Dragon Con 2015: Katie Cassidy Press Conference

As you probably know by now if you’ve seen my other posts, Dragon Con 2015 was last weekend, and I was able to attend on behalf of Bam Smack Pow. This allowed me to attend some of the press conferences that went on during the con, including one with Arrow star Katie Cassidy, who like her good friend and roommate Danielle Panabaker, is a very friendly and kind person. Below is a transcription of some of the best questions asked at the press conference.

How is training going?

"It’s good, it’s really good. I actually brought my trainer with me just because I am the type of person that if I’m not with my trainer, it’s easy for me to be like, “Oh, I’m just too tired this morning.” But it’s really good. It’s really hard, but I love it. It’s awesome."

Have you had to ramp up the training for having more of a role on Team Arrow as Black Canary?

"Oh yeah, absolutely. I think second season, Marc Guggenheim and I had a discussion about the physicality and the difference between Laurel. Obviously, Season 2, you saw her go from, you know, an alcoholic and a drug addict and literally a disaster all day everyday. As an actor, it’s challenging and I love that, but it was really nice and I think a really good arc for me to come out the other side. You know, hit rock bottom, get sober. And then Season 3 we spoke about the physicality of Laurel, that there has to be a drastic difference. I’ve spent a lot of time, and still do obviously, dedicating my hiatus to training and working out."

Do you do a lot of your own stunts?

"Uh, as much as they let me do. For insurance reasons, you know they obviously aren’t going to let me jump off a building. But I would love to (do more stunts), it would be fun for sure. But they let me do as much as they can, and my stunt double Atlin, she’s fantastic. I watch her, and she’s really good at morphing herself to the actor. She’s also doubled Caity Lotz before, and Caity Lotz and I, you know, we have different mannerisms, obviously we’re different people. When she doubles Caity Lotz, she does a really good job at forming and morphing into that, and when she doubles me, same thing. What’s cool about it, I spoke with her the other night, she shoots, like when they do the giant masters, it’s normally the stunt team. In fight scenes, it’s normally the stunt team, because they want to go all out. And I get that and it’s totally fine with me, but you know, we’ll discuss like if the Black Canary’s going to jump off the roof and onto the ground, like I’ll talk to her about picking up mannerisms from Caity because we are sisters. So even just the way she lands, the way she looks up and the way she kind of crouches. Just small little things to sort of tie us together and create that, I guess, sisterly bond."

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How comfortable is the costume?

"It’s actually really comfortable. Mia, who’s our fantastic costume designer, she let me actually have a little bit of input ,and I have to say I was just really happy that I was not fully exposed! It’s like, “Oh good, I’m not going to be running around in like a bustier!” And I saw Caity when she was wearing it, and she was freezing all the time. So I was like, “I’m going to remember this when they’re designing my costume not to do that.” I wear these motorcycle, fingerless gloves just as a hats off to the comics and the fishnets. They’re fishnet, and then the body suit underneath, the top part of that is sort of like a fishnet. And so they let me you know, put little touches here and there, and I also had a lot to do with the makeup. It’s interesting, we had probably six different tests for what the Black Canary’s going to look like when I was the Black Canary and I’m suited up in costume. And I looked so masculine in the mask, because everybody has blacked out eyes, and my suit is so masculine, and it just looked very intense with the suit being masculine and the mask, and then the face with the black (eyes). So I was like, can we just make this a little bit more you know, girly, sexy, not so harsh? And at first that was Marc’s (Guggenheim) least favorite look, and then our makeup artist and Greg Berlanti pleaded their case and were like, “She looks better this way!” The suit is masculine enough so they let me incorporate a lot of the details of the makeup."

Is that where the dark lip comes in?

"Oh, that was me! It’s Veno by the way, M.A.C. (cosmetics)."

So after two years of seeing everybody else get into costumes and having fights and being able to do all that, was it really exciting to be able to get in there and really join in?

"Oh my gosh yes, absolutely! I met with The CW before I even read Arrow, was offered Arrow, before Arrow was even around, and I said, “Listen, I really want to do an action role.” I’ve always worked out, I think a healthy lifestyle is really important, and I was like, “I really want to do some bad ass, kick ass action show. If you guys have something, let me know, let’s talk.” So then Arrow came about, and I met with Greg and David Nutter and Andrew Kreisberg, Marc Guggenheim, and they pitched me the show. And they were like, “Well, in the comics, Laurel Lance is Black Canary, so probably like Season 1, Season 2,” and I was like, “Okay, great!” And obviously it’s television, anything can happen. I’m actually grateful and glad the way that they went about it, because it gave my character someplace to go, and when you’re on a show season after season after season, I’m so lucky that I’ve had this wonderful arc that they wrote for me. But yeah, definitely, Season 1 and Season 2, it was a little frustrating, because I wasn’t a part of the A storyline, and you know I wanted to be in there! And then when Caity Lotz came on, who by the way I love, she’s amazing, it was definitely hard. Because I didn’t know, they hadn’t told me that she was coming ’til like a week before, and I was like … I mean I didn’t say this, but I thought this in my head like, “Pretty sure they sold me the show based on that I was supposed to do that!” And then I was like, “You know what, just have faith and trust them they know what they’re doing. It’s television, I’m a professional.” I tried to handle it in the best way possible, and she was so great. It was also good just watching, I think because we were still just trying to find our legs Season 1 and 2, you know? And it’s obviously been an honor and I’m so happy, I’m so grateful and I’m so excited I’m finally a part of Team Arrow! The one thing I will say, though, is when you’re a super hero and you’re on our show, you work ’til like four, five in the morning, so I’m nocturnal."

You can see Katie Cassidy as Laurel Lance on Arrow when the season premieres October 7th on the CW.

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