 KryptonSite Smallville Comic-Con Interviews, Part III: Justin Hartley!
Playing what might be considered to be the first costumed adventurer to appear on Smallville, the Green Arrow, Justin Hartley returns to the series for his third season as a series regular. In addition to playing the Green Arrow, otherwise known as Oliver Queen, Mr. Hartley will be directing an episode in the upcoming season, which premieres September 24 on The CW.
Justin participated in roundtable press discussion after the Smallville panel at the Comic-Con International in San Diego, and KryptonSite was one of the outlets who were fortunate enough to get to speak with him. The interview is below.
Please do not duplicate this interview onto other websites. Instead, just place a link to this page. Thank you! Questions are posted in bold; answers are not.
Near the end of Season 9, Oliver had a great big scar on his chest. How long will that take to be taken care of?
I don't know for sure, but I think it's probably already fixed. We haven't shot it yet, but Oliver is naked in the first episode, which means I'm naked. He's always naked, that dude. I'm reading and I'm like - "help me out Oliver, why do you gotta be naked all the time?" We haven't shot it yet so I don't know if they're going to put it on there, but to be honest, I hope they don't. I don't know. There's something he could do there, right? But how do you explain that? The guy's got enough money to put all that back together? It's awfully big.
 It has been announced that Darkseid is coming on to the show, with some of his minions coming on first. How does Green Arrow come across some of them?
He hasn't come across anything yet, because right now he's on a quest to find Chloe, to find out what happened to her. That gets him into some trouble. And then he's getting recruited, and so he's weighing that option.
By Checkmate?
The Suicide Squad, I believe. I'm giving you all kinds of stuff. These interviews are gonna come out, and then I'm going to be fired. [jokes]
...And then I think probably, like I said I haven't read anything about it yet, but knowing Oliver, you know he's gotta get into the mix, right? He gets in anyone's face, it doesn't matter how big they are, so whatever he sees that he doesn't like, he's probably going to step right to it. That'll be fun.
What kind of a story are you hoping to direct?
This might be kind of a weird answer, but I hope that I am able to direct a Smallville story. That's the key. I don't think they're bringing me on to direct because I know what lens to put on the camera. I think they're bringing me in to tell a story. Hopefully I'll get these actors to perform that they always have, to tell the story of the script, and when people watch it, I hope they go "Wow! That came across very well." So hopefully I do justice to the script.
Do you know what's in store for Green Arrow in the series finale?
I don't know what's going to happen. I only know up until [episode] 5 or 6. I've asked...
What would you want to achieve?
It would be fun to see Oliver rest easy, wouldn't it? To look in the mirror and be okay with it? I want to see him ditch the suit... no. It would be nice to see him at ease a little bit, but unfortunately you're probably not going to see that, because if you see that, that makes it boring. If Oliver's okay with himself, that's boring. He's got to have some kind of inner thing going on.
Will Oliver still be having tension with Clark?
There's always going to be tension with Clark, I'm sure. But Clark's doing a lot more than he did before. I think Oliver's like "well, he's at least doing something. He's got that cool little wardrobe thing going, so whatever." I think they're cool for a while.
If you could choose which of the women of Smallville Oliver should be with, which one would it be and why?
Oh, man. You know what? Personally? I'd choose my wife. [laughs]
I don't know. It's interesting when Oliver is with Lois, because they have this back-and-forth banter thing going on. It's interesting when he's with Chloe, I think, because there's something really private and deep-rooted in both of them. Their relationship is private to each other, so they get each other. They both have gone places together that only one other person could understand; that would be the other. And then who else has he been with? Ah. Tess. That's right. What other color hair do we have...? The Tess thing is fun, because that's a long history with that. We'll probably revisit that this year. I think they do a good job writing him with all the girls on the show, and making him ruin, in some way, the relationship before it gets off the ground. Chloe might be the only one he didn't actually ruin. But she left. So... [laughs]
Would you still be interested in a Green Arrow spin-off if it were ever to happen?
Yeah. You'd have to obviously hear what people are saying, and what their ideas are for the show, but absolutely. I'd sit down and talk about that. Figure out what the concept was, and what I could do - and I certainly could do it. But no one has said anything yet. It's really flattering, though, when people keep bringing it up. It's a testament to the show.
When a show's been on for ten years, and it's going to be the last season, and people are clamoring and wanting more - no other television show's really like that. Some shows go away and people are like "Eh, it sucks. Move on." But Smallville's going away, and everyone's been told it's going away, but people are like "Okay. How do we hold on to this?" What a great thing to say about a show.
Stay tuned for more interviews. Here's what's posted so far:
Tom Welling - Erica Durance
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