VIDEO EXCLUSIVE: ‘Reborning’ Star Emily Bett Rickards On ‘Arrow’

Emily Bett Rickards is currently starring in an off-Broadway production of Reborning, a play about a woman who makes dolls similar to real people.

Rickards is best known for her role as Felicity Smoak in the CW superhero series Arrow. The 27-year-old Canadian actress spoke to uInterview exclusively about her role on the show, which just wrapped its seventh season in May. In March, it was announced Rickards would not return for Arrow‘s eighth and final season, which will premiere this coming fall.

“She was always a character that wore herself so much on her sleeve, she was always so genuine to me,” Rickards said of Felicity. “I don’t think that she held much back and that’s also kind of why I fell in love with her in the first place, she was just trying to put her best foot forward all the time.”

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“I think that wherever she is, she’s happy,” Rickards added of her character.

Rickards also said many of the people involved with Arrow became her family over the course of the last seven years and revealed she learned a lot about acting, camerawork and more.

The actress also called her co-star Stephen Amell — who plays the titular character of Oliver Queen/Arrow, a “genius” for what she believed to be a much more vivid recollection of most of the series’ episodes.

Rickards revealed one of her favorite aspects of starring on the show was having the opportunity to play two versions of the character of Felicity.

“I had [one] we called her ‘goth Felicity’ as she was hallucinating on these pain meds and that was really interesting because we had this incredible machine in and had to sort of double on screen,” she said before adding that the stunts and action scenes from the first two seasons where they were “jumping over elevator shafts” and such were especially memorable for her.

Full interview transcript below:

Emily Bett Rickards On ‘Arrow’

Q: How would you explain your ‘Arrow,’ character, Felicity?

A: She was such a character that wore herself so much on her sleeve. She was always so genuine to me. I don’t think that she held much back, and also, that’s kind of why I fell in love with her in the first place. She was so genuine and so, just trying to put her best foot forward all the time. She woke up every day being like “I’m going to be a good person today.” And she made a million mistakes but she would always try. I love that about her, I miss her, I’ve been missing her for year. To miss her now and talk to her like she was in the past is always a little bit different. But the fans know her as well as I do. I get to live her sometimes, or got to, but I think that wherever she is, she’s happy.

Q: What will you remember most from the series?

A: I started when I was 20, so seven years later, I still kind of, the potent parts, I mean a lot of it is potent, but seasons one and two I was 21 and 22, and I was learning so much and it continued to just gather all of this education in that seven years. The whole show taught me pretty much all of the things that I have learned now. That being said, it’s really the people you met along the way, they really became a family. So, the things that I remember, things off set and learning about camera and learning behind village and watching my fellow castmates act. Everyone’s sort of this orchestra of a machine just putting together to make a TV show, every week, every single week for ten months. Our crew is phenomenal, there is nobody that works harder than they do. I miss them.

Q: Do you have a favorite episode?

A: I don’t remember the numbers as well as Steven does, he’s like a genius with that stuff, but I got to play two Felicities at once. I had what we call a “goth” Felicity, as she was hallucinating on these pain meds, that was really interesting. So we had this incredible machine in, had to sort of double on screen, and my friend Ally, who’s a phenomenal actor, was working with me, to do all the shoulder and stuff, and I wouldn’t have been able to do it without her. That was a really cool episode to shot, but then the things in season one, where we’re jumping over elevator shafts. After coming home from a trip and going straight to work and then working with everyone we were on a trip with, those episodes were amazing because everyone comes from the weekend and then comes in and is like “wow this thing that we’re making, we’re all in it together.” And then everyone’s just like on the bandwagon to go.