Oliver Queen (Stephen Amell, right) as takes archery lessons from his trainer, Yao Fei (Byron Mann). (The CW)
Oliver Queen consults his journal that he kept on the island where he was stranded. It lists his enemies. (The CW)
Prior to scoring the lead role in The CW’s stylized “Arrow,” Stephen Amell’s stay-fit routine was hiking, a little yoga and maybe doing chin-ups on a bar installed in his house.
Today, however, much of the Toronto-born actor’s time off set is spent pursuing intense exercise, including everything from parkour (see scene one of “Casino Royale” if you don’t know what that is) to archery, and he’s loving it all.
“I really wanted to make people believe I could pull off being a superhero without having any super powers,” says Amell, 31. “It hasn’t been an easy undertaking but it’s fun.”
Amell plays DC Comics legend Oliver Queen, whose alter-ego is the Green Arrow, now shortened for our tweeting-and-texting world to just Arrow. The story starts with Queen and his billionaire father stranded at sea after a huge storm trashes their yacht somewhere in the South China Sea. By the end of the ordeal, everyone on the boat — including his girlfriend’s sister, Sarah, with whom he was having a secret affair — has died, except for him.
Now, after five years on a desert island, Queen’s been rescued and he’s back in Sterling City (known as Star City in the comics), but he’s not the party boy he used to be. Much like “Batman” — and the show is clear that it’s drawing inspiration from the dark tone created by Christopher Nolan for his noir films — Queen has returned to clean up his city, and he’s keeping his plans, and his new identity, a secret.
The show kicks off with Queen’s return, but it flashes back to the shipwreck and what happened on the island where Queen ended up. In between, the show sprinkles in plenty of action sequences, making for one sexy thrill ride. It’s no surprise that the series instantly found an audience and was picked up for the season.
And that’s where all of Amell’s training is paying off: besides lots of gratuitous — and let’s be honest, smoking hot — shots of Amell’s perfect abs and shoulders, he’s also doing many of his own stunts. When you see him doing crazy pull-ups in which he lifts a pull-up bar up into the next slot and continues upward, that’s really him.
“I’ve actually gotten really good at those,” he says. “We tricked them out for future episodes and added elements to them.”
In the show’s first episode, which premiered Oct. 10, Amell also runs through a fun parkour sequence — think jumping off walls, and leaping from heights with somersaults for landings — that was also all him.
“I did the vast majority of action in the pilot. There’s nothing that’s come up in the show that I’ve looked at and said I can’t do that. That flies in the face of our philosophy in the show of making everything real, grounded and believable,” he says.
Still, the heightened pace of producing episodic television, plus the restrictions of the insurance company means more of the show’s action is now performed by Amell’s stunt double, Simon Burnett. Burnett’s also performed stunts in the “Twilight” movies, “I, Robot” and “Rise of the Planet of the Apes,” among many other productions.
There’s plenty for both Amell and Burnett to do in “Arrow,” with its focus on “Bourne Identity”-like action, featuring fast hand-to-hand combat and insane archery skills.
Archery has been Amell’s favorite when it comes to all of the talents he’s had to pick up to play the part.
“Archery is incredibly cool,” he says. “As enthusiastic as comic [book] fans are, archery fans are at that level or even above it. And once you do it, you fall in love with it. There are elements of archery that you can take into your everyday life, elements that I hope will make me a better actor.”
While all of that action makes “Arrow” exciting and different from much of network TV fare, what especially appealed to Amell was the chance to be “No. 1 on the call sheet,” he says.
“Over the past two years in Los Angeles, I’ve been in lots of shows, most often in a guest-starring role, but I saw how a show could be positively affected by a lead and negatively affected as well,” he says. “I thought playing Arrow would be an interesting opportunity professionally as an actor, but also personally as a young man who has always wanted to put some leadership qualities on display. The fact that all of that happened and I got to play a superhero is just icing on the cake.”
Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Amell, with his chiseled features and dark blue eyes, is easy on the eyes — a standard requirement for a CW star. And all of those pull-ups and parkour means that Amell’s well-prepared for his many shirtles scenes.
Amell’s bio doesn’t reveal the expected modeling experience, but last year he appeared in a supporting role on HBO’s gigolo dramedy, “Hung,” and he’s also guest-starred in Fox’s “New Girl,” The CW’s “90210” and “The Vampire Diaries,” ABC’s “Private Practice” and CBS’ “CSI,” “CSI: Miami” and “NCIS: Los Angeles.”
Prior to that, the actor worked mostly in his native Canada, on Canadian-produced shows such as “Dante’s Cove” and “Degrassi: the Next Generation.” “Arrow,” in fact, shoots in Vancouver, so Amell at least gets to remain in his home country in his new gig.
When asked about his dating status, “not single” is all he’ll reveal, although his production and training schedule leaves little time for a personal life.
For now, he’s focused on making “Arrow” the best show it can be. Says Amell: “I think fans want to see a flawed and vulnerable superhero and see how he became that person.”
ARROW
Wednesday, 8 p.m., The CW