you have 17 days and however many millions of dollars and then it becomes something else when you get into the actual production

and it wasn't really until Glenn stepped in in episode 16 that we kind of knew what we had and how we had to do it. Right. Did you like, did you think this is going to be a hit

where you, I mean, we were supposed to never think like that, but did you think it just feels like they're putting some money behind this and this is what the world needs right now and this stuff's working and it felt like it was going to be a hit. It felt good. I mean, I remember seeing the pilot and showing it to my friends the day that it got picked up and they blew you. Yeah. All your friends blew you after one of them. No, I mean, it starts and they're all excited, but then in the second act, there's this scene where I am being tortured and I, I murder these, I chase down and murder these three guys. It gets

real dark, real fast, and I snap a guy's neck at the end of it. And my cousin Robbie pauses it right when it goes to a commercial and he goes, what the fuck? And I was like, okay, I think we're headed in the right direction. Isn't that something? Because you had done a lot of work. Like you were on Hong, right? You were on, you were always

doing series and movie of the weeks and just like doing a bit of everything. You know, you're out there, you're hustling and doing your thing and like, and then boom, this is the big, the big show, right? Smallvo was a big show for me. I got nine jobs before I got Arrow, moving from

moving to L.A. in 2010. Beverly Hills 902.1. Beverly Hills 9-1-0. That was an critically important one because that was the same casting director as Arrow. Who is the casting director? David Rappaport. He's done all of the... And they called you in, they said, I want Stephen Amel to come in here for this part.

I was the first guy who auditioned. First guy auditioned. I was the 700th guy who auditioned for like I was an afterthought, Steve. even no one thought of me no that's not true Kathleen letterie was always a big you you need that you need that you need somebody in your court wherever you are that just like can say hey I believe in him he could do it and I was always doing comedies right and you probably like I mean I did a lot of comedy hung was a comedy right was a comedy um uh I did the

show back in Toronto called rent a goalie that was a comedy um that was hockey I played hockey growing up yeah so can you still get on skates and float around You should come with me on like a Monday We could rent the ice out Okay A couple guys I know And we could just like get a couple goals You just shoot around and skate

You should start getting into hockey That's my sport I know And you're a Canadian, you are a Canadian Toronto And you're a big Maple Leafs fan I'm Kings fan But you're a big Maple Leafs fan

Not anymore No What about the old days? Wentham Clark, Ty Domi Look I'm I'm born in 81 And the Leafs had two good years In 92 and 93 They made it to the conference finals

And I was in on those playoff friends. And that was Doug Gilmore and Wendell Clark. And then Matt Sundeen came on the team. And I was a fan, kind of, right? But when I moved to L.A., I got seasoned seats for the Kings with my cousin Robbie. And, you know, we had a great year, the first year in 2011. And then in 2012, they had a utterly mediocre season. And then they just ran through the league.

Right. And won the cup. And I was in the building. And that's transformative. of your fan that was that well luke's a real close friend look robatai and he was he was on the show and it's pretty fascinating actually when you're talking to athletes and the same passion they have for you know we have passion for acting all this stuff and um his stories and how hard it is it because being an actor it's like you know you get you get it's a lot of luck luck's a commodity of preparation

and opportunity but like it's hard to get breaks you could be working or not working there's millions of great actors out there not maybe millions but a lot and the same thing with hockey you got drafted but that didn't mean he made the team and he had to go you know the first uh camp he they're like you got tougher next time he got tougher he started a fight got laid out they go stop fighting just he goes went to another camp and it was just like it's everything's hard but you got to work at it but um but i only got arrow because hung got canceled is that true yeah the third season of hung did better ratings from my understanding than the first couple of seasons of hung and it was very well received, critically, but they basically wiped the comedy slate in December of 2011.

Were you bummed at the time? Yeah, sure. I was working on private practice at the time, which was the first job that I ever got as an offer, and was ironically working with Amy Brennan, who was my love interest, who worked with Tom and he was her love interest. Right. And she's like, you're going out for this show Arrow. She's like, you're going to get it. I'm like, what are you talking about? She's like, she's like, Tom Welling got Superman because of me, all right? You're going to get the green arrow because of me. But if it doesn't get canceled, I'm not, I'm just not available. I can't, I can't go do it. Inside of you is brought to you by Quince. I love quince, Ryan. I've told you this before. I got this awesome $60 cashmere sweater. I wear it religiously. you can get all sorts of amazing, amazing clothing for such reasonable prices.

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office on the WB lot and he had said to David Rappaport and some of the EPs that were in there going back to my office, come get me if someone's interesting. And so, of course, I get in there, David Nutter's in there as well. And I read the first two scenes and he's just leaning real far forward in his seat and staring at me with this sort of weird grin on his face. You're the guy. He said, do you mind waiting outside for a second? I said, okay. And they went to Greg's office.

I'm like, Greg, we have the guy. And Greg was like, you guys are just excited. You don't have the fucking guy. It's been 10 minutes. And David came back out. Was this before you read or after you read? This was after I read. After you read.

And David came back out in the hallway and grabbed me. And I went back into the room. And all of a sudden, there were 11 or 12 more people in there. Did you have to read again or no? Yeah. And I'm looking for the note. What do you guys want me to do? do? I mean, what do you want me to do different? And David said, could you start the second scene

facing away from us and then turn around? And I go, mm-hmm, is that it? He's so, he goes, he goes, yeah, sure. And I did it again. And again, no notes. Were you having fun? I was having fun. I mean, it was a very serious scene, but I was, I was having fun, sure. And then they're like, okay, thank you. And I left. And I got to call. call for my agent, or I called my agent. You need to work on your ass, Stephen. It's right. And I'm like, I know that this is not how this works, but I'm pretty sure that I just got that job in there. And test deal came through within an hour. And then David brought me back a couple of times for my audition with Peter Roth and the rest of the WB team, which is a very unique audition. I don't know

how it was for you, but you're not, it's not an audition room. You're walking into an office, like an office space with windows and all that stuff. And it's more about the way that he framed it to me was like imagine that you're walking out in the Tonight Show. That's what they're looking for. They're looking for you to come into the room, be a little bit outsized, and stare everyone down and be a leading man when you walk in there.

And I remember walking. I never thought of it like that. And David also said to me, Peter Roth is a hugger, which he is. So he goes, he goes, walk in there. He goes, give him a big hug. And I did. And he goes, Steve, and I hear you're Canadian.

and I said, not today, Mr. Roth, not today. And the room laughed, and I could, and David just, like, looked at me with two thumbs up and, like, wild eyes. So I don't think it, frankly, I don't think it fucking mattered what I did after that, like being able to walk into the room. It was like you. You were likable. You were a leading man. Do you remember, like, look, you, like you said, you'd only done nine things, which were a lot. You're doing Hong, but you hadn't been a leading man in a series.

And so the deal, as I know this. What networks will do, what they will do is try to give you as little as possible because they think you haven't been a leading man. So we're going to give you whatever. And if it's a hit, we'll give you more money. Did you feel like it was, the deal was, you didn't care what the deal was? I didn't really care what the deal was. If they had said, you're going to pay us $200 an episode and you're going to work for the first year for free. Your agent, lawyers worked the deal that they could. It was a fair deal.

I had no quote. I'd never been a series regular before. I was a series regular on hung technically, but I wasn't going to be bumped up to a series regular price until the fourth season, if there was a fourth season, which there wasn't. Yeah.

But it was a very, very fair deal. I mean, the first thing they did was try to hire me as a Canadian. Oh, that's a no-no. And that was a big no-no. Say, explain what that is.

I mean, if you do that, you're getting paid. Less money and you're not getting any residuals. No, could you imagine it? No, residuals at all if you're a Canadian. No, it cannot.

And that's what they try. Isn't that something? Well, I mean, that's the, that's the, that's the, That's the first conversation that they have, and my agent shut it down immediately, and basically the business affairs person, you know, comes back semi-embarrassed and goes, you know, I got to ask for, I got to ask. Because if I can save the company money, I'll get more money. That's right. And that's what it is.

When did you know your value? You knew that this show was a hit. You go, uh, usually it's after season two, you renegotiate. That's when I think we did it. And you're like, you know what? I got to change some things around because, you know, when you first dive into a show, you're like, I'll do it ever. Yeah. of course force my call bring me in at whatever hour I'm malleable I'm and then it comes

a time where you're like no I got to get sleep better you guys got to be ready like I'm ready with my lines you guys got to be ready on set all these things happen they sound like they're trivial to people who aren't in the industry and they'll sound like oh come on just guys it's acting how hard it could be but when you're a leading man which you are and you're doing 16 hour days there comes a time you're like no you can't force me tomorrow That happened very early for me. That happened in episode eight. Do you remember exactly?

I remember exactly where it was. In the early days, we didn't do a lot of reshoots, but they were not happy with a couple elements of episode five. They couldn't figure out how to have Oliver interact as the green arrow with people that he knew, which it sounds really simple. Give him a fucking voice modulator. But that was like the seventh idea that got kicked around. So we tried a bunch of scenes.

With their accents, you're trying to like. hello fellas no it was like you know one of the one of the ways they did it when I first started interacting with laurel is they had us like 60 feet apart from one another we were wearing ear pieces and whispering and stuff like it makes it makes no sense now but we had been working six day weeks for a couple of weeks like brutal yeah coming in sundays and doing that and I'm in the air costume I've got the fucking eye makeup on and it was 1115 at night or whatever The second assistant director said to me, your call time tomorrow is 11.15. And I said, I'm not done for the day. I can't. Base camp is 20 minutes away. I got to take my eye makeup off. It's not my turnaround. It's not my turnaround. I'm exhausted. I'm going to take my turnaround. And he says, contractually, your call time is 1115. And I don't have to give you any explanation. And I said, okay, I'm going to tell you this right now. And I'm going to do it in front of people so that everybody knows this. I'm going to get in the call. tomorrow at the exact time that I get in the car tonight and not a minute sooner. And if you

would handle this with a little bit more tact, maybe we could have done something, but you didn't. So when everybody asks why we're starting later than everyone wants to, you need to tell them that it's your fault. Wow. And you do get pushed around, but I recognize my value. I think pretty early on, but when you get into that first renegotiation, it's weird because it becomes, I mean, it gets personal in a weird way, it does get a little personal. The only issue that I had in the first couple of years was, I think that up until the end of the second season, I was the fourth or fifth highest paid cast member because I had no quote. Because I had no quote.

But you're the lead. I know, but, you know. Right, right, right. I think that's the way it was even in Smallville. I was making more than Tom in the first year. But then, of course, yeah, things changed. I had no problem with him getting more than me. The guy was working every day, and he was the lead.

I was the second. So they gave me what they term as a gift after season two. So it's them raising my salary without asking for anything in return. And my thing was very simple. I just, I just said, you know, quite frankly, I think that I work way more than everybody else. And especially in season one and season two, it was way more disproportionate than it is now. And I think that somebody was making X and they're like, okay, your new salary is going to be X minus like $1,250 per episode. And I go, what are you doing?

That's not the most amount of money. And they said, yeah, no, it's the most amount of money over the course of 23 episodes because the person above you is not all episodes produced. I was like, okay, technically you're right. But that leaves a little bit of a shitty taste in my mouth, just a little. You know, it's amazing you say this because I don't care where you work, whether you're working at 9 to 5, whether you're working at, like I worked at a grocery store, I worked at McDonald's. Did you ever work at McDonald's, Rob? No. Did you work at any fast food restaurant or any restaurant?

No, I worked at a great clips though. A what? Great clips. What's that? They cut hair. Did you, were you a hair guy? I like clean the combs. You clean the shit up?

Work the cashier. That's interesting. I didn't know that. That's pretty cool. You're going to get a kick out of that. And a movie theater. That's a projection. really you knew that yeah I did I knew that so what I'm saying is if your company is doing

really well and you're working really hard it's just common sense it's like hey the company's doing really well I'm an integral part of that I'm a hard worker I show up every day I do what I'm supposed to do I think it's a no-brainer is what the fuck it is to me if the business is booming why wouldn't I want my employees to benefit and be happy to come to work every day and say hey and not try to say let's use your Canadian thing let's do it's always business as you and they always say you have to separate business from we're actors and we're sensitive and we take everything personally and so it is it is difficult it's also difficult to argue with Warner brothers television because they're prolific and they've been in business forever we'll replace you

sure we'll give some other guy eye makeup sure I'm the the entity of Arrow is bigger than me it's I am replaceable you're not replaceable they're not replacing you they wouldn't replace you even after a season they know the charm they know whatever the reason is successful it's called arrow it's about you sure and so you have to know that value at the same time and so not being cocky but you're like hey i'm arrow yeah i don't want to i don't want to be a dick i don't want to ask for too much but i also want to get what i deserve yeah when i did my renegotiation it was it was not the most um fun yeah it wasn't fun it actually it actually it actually wasn't fun because i have a lot of i have a lot

friends who have been in similar positions. And I knew what the actual numbers were, right? So when someone's telling me, you knew Tom's number? I, yeah, I actually did. You did? Yeah, I'm very good friends with Jared Padalecki, and he shared information with me that Tom shared with him. And it's all, and it's everyone trying to help one another out, right? And I have gone on to share that information with people that I think it might be beneficial to. Right. But when you're hearing final offer, I heard final offer and I went,

that's cool, I'm good with my current deal. And then there was dead silence for weeks and weeks and weeks. And then we were about to shoot our big crossovers that we do that I didn't have a contract for. Because I hadn't signed a contract for them. Now, you started, when you say crossovers, this is you doing Supergirl, Flash. Legends. Legends. Now, are you doing that during this?

season. Yeah. Now are they shooting the scenes where you are? What do you mean? Like if you're crossover, you're doing a crossover episode, you're doing an episode of Supergirl. Right. But it's just you have a couple scenes in there. Well, it started out Oliver and Diggle and Felicity went to Central City and then Barry and Iris and Cisco came to Star City. And that and that was it. And it was that was still difficult though because they just treated it like a normal run of production. But the schedules are staggered and Flash is starting their eighth episode. Well, we're still on our seventh episode, but then they're getting into their ninth episode before we're done our eighth episode and because the crossovers would happen in the eighth episode. And there was just

no wiggle room. It wasn't until this year that they started building in down days to the production. So certain productions would just go dark for a couple of days so that you could actually move the actors around. Jesus. So you're, so would you fly to L.A. and do something? And then they fly to you and they're all in Vancouver. All the shows are in Vancouver. They're all in Vancouver. The first year of Supergirl, when it was on CBS, was in L.A. Yeah, that's what I was thinking.

And then they moved to Vancouver. And how do they do that? They're like, well, I guess whatever your salary is, you get for that show. They have to put it in their budget. That's not how they wanted to do things. I've never heard of anything like that. Like, I was never asked. We were kind of the first show before everybody.

So there wasn't any crossovering. Well, my feeling was because the very first time that I did it was going and doing the pilot of the flash. and it was one scene. It doesn't matter if you're getting one scene. You're getting one scene of unestablished character that I am used to getting X number of dollars to portray in an episode of television.

So there was a little bit of animosity, but when it actually came for a proper renegotiation, I decided that I thought it would be advantageous for me to take a slightly lower amount on crossover, because ultimately my financial incentive on the show revolves around my episodic fee. And so I'm only going to be going to do the Flasher Supergirl for, there's only so many hours in the day. Right, maybe a day of doing stuff. But now, amazingly, it's just turned into full, just turned into full episodes the way that they shoot the crossovers.

Is it hard to keep track? It's very hard. That's four scripts that I have to read. three times and and I always take some time during the crossovers to oh my god take a second because you're also talking about four different directors two and one through line of a story and you know I always take some time with the directors to just go okay okay where are we uh-huh which show that's going to be hour three yep okay what just happened and just make sure that I know where I am.

Holy shit. It's hard enough being like, I could barely be in one set going, where are we? Yeah. What are we doing? It's like, we're at the Luther Mansion. I mean, yeah, so if you're, God, bless. I love going to other sets. The only.

Refreshing, right? Right. Yeah, it really is. The only thing that I would change about the crossovers is that I would, off of the story, I would create one master list of characters, and I would give everybody numbers. right like and if people don't know what you're talking about on um you know on arrow i'm number one and david ramsie is number two and so on and so forth but when i go over to legends um your number i'm number i'm number 70 77 right and you know where you are and i you know i would be on legends

and it would be advantageous not just for me but for the entire crossover as a whole to within the context of that episode, if I have the most to do in the crossover and I did this year, treat me like number one, as in prioritize my time and get me out of there so that I can either go to another production or be rested for the following day. But each show prioritizes their own actors, and that's fine. I get it. I just would do it differently. What's your favorite show to crossover on? Favorite group of actors. I know that's hard to ask you that. No, Flash is my favorite show to go to because there's something special about doing scenes with

with Grant's such a great guy I mean we don't know each other but I got yeah I wanted to get him on here because he just seems like such a great guy he's you know what I just love I love doing scenes with him I mean there's just something about the dynamic yeah different energies different like fun energies yeah

you do 22 episodes a year is that right still we do 22 this year we did 23 for the first six years plus crossovers plus crosso so you're looking at 28 30 episodes of You work, I'm guessing you work 300 days, it seems like, out of 365. What is it? Oh, God. I wouldn't, I don't even know. And it's ironic, too, because when I first moved to L.A., I based success, it completely revolved around a number of days worked. That was my goal in 2011 was to spend 100 days on set. And my goal is never that. It's how few days I can say. If I worked in an episode and got paid the same for one day, that's, It's a winner. Sure, but I wasn't, but, but, Rob's looking like I'm a lazy clock.

Well, you're a winner when you're, you're a series regular and you have an episodic fee. And, you know, but, but when you're not, when you're a guest start, you get, you know, you get paid. You want to be, you want to be on set. Well, they always say, right, the, with an actor, it's like, I want to work. I just want to work. I want to work. All right, you're hired. When do I have off?

That's what I really want to know. So, I mean, you're always working here, Tom and I, when we were talking, we were talking about, would you, could you do this now. I goes, no, I could not do this now. I'm 45, he's 40. Like, you, you started this when you were 28? I moved to LA when I was 28. I started, I got Arrow when I was 30. All right, 30.

Do you think, like, now that you're getting old old old are you now? 37. You're 37. Do you think you could have started Arrow right now? I wouldn't take Arrow right now. Why is that? Because my life has changed. I mean, my life is in L.A.

My daughter's married? Yeah. My life is different. I understand, I understand why I'm still doing it, but if it ended and somebody came to me and said, all right, we have a, we have a lead role for you on a television show. I will go, before you tell me anything, where does it shoot? And if they said, if they said Vancouver, I'd go, okay, but when and how many episodes? And if the number was north of 10, I would say no.

If you said 10 episodes, it's Netflix, it's Vancouver. Ten episodes, it starts shooting in June. excellent thank you very much did you now how long have you been married we will be six years this christmas six years yeah wow yeah and everything's great it's great is marriage easy yeah it's it seems pretty easy we we yeah because you were married before yeah and you know that was for a few years that sucked now why did it suck because look here's here's my i think i'm i don't want to say i'm a pessimist i'm not but i will say that you know I have this friend Shira and she's like, I just don't understand this dating thing.

Let me tell you something. 99% of the time it doesn't work out. And the one time it does, 50% don't. So you have a 0.5 chance of it. And I know it sounds bad, but I'm like, you can't put so much pressure on yourself. And so you're a young guy. You get married. You got to think in the back of your head.

Like, I want this to be forever, but how many things are forever? I mean, we got married for the wrong reasons. And I don't have any animosity over the situation anymore. But this was a girl that I met in Toronto when I was 21. 22, and we got engaged when I was 25 or something like that. Jesus, man. And then got married when I was 26. And we went through really interesting experiences where, A, I just think that we got married for the wrong reasons.

What were those reasons? I don't really know. Just because of maybe the idea of it. Just the idea, just kind of the romance. Old school. Yeah. Right. And then I started struggling with acting.

And she started realizing how much she loved business, right? I personally think that a lot of the early part of our relationship was her wanting to date someone that her father would disapprove of because he was so business-centric. And then over the course of our relationship, she, I think, realized, A, how much she was like her father and, B, how much she admired him. And so he passed away tragically in 2009, and that put our troubles in a fucking microwave. And a lot of the things that she found attractive in me, she didn't find attractive anymore. Did that break your heart?

It totally broke my heart. It really did. It was the worst thing that's ever happened to me. because, you know, I went to L.A. in 2009 and I came back and I will never forget. I came back and, you know, I had no money. And I mean no money at all. Like I was living off of 25 bucks a week that I could stretch at Ralph's to, you know, get mac and cheese and all that, you know, all that shit. And I came back and I'll never forget going back into our apartment and all of my stuff that I had left there had been shoved in a fucking drawer that it was too big for like all my stuff

and just like hastily shoved and I remember going oh man like you didn't want any reminder of me around the house and then it just it ended real fast after that I mean did you feel like if you look back and you know I mean hindsight's 20 20 do you feel like you're doing everything you could no no I'm I'm I'm equally to blame for sure you know I was I was involved in acting because I wanted to be famous and that pays that that will you'll never get there right you know some people might right but yeah but that's what you're doing it for it's yeah first of all it's not healthy and I think we've all done anybody who says they haven't thought that when you're 18 or 19 or 20 you're starting not going i want to be famous i want to fucking be a big movie i want to work

denzil there's everyone goes through that but then you have to go through like do i really love what i'm doing yeah do i really where's the passion what's the purpose yeah you know so it was it was after um man i got back in like early december and we were we were separated and you know like just done within like six days you know that numbness right yeah that numbness that won't go away that you're like talking to somebody going i need to lie down I think I'm really tired. Yeah. It's depression.

It's like, uh, it's like a question. Like I was, it's just numbing. Like you're like something you died. She had moved out and was staying at her dad's house. And I went over there and on a Friday night and basically begged her. I was like, I'll do whatever you want. I'll stop acting. I'll, I'll, you know, I'll do whatever you want.

Oh my God. Please take me back. And she just looked at me and she just goes, no. just cold flat I want to fucking cry right now I'm not even kidding I want to fucking cry that's

and I had and I'd given her I'd given her a her wedding ring was a family heirloom and I just looked at her and I go all right okay give it back and she gave me the wedding ring back that night

and then I walked home and I remember going and I had to teach a fucking spin class the following morning A segway. Faster, you fuckers! And then I remember seeing my mom, and I saw my mom.

She goes, how are you? And I go, bad, it's over. It's totally done. Like a fifth grade relationship. It's done. And did you cry in front of your mom? Heart, wept, like you can't catch your breath crying. But after that cry, we walked back to my apartment,

and I phoned up two of my buddies. that had really been marginalized because my ex didn't particularly like them or didn't like one of them. And it affected my relationship with him. And my other body was getting married the following weekend. And both me and my ex were in the wedding parties. So I needed to talk with him as well. And by the end of that night, I felt like I was... You again. Part of you was back. Yeah. Yeah. It still took a while, though. It took about it took about a year and a half for me to go for a run

and not when the endorphins started firing in my brain get really fucking pissed off that the whole thing happened like really really mad yeah do you have like I mean you seem like a pretty even keeled guy

did you ever suffer from any kind of depression or anxiety did you ever get any of that did carry on through like when you as an actor with the hard times and I think I was depressed towards the end of towards the end of our marriage in 2009, because I gained about 10, 15 pounds.

And you didn't give a shit. It wasn't that. It was just like there was something not working with my body. You know what I mean? Like my metabolism, like I was stuck. Like I was like emotionally and mentally and spiritually constipated. It's scary, isn't it? And probably constipated as well.

You know? I always feel like. And I know this because by that Monday, after us breaking up on a Friday, despite the fact that I meeting all my buddies and going out for a Canadian beer, I swear to God, I lost those 12 pounds. They were gone. They shed immediately. Like, it was like a weight had been lifted, which it was self-inflicted. It had nothing to do with her.

Yeah. Yeah, just not innocent in the, in the process. But it just went away. Just like that. You feel like your libido kind of disappears, too? It totally disappears. It's almost like when you go through a breakup, you could put a 25-year-old. old Cindy Crawford for me. I'm like,

ah, listen, man. Cindy, I don't know. Your skin's gorgeous and all. I'll buy some skin products, but, uh, what am I? Wilford Brimley right now? Quaker Oates. Uh, but you know, that's how it is, man. Yeah. I feel like I just, I just feel so empty and. Yeah. I remember going, going out a couple of nights later.

And again, it was like this tour that I went on to see buddies that I hadn't really spent a lot of time with. And you can, you know, your friends can also tell when you phone them up and you say, I don't care what the fuck you're doing. We have to go out and get a beer. they're like okay um and i remember a girl like left a note for me with her number on it and i was like oh my god i'm back i'm back i'm back it's like the rocky story yeah you got this is gonna go away so let's get rid of this as soon as we can and stop fucking around like you have so much going for you whatever that is get up in the morning change your routine go for a beer with

your buddies go whatever hang out with rob you know hang out with a 29 year old You know, it's like this is, this is the kind of shit. I mean, because life is, it sounds so cliche. It's fucking short, dude. Yeah. Just passes. It goes by so fucking fast. Yeah.

And you look at this stuff. And then you found your wife relatively, what, a couple years later? Yeah, we met in October of 2011. So two years later. Two years later. Well, where'd you meet her? Less than two years. She is on, she guest starred on my favorite episode of television ever.

Sanford and Son, the episode where they steal from, no, what is it? Yeah. No, it's the season four finale of Mad Men. It's called Tomorrowland. And she plays this girl that comes into the office and is so striking that she basically arrests the office. But you didn't meet her there. You weren't on Mad Men. I rewatch my favorite television shows all the time. I find it therapeutic. I find it important as an actor to having seen something, focus on different things, be it an individual performance or photography or whatever. but I was rewatching it and I paused and I go okay who fuck is this person I went on I MDB and I looked at horse yeah there's nothing wrong with that that might as well be a dating app if you see somebody pretty people think I don't know I ask my friends is that creepy if like you know we met or I or I see her I'm like hey what's up with oh look at she's single I wonder

anybody knows her she seems like my type yeah that's not creepy is it Rob no you said that with a little bit of reservation no I mean look it's so hard to date in this fucking town yep so I mean I think it's okay whatever as long as it's not You meet somebody, hey, what's your last name? Oh, cool, we had a good time here. I'm not going to ask you for your number because that's too soon. But you know what? Maybe I'll look you up on Facebook.

Go ahead, Steve. No, so I looked her up, and then you get her name. You Google her. You find her Twitter. She's in L.A., not a surprise. And she put out a tweet advertising that she was going to be at some event that Adidas was putting on at the Sayers Club in Hollywood. You went?

I was going. You were already gone. I was already going. I have no reason to lie. I was already going. It was like you had to look as good as you could. Not really. No.

Just I was just, I was going to the event. You wanted to meet her. I wanted to meet her. And I was going to the event with my buddy Johnny. And she worked for AEG. So did some work with Sayers and stuff like that at the time. And just saw her, introduced myself and said, I thought you were great on Mad Men. And then walked away.

And she gave me your number. After you walked away? Hey, Stephen! Yeah, later in the night, she gave you your number. And when was the first date after that night? Maybe about a... Well, I think I had her and a couple of her girlfriends swing by my place for football that Sunday.

Like, so three days later. And then I think I took her out for dinner that week. And then we had, you know, a whirlwind romance that was fantastic. And then that February, I got cast. an arrow and it got rocky for a little bit because it's like, okay. Everything's changed now.

You're going to Vancouver. You're filming every day. Because there's nothing of the fact that I'm going to Vancouver. Yeah. And so what are we doing? Yeah. You know? And you didn't know. We didn't know.

So it was kind of, you know, on again, off again. And then everything just crystallized in the... You kept going back for a reason. Yeah. I just... There's something about her that's unlike anyone else. Yeah.

And that's also a danger zone, I think, too. It's like that could be a great story, which it is. And you got married and everything's been great. But there's also that where you go back because you think of like the passion. You think about the love. You think about the fun, but you forget about the fucking banana times. And the bananas times, as long as those aren't too strong. But she's so easygoing, Michael, that you mentioned anxiety earlier.

She's so easygoing that it gives me anxiety because I don't think, I don't. I don't think that anybody can be that relaxed. Do you envy her relaxation? I do envy it. That's one of the things that I get fucking anxiety about is I envy it. And my friends joke with me that I have horrible cases of FOMO, and I do. And she's just super easygoing. And since I become a dad, I battle with anxiety every once in a while.

Now, what happens when you get anxiety? I was doing a ropes course in, um, Morea, which is in French Polynesia, over the Christmas break this year. We always go away for Christmas break because it's within the context of the show, it's my guaranteed holiday time. So go somewhere warm. And I'm up on this ropes course, and it's a ropes course in French Polynesia. You get like a two-second tutorial, and then they just pop you up there.

And I was 40 feet in the air having to cross this fucking Indiana Jones in the Temple of Doom Bridge. and my wife and my buddy had had gone on ahead and I'm up there and I was just like, what, what am I doing up here? What the fuck am I doing up here? I'm a husband and a father, and by the seventh time a crew member says, be careful, you're my mortgage, you actually realize they actually mean that. They mean that. And so I'm up here and I'm going, oh my God, I have.

Hundreds of people who rely on me, why am I 40 feet in the air on a shitty ropes course in French Polynesia? And at that point, I couldn't breathe. Like, I felt like I felt like I was having a heart attack, and I had an immediate flop sweat. So I feel like there's this giant weight on my chest, but I also couldn't stop my hands from shaking.

And I had to wait up there for a guy to basically manually take me through the rest of the ropes course because I was, and it was like zip lines, because I was as far away as you could get before you could get back and get off. And this is unbeknownst to your wife. That's right. She has no, she's ahead of you.

She has no idea. She has no idea. I have no problem with heights or didn't have problems with heights. And now all of a sudden I'm starting to have problems with heights. And I got back and again, I'm drenched in sweat. And wouldn't you know it, Arrow is one of the most popular shows in Morea. Like 85% of everybody's looking at you? 85% of people on that island knew me.

Didn't matter, age, gender, whatever. They knew me. Overwhelming right now. And I'm now around a bunch of people who are about to do a ropes course, and people kept coming up and asking for photos. And I'm just sitting there, like, handshaking, just can't get my, can't get a grip. And I was having a panic attack. When your wife came over, did you kind of cry and let go?

She was just like, are you, are you okay? And I was like, I just need to get out of, here right now do you feel like did that ever happen again because i i feel like when i had my first anxiety attack i kept thinking when's this going to happen again when is this going to happen again and then sure enough out of the blue it happens um or is it just a heights thing is it just one of those moments that just happened it was coincidence i don't i don't know no i some some sometimes it happens you know i i think sometimes i give too much of myself to you know fans and I sort of give people too much of a window into me.

And every once in a while, somebody will write something that I find deeply hurtful and I can't shut off my ability to give a fuck about it, even if this person is totally wrong. Even if all that they're saying is just an outward projection of them feeling completely inadequate about their life,

it really affects me. And I think the, I think I let it, you want to help them? Yeah, no, but I think I let it affect me because it motivates me to, when someone writes something positive to give them that positivity back. I don't think that I can take in the positive

and do something effective with it unless I'm also willing to let the negative affect me a little bit. And so something like this will happen and it will consume me. So you have to learn how to disconnect a little more. yeah if possible yeah and that's a good quality to have caring so much about your fans and if i mean i know a lot of people who don't read their letters who don't read their tweets who don't sure and you have so many millions of followers that how could you read everything yeah post something

you can't read 10 000 comments but you'll read a couple or you'll read whatever because that can be consuming and you know i've i it's easier for me i don't have millions but right uh But I definitely feel like it's not I'm not obligated, but I feel as a human being like for me it's happened before where somebody says I wanted to come see you at the show and now something happened to my grandfather and I'm a mess and this. And I said, and I followed her on Twitter and said, follow me. And then she direct message me. I go, what's your address? What's your, you know, and I'll do those things or I'll call somebody or I'll because I feel like I if I could do anything to help someone feel better. That's right. That's purposeful. that's, I mean, I feel like that's, I feel good. Yeah. It makes me feel good to make them feel good. So, that's fine. But if you overdo it and that consumes you, it's, I mean, you have a family to have

take care of. You have, uh, work that you have to do 10 and 11 months a year. You have all these things. So I can understand that. That's, that's, that's, well, I mean, but people also say that they want the genuine article, right? People are like, we like you because you, it looks like you're presenting a, a reasonable facsimile of what you actually are in real life, right? Yeah.

They like it until you make a joke. And, And then somebody takes it way too seriously. And then you recognize that person because you've seen them write like personal attacks at your wife or whatever because I look at stuff online and you just go, you know what? You're an idiot. You're an idiot. So you'll respond. You'll say, hey, by the way, blah, blah, fuck off.

Yeah. Fuck off. Yeah. I don't think there's anything wrong with telling an occasional person to fuck off. And man, oh man. That's a shit storm. It's a shit storm. Do you ever regret it?

Like, why did I say something? Yeah. But you know what? But here's the thing. A couple of years ago, there was an instance where a kid brought a homemade clock into a school in Texas

and teachers were like, it's ticking. It was like an Indian kid and they thought he was building a bomb. Yeah, they thought he was building a bomb. And, man, oh man, like these teachers, I'm sorry, but they did the right thing. Like, they did the right thing, in my opinion,

and they followed protocol. and fine, and it's not a bomb. And I get all of the public support in the aftermath of that for that student. Well deserved, and I'm sorry that the whole thing happened. As a parent, I would want the teachers to do what they did, right? And if they're wrong and if they're reprimanded because they didn't follow protocol, then they deserve what they got.

But what I didn't enjoy was my wife, who was from Texas, she, or I wrote on Twitter, I'm like, you know, Stereotyping Texas isn't really any better than stereotyping this kid They're kind of the same thing And man oh man that that went really That went really poorly What I notice about these things is that

They devolve away from the original point Always that's why it's hard to There's a lot of times when you look I feel like You are someone that it's obvious that You should say what you want to fucking say Sure and you're going to hear it You're going to get backlash and you're going to say it And 90% of the time people are going to love it

he's great i agree what you're saying but the other part you're going to get fucking those people that come out of woodwork and they'll call me a jew bastard or they'll do whatever and you know that's that that's that's that's that's fine too but but you're saying like did you regret saying it no i regretted it in this situation that it devolved into someone leaving a link to like a 20 minute video that they put on youtube about how i didn't understand couldn't possibly understand what it was like to live as a minority in the united states or in canada or frankly anywhere because of who I am and what I do and the color of my skin and this. And it was so far away from the original point. It's not what you were saying at all. It's not what I was saying at all.

I admire that person's courage to put themselves out there in a public forum and I have no ill will towards them. But I apologized. And I regret apologizing more than I regret saying it in the first place because I was apologizing for something that wasn't true in your mind. I'm not racist. I'm not profiling. I'm not discriminating. I'm just saying I thought that if I don't care who your head, if it's a white kid who had something that was ticking, it doesn't matter. Get it. I don't care

who it is. It doesn't matter. And it's just taking completely out of context. And I think that's like nowadays, it's like sometimes I feel like tweeting because I read something. I said, take a step back. No, you're not tweeting anything. You're not getting involved in this. You don't need, your opinion doesn't mean anything. They're not going to give a shit. If Michael Rosenbaum wants to say something about that. You know,

I almost regretted saying something about the new Star Wars movie, but I said it anyway in a small a little tweet. By the way, you like the last, you like solo? I haven't seen, I haven't seen any of the,

last Jedi. I've seen the Force Awakens. Force Awakens. I thought that was pretty good. That JJ Abrams did a good job. I haven't seen the, I haven't seen a lot. You haven't seen a lot.

You don't watch a lot of movies. Mm-mm. What kind of movies? You're a horror movie fan? I like horror movies. Did you see Hereditary? Mm-mm. I haven't seen that.

I watch, you know, my wife and I have our shows that we watch and I have my shows that I watch, but not get into the movie theater a ton. Yeah, you probably don't have a lot of time. What are you going to do after Arrow? What would you like to do?

A lot of times you're, you know, I said, I'm taking a break. Would you like to take a year off? No. You want to go right back into work? I want to, yeah, one of the issues that I have, one of the issues that I have with the show, and it's just the, it's the nature of the show. It's not a new thing is that I don't really have the ability right now to be aspirational elsewhere because of how many episodes it is.

And so, you know, I worry sometimes about, being the guy that people will think has only ever done Arrow. And I worry that, you know, if I stay on the show until, if I stay on the show through 10 seasons, and I respect people that do that. I have great admiration for Tom staying for 10 years

or for Jensen and Jared, you know, going into year 13 or 15 or whatever it is. I also have respect for you going, you know what, I did seven. And I'm good. And it's time to move on. I worry that if, If I stick around until I'm 40, is there a chance that I sacrifice the next 25 years of my career? Because I maybe stayed a little too long.

Well, I think, you know, it's, look, I would say my gut is if you're doing seven seasons and you do 10, you're a good looking talent. A guy, I don't think another three years making a lot of money and your family being secure for the rest of their lives and not ever have to worry about anything. And now you're what? You'd be 40. 40. You're going to be, it's a new chapter of your life. and you can make decisions. And by the way,

is it such a bad thing to say, hey, I don't have to work anymore if I'm not doing what I want or maybe produce your own shit or hire some good writer to write a great script or buy something and have it made. There's so many opportunities

that I wouldn't look at it like that. I would look at it like I looked at it. I looked at it like I can't do anything else. This is seven years of this character and I have done everything I can for this character. I can't do anymore. I'm not evolving. And I feel like I'm a comedian.

I feel like I want to be funny. I want to do things different. I want to go direct. I want to do all these things. And could I've stayed three more years? Yeah, I just, to me, it wasn't about anything other than I did it. I'm ready to move on. Did you ever go back?

I went back for the series finale. Good. And that's because I wanted to do it for the fans. I didn't want them to say, why didn't you go back? I want to go. And I wanted to see everybody. It was the last episode. How could you have Lex Luther in the final episode of small?

So, of course, I did it. And I think that was the best decision in my life. But I think it's important to just not think about what, what's going to happen to my career i don't think there's a big difference what's happening your career 37 to 40 you're not going to look that much different you're young looking guy it's a matter of like it gets to a point where you're like okay how tired are you if you're fucking really tired and you're just like i just i just got to do something else and it's just like the passion isn't there and you're like and that that's different the passion is still there

a hundred percent and we have a lot of new blood on the show right now which i think i think is important but uh you bring up a good point this is what i have been thinking thinking about. What else does my character have to do? Like, what, what else it... Die. That's the only thing left for him to do. Can the arrow die? Sure, he doesn't have superpowers. But, I mean, could... I think the only thing, whether he dies or not, and I find it incredibly difficult to believe that that would ever, that would ever happen. You know what I mean? I don't know that, I don't know that anyone would allow themselves to be cornered by, like, killing the title character. I honestly think that would be a great idea. I mean, I think it would be a

Great. I'm going to get so much heat. All I'm saying is this. Before I'm going to let you finish. But I'm thinking, what if at the last episode of Arrow, whatever that is, Arrow does die. But then something else can happen. We realize in another show or whatever that he wasn't dead. It doesn't matter. The only thing that is left for him to do, and he doesn't have to die to do this, is he needs to leave a legacy because we have all these other shows that exist.

So whether Arrow continued on in the absence of Oliver Queen or someone else took up the man, mantle of the green arrow. He has a child. Could? Little arrow also called Lero. He does have a child, but he's like 12 on the show. Yeah, yeah, yeah, he's 12. Maybe a little girl who's going to be the future of...

Who knows? But I think that, I think leaving a legacy is the one box that is left to tick for the character. Well, that's either something you got to think of if you don't do three more years. Are you doing, what are you doing season seven? My contract's up after seven. So you've got to make some decisions here. I think there's going to be some clarity on my future on the show soon.

Maybe there's something they could do where it's like, hey, I'm not going to give you another three years or two years what you want. But you say, hey, let's do a year by year thing. If I do seven, let's talk about eight. Now there's not going, oh, my God, I got two more years of this or three more years. No, actually, I think that it was a very interesting. feeling once we were picked up for season seven because all of a sudden I saw the finish line even if it's many many years from now that will be up to me and not up to the studio who has

had me under contract willingly I signed it right I have no regrets that I signed it but every year it's like we're going to pick up another season you have to come back right season eight would not be that so we're talking about it I like it what would you like to say to all the fans out there who have been supporting you. I mean, you got to, one of the biggest fan bases I've ever seen a show like this. It's just extraordinary. It's extraordinary, man. It's incredible. And all the people that I've met, the people that, you know,

have been along for the entire ride, John Barrowman, during the first season said, you know, you think that your show is the most popular when it's out and when it's on all the billboards and when it's, you know, in the public consciousness. But that's not true at all. It becomes more popular year over year because you get people who, you know, spend the better part of a decade with you in their living room and you become like family and they

reintroduce it to uh yeah yeah and obviously it's like you know i i or like the you know the kid that says to his mom you know i turn my mom onto the show and my mom and like i went back to the beginning and my mom and i sat there and binge watched six seasons on netflix and it's really extraordinary people are um people are so kind and so thoughtful and um i'm just so lucky to be involved in something that has been so captivating for so many people and the stuff that they've shared with me is um it's life-changing man and man and boy oh boy i'm sure you know this it's one thing in canada in the united states it's entirely different thing when you go to like you know it was just in the in the Maldives Jesus and it was like every everybody knew the show

yeah everybody knew the show was in Istanbul everybody yeah tom and i are going to paris in October to everybody knows We're going to You know We were just in Australia You were in Australia It's like

Couldn't move Extraordinary How lucky are we It's a fucking lucky Couldn't move On the streets of Sicily Couldn't move It was just like

Everywhere I went It's incredible It's incredible It's more than I ever Could have asked for So if You know If people are listening to us

Talking right now And it sounds like We aren't we aren't Grateful I am in I'm internally Eternally For this opportunity

It is I could go on to do things that people think are way more significant or a bigger profile or the movies or whatever the case may be. Arrow will always be the most important thing that has ever happened to me professionally, ever. And I think it's the same thing with Smallville. I think, you know, incredibly fortunate.

And, you know, but I think the most important thing probably is the whole fuck cancer movement and what you did for that. And you're heavily involved in charity. which it's easy to be oh it's not easy to become famous but it's easy to you know you'd go out there and be an actor and enjoy all the benefits all this shit but you do a lot of charity work you do a lot I mean I think that means a lot to you it does it's you know my mom's a two-time cancer survivor and it's all happened very it's all happened very very organically you know the fuck cancer campaign are the things that people think about and it's sort of what comes up if you're if you're

looking into any philanthropic things that I've done but I love the campaign campaigns that like there was a young girl Sophie who was and is battling a brain tumor and you know we just took a simple go fund me page and I was like look I'm going to sign a couple of things but um we'll organize a draw I'll have her her mom organize a draw but you know just can someone just go on and give two bucks but like five bucks gets you a ticket and you just get in the draw whatever we raised like a hundred and some thousand dollars just just just just people giving five bucks at a time, ten bucks at a time.

Some people will come on, they give you $150 and it's just like to see the, to see how kind people are, it's one of the reasons when I see someone just being so violently negative over nothing that I just want to go, I don't believe you.

I don't, I don't, it's hard to. I don't believe the indignation. I don't believe it. So anyway, not to steer up. back to the do no but no i i love i love doing charity work uh it feels great as long as it's something that i whatever i do it has to be something that i'm passionate about right right like i got

offered an endorsement deal for a fast food restaurant and i just i don't care and they're throwing millions at you no no no it's like a lot of money yeah and you're like it's not this is killing people i'm not i'm not going to help you out i'd rather have fuck cancer t-shirts or hats and sell 60,000 of them. Sure. And, you know, make help people. Then talk about, then talk about breakfast all day and healthy options at McDonald's. You're a pretty open guy, I got to tell you. I didn't know. What do we meet? The first time we met was game one of the 2014 Stanley Cup finals.

That was right. That was my Rangers. Yeah. And we lost. And my kings. And you rubbed it in my face. Yeah. I remember Luke got me, helped me get tickets and he said you can't wear anything, Rangers. And I had a satin Rangers jacket and a mullet. And I look like one of the Hansen brothers from Slapshot. And he goes, you're a fucking idiot. And I go, yeah, I was.

But we lost that game. I was really upset. And the Rangers, I don't know if they'll ever win again. Stanley Cup. Yeah, I was in, I was filming Turtles in New York when they made a run to the. Yeah, who'd you play the voice of, uh, no, no, no, I was Casey Jones. Casey Jones. Right, right, right.

Yeah. Was that awesome? That was incredible. That, I think that that filming experience and filming in New York was one of, if not the most important things that I'd, been through as an actor because I used to be um I used to be very very particular in terms of like I need silence on set I can't have people walking around I can't hear I can't hear a cell phone buzz like I can't one of those guys I was one of those guys Christian Bale shut the fuck up Rob yeah and I would have

I would have taken myself way too seriously you know because again like I'm in my early 30s but it, I'm like, Arrow just probably had an outsized importance. You know what I mean? But then I went and worked in New York where people are yelling at you during the take. You're like, hey, you've got to learn how about dealing with us. The crew doesn't, it's not that the crew's not professional, but they're also a New York crew. They don't give a shit.

And you had, so you change your perspective on it. It just, nothing bothers me. Nothing bothers me. So you can be on sent and also, you're a different person. You don't need people to shut up. You don't need to. I mean, look, it still happens every once in a way. You're like, all right, come on.

But every, but every, yeah, every once in a while is different than, like, I wanted to institute a policy where people couldn't have cell phones on set. It's just a true story. You were a set Nazi? A little bit. So are you saying you were a little bit of a dick? Because you're such a nice guy with all these great things and the charitable way. You could be a dick, as long as you evolve.

I think in the early days, I think relative to now, it was probably a bit of a dick. And now, I want to specify, that doesn't mean treating, that's cool. That doesn't mean treating anyone with disrespects, like, far from that. Not, not in the slightest. It's just like, we're here to do a job, right? I've asked crew members all the time. I'm like, you know, you guys want to break for 15 minutes and sing a song? Or do you want to, do you want the day to be as efficient and quick as possible so that everyone can get back home to their families?

And everyone always says the ladder. It's always the ladder. Yeah. They want to get home. So our set is a little bit more efficient and maybe a little bit less kumbaya than, some other sets in Vancouver and I think that every once in a while that gives me the reputation of being a little prickly and it's like well okay fine I also am completely aware that I can't control the perception of people that people have of me because I you hear about welling right

and and his behavior and then you meet him and he couldn't possibly be a nicer guy and it's like okay yeah definitely all the stuff that I heard was bullshit I I don't even know the stuff, the bad stuff. I mean, we never had a fun. But yes, but you hear people always talk shit. People are, I'm sure going to say, hey, that Rosenbaum, he's an asshole, mostly Rob here. He's the worst. You're always, you know, some singer once said, let's give him something to talk about.

I don't think that's the right attitude. No, but I think, I think that there, I think, like, literally within a crew, right? Like, there, there are, there, there are workers who are confident and easygoing. And, you know, I think that, I think that, I think that the crew is incredibly loyal to me because I you know six years I've never I've never missed a day of work I've been late once you know how much they respect that when you show up know your lines and hit your mark and they have to wait for you a lot of actors they don't it's being a professional and when they show up it's the same thing they like oh this guy's always on time he knows his shit we're gonna go

home I'm not he's not gonna be the one that's holding us back today but I also think that there are there are crew members that will attempt to intimidate their subordinates by making me seem like I'm more difficult than I am so that if they tell them that they can't talk to me it allows them to exert control over the person in their department. So you get a bad rap. I think so. I think that happens right. And again, it's fine. It's also, it's it's powerful. It is what it is. It's never going to change. You can't

control what other people think about. You could try to do the best you can and involve as a human being and you know let people like have their cell phones on while they're filming. Yeah. it's not going to happen it's fine all right quick some questions here real quick because i got to get your ass out because i was a little late today i got to get you out 10 till i promised you uh trista keg de me you know oh my god yes can't wait to see stephen what is the most memorable thing that has happened in your life that has a huge impact on you quick question well we're going to go through these uh the move to a in 2010 and the and the and the way that i felt about myself in my life

when i made that move what made you want to become green arrow paycheck paycheck you want to get paid as an actor. Yeah. Yeah, of course. I didn't get, I didn't, it didn't get offered to me. How sweaty are your balls in the, uh, that's Michael Rosenbaum, his question. I mean, in that, in that, in that aerosuit, do they have, it is soupy in there, do they put an arrow fan? No. A fan, a fan, a ball fan?

That suit has one of two options. I'm either freezing because I'm out in the cold and, and the, and the leather is trapping in the cold, or I am sweating my, does it, but I bet those balls off. are trapped in there pretty good right you take that off 10 hours later like oh my god that was a fart I had at breakfast what the fuck just happened uh la lame yeah that was the lame's question about the green arrow uh when are you going to come out sarah wolf for when are you going to come out with a new fuck cancer campaign it's time for a new one probably late late this year early next year i want to be part of that if possible okay uh let's see is lex luther coming on arrow

why not okay you heard that ask him if he still princess julie 13 ask him if he still has a Louisville slugger I gave him when we were here at WizardCon. Yeah, for sure. It's sitting in my closet in Vancouver. The Louisville slugger? Yeah, it's either a green one with my name on it or, or another one that was just the regular sort of Louisville slugger color, but also have my name on it. Silver Girl Sin, I think he owns a vineyard.

You own a vineyard? My buddy and I have a winery in Walla Walla, Washington, but we don't own a vineyard. Okay. We source and make and produce wine, but we don't actually own any dirt. We talked about your method of memorization. You read the script three times, then you pretty much go for it. Favorite travel destination, Amy in Sydney. And thanks for visiting Sydney, she said.

It's going to be tough to top the Maldives. That was heaven on earth. I like it. I really like St. Barts, too. You ever been to St. Barts? No. It's fantastic. Really?

It's really, really cool. I mean, you're like a traveler. You pretty much are doing everything with your life. My wife demands adventure. She's like, you have to. You're going to do the show, and when you're off, we're going. Yeah. And also, I give for, the only thing that I say right now is I'm not trying out new spots over the Christmas break because I need that recovery time. I need to rest. But when it comes to, you know, because we've just basically been around the world and she gets cart, she gets to pick. She gets carte blanche. I like that. Rob. Yeah. How do you feel about this interview? That's great. Right? So interesting. I mean, you, I can.

talk to you for hours and you live around the corner for me can you sometime come back again down the road months months from now 100% it's easy we could just talk shoot the shit yeah what's going on it's it's it's good for the show it's good for my show but that's i think being a nice person i think i'm a pretty nice guy but like if you you never know who you're going to meet oh you couldn't you could not be you couldn't be more right and especially because when you meet like super intelligent and highly successful people they don't they don't give off the the sort of vibe that somebody um who is like moderately successful but wants you to think they're super successful like those people those people are easy to spot but somebody like genie bus or like just the anyone that i

meet that's super duper high up in either the entertainment industry or whatever their industry is they're always incredibly soft-spoken and understated and conscientious and intelligent and and so again you never know who you're going to meet do you ever have you ever gotten a fight on set with another actor or a director and just like yelling or really uncomfortable? It's a good question. I, I've butted heads with, with directors before. There was a director in our fourth season that I just, I didn't appreciate. He would, he would talk to me about a scene, right?

And he'd be like, I'd like you to try this. And I'd say, I'm not comfortable doing that. for the following reasons. And I get crazy about memorization on the show in terms of like this happened here and this happened in this season and this is what happened all over here to the point where I'll have the script supervisor

or other people come to me and be like, hey, we got a question for you. And I'll be like, yep. Because you remember. I remember. And he said, you know, I want you to try this and I gave a reasonable response as to why I was not going to do it.

But he still went out, yeah. And he just goes, he just goes, no, it wasn't like he goes, if he had stood up and said, hey, I'm the fucking director of this episode and I'm asking you for something and you're the actor and I want you to give it to me and we'll look at it

together. But it was like, he went sneaky and said he goes, yeah, but just like, why don't you just do it anyway? I was like, okay, no, you're, no, I'm, I'm done with you. I'm done. I'm, don't you try to fucking sneak me. Don't sneak me. We've had, we've had

the cast has got along pretty well. I mean, you're working with people. You're going to have, you're going to have some, you're going to have, you're going to have, you're going to have family squabbles. To tell you one, one thing I really respected was this year. And also, I also understand that, you know, there are actors that are friends on the show, but there's a certain element of me that people are always going to think of me as management, just a little bit, because, you know, anybody can die on the show, except. that probably me. You know what I mean? And, you know, and they probably know that I'll probably get the script a little bit before they do or just have a different and unique relationship with the, with the producers or the director that maybe they don't feel like they have.

I get that, which is why I respected what happened so much. Rick Gonzalez had a speech in episode nine this year at Oliver and Felicity's wedding reception. and he takes over for somebody who's giving a drunk speech and it's a very thoughtful speech and, you know, I need to be cognizant to the fact that not everyone has big and powerful and interesting and emotional speeches on every episode. You know, some people go through an episode,

maybe they have two or three lines, right? And we were just, we were just saying the words. We weren't even blocking the scene. We were just saying the words. And during his first reading of the speech, I just, because I'm sort of joking around in character, I made kind of a flippant remark. Don't remember what it is, right?

But it was just meant to kind of lighten the mood and it's the start of the day and it's the first thing that we're doing. And didn't think anything of it. Came back to set and he took me aside and he said, kind of speak with you please. And I said, yes. And he goes,

you making a joke like that really interferes with my process. This scene and this moment in this episode is really important to me and I didn't appreciate why you did. And I said, thank you so much for saying that i'm incredibly sorry it will never happen again i meant i didn't mean anything by it it was just a joke it wasn't even a good one i'm really sorry man

but above all else thank you so much for coming and talking to me about it shook hands and it was squashed and it was done that's so yeah but because the thing that i'm aware of is that probably 95% of the time that people get pissed off at me. They say it right in front of people. I am oblivious to it. I have no idea because I don't know what I've done. And maybe they feel intimidated and they don't want to talk with me about it. Or you say something and you say stupid things.

We all say stupid shit. Everybody says stupid shit. And so most of the time that I offend somebody, I am completely in the dark about it. So the fact that he pulls me aside, it's squashed. My level of respect for him, which was already high, jumps up even more. And then you go on about your day. Dude, this has been a really good time. Thanks for allowing me to be inside of you.

Steve, and this has been a real treat. Come back anytime. Thanks, buddy. All right. We're going to talk about. What if you came across $50,000? What would you do? into a tax-advantaged retirement account.

The mortgage, that's what we do. Make a down payment on a home. Something nice. Buying a vehicle. A separate bucket for this addition that we're adding. $50,000, I'll buy a new podcast partner. You'll buy new friends. And we're done.

Thanks for playing, everybody. We're out of here. Stacky Benjamin's, follow and listen on your favorite platform.