And while the story may be set in the world of wrestling, it is actually a family drama as it is more about how the relationship between the two brothers unfolds, and it also examines Jack’s relationship with his wife Staci (Alison Luff). “Wrestling is the icing on this show, it’s not the cake,” Amell tells Parade.com in this one-on-one interview. “The important part is the dynamic that exists between two brothers that are unwillingly or unwittingly enemies in the wild, so to speak. We look at that and really explore that.” Amell had planned to take some time off after Arrow wrapped in 2020, but as a longtime fan of the WWE, the lure of playing a pro wrestler was just too great for him to say no when he was approached by executive producer Michael Walden. Plus, he thinks the nature of the show, which he compares to Friday Night Lights, which spent a lot of time on the football field but was also a family drama, will draw in an audience. “Michael has crafted a world in a show that it is going to make you, hopefully, resonate with and root for or against some of these characters,” Amell continues. “So, whether you’re a fan of professional wrestling or not a fan of professional wrestling, you can enjoy this because it has themes that are universal: the brothers sparring; the overwhelmed, overmatched husband and father; a person that is dealing with grief and burying himself in work in order to get through it.” Amell’s love of pro wrestling began when he was in elementary school and he tuned into the WWE on Saturday mornings to watch his favorites, which included Hulk Hogan, The Ultimate Warrior, Macho Man Randy Savage, “Rowdy” Roddy Piper, the Rockers and Demolition, and Jake the Snake. “They just hit 7 or 8-year-old Stephen Amell the right way and I got hooked,” he confides. “I’ve stayed a fan. Sometimes it’s waned, but people always eventually find themselves coming back to professional wrestling because some star will transcend and start to find themselves as part of the mainstream conversation.” Amell also discussed the similarities and differences between Arrow and Heels, and why he considers Heels to also be a superhero show. Arrow was a very physical show as is this. How is this one different? What was the training like? We did a ton of training, both in the ring and the gym. All the people in production were very thoughtful and considerate and baked our training into our day. They built a set on a soundstage and gave us practice right on a soundstage. That was such a huge advantage relative to Arrow. Because, in the beginning [of filming Arrow], basically I took it upon myself to transform my body, but that really wasn’t sustainable because there wasn’t the support system around to give me the time that I needed to train, so that, certainly, would become frustrating from time to time, but it also made the model that I used in the first season unsustainable as we went along. You can put muscle pads in a superhero suit and you can utilize the stunt double a lot more when you’re wearing a hood and mask, but this one was different. This, you are literally as naked as you can be in the ring. I’m wearing trunks, which for the uninitiated is a Speedo. That’s exactly what it is in the first episode and there’s just no hiding out there. You’re quite literally laid bare for the world to see, so I had to focus on parts of my body that I’d never really looked into. I used to skip leg day. There’s no more skipping leg day. It’s the easiest part of your body to transform, but it’s the thing that’s going to make him look the most physically different and strong. You would think it’s the upper body, but it’s not the upper body, it’s your legs. It’s 100 percent your legs. Doing that was actually a lot of fun frankly. I’m hoping for a second season so I can get out there and get back in shape. With the exception of Mary McCormack’s role as Willie, the women are kind of second-class citizens. Will that improve? Will Crystal (Kelli Berglund) maybe get to wrestle. She really has it on the ball. She does. First of all, Willie is a boss. Willie runs s—t. She basically runs things in the Spade household, but if you’re a fan of Crystal’s, then you’re going to want to stick with us through the first season because, without giving too much away, I can go so far as to say, she becomes the focal point and the biggest takeaway from the first season of the show. I’m very, very proud of Kelli Berglund, who’s a wonderful actor. I think more than anybody, Kelli threw herself into the physical nature of the show. At the beginning when we first got here, I don’t think she had picked up a weight before, and by the end, she is just a total bada$$. What is it like to go from a hero on Arrow to a heel on this? Although when we talked for Arrow, you weren’t always certain that Oliver was a hero if I recall correctly. This is a superhero show, no? It’s got all the tropes of a superhero show. Everyone has their persona outside the ring, and they have their persona inside the ring. They’ve got theme music; they’ve got their superhero suits. They just happen to be wrestling trunks. Quite honestly, that’s how I see it. I think that Oliver Queen became a hero. He certainly died a hero, and Jack is kind of similar to him in that he has a real aversion to letting other people help him. Ultimately, that’s bad. You injured your back during filming. How are you now? I’m good. I suffered a compression fracture in my T10 and L1 vertebrae. I get how scary that sounds, I really do because call it what it is, I broke my back. I was very lucky that, basically, my back compressed but it didn’t twist, I didn’t slip a disc, so it was painful because all the surrounding musculature in my back, chest, abdominals, hips and butt, it was such a jarring shock to them that they all seized up for a little bit. So, for the first day or so I was in a fantastic amount of pain and very uncomfortable. I couldn’t take a full breath. I felt like I was at 17,000 feet elevation and there was not enough oxygen in the air to populate my lungs, but then those muscles relaxed. Everyone was very thoughtful, and I wasn’t off work for too long. They eased me back into things. I count my blessings that nothing worse happened. Heels premieres Sunday, Aug. 15 on STARZ. 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