Interview: Paul Blackthorne Previews Tonight’s New Arrow, Lance Family Conflicts & More

The new episode of Arrow airing tonight at 8PM (ET) on The CW, titled “Broken Dolls,” is a huge one for Paul Blackthorne‘s Quentin Lance, as a criminal from Lance’s past is back and terrorizing women in Starling City once again. The episode also features some big things for the Lance family dynamic, and it spotlights how Quentin’s opinion and interactions with the Hood have changed since the show began over a year ago.

We were able to speak with Mr. Blackthorne earlier this week in a phone interview where we asked a bit about “Broken Dolls” as well as some elements that might be coming up later in Arrow Season 2. Enjoy, and be warned some spoilers might be discussed!

Our questions to Mr. Blackthorne are posted in bold; his answers are not. If you like the interview, please just link to GATV rather than copying and pasting the whole thing. Thanks!

GREENARROWTV’S CRAIG BYRNE: What can you tell us about “Broken Dolls?”

PAUL BLACKTHORNE: The past returns to make life miserable for good old Lance and for lots of other people in Starling City, but there’s people out there trying to save the day, and Officer Lance and the vigilante conspire to form the Odd Couple and go out there and make Starling City a better place. As strange as that is for Lance to do, working with the man that he was trying to chase down for over a year, when the right thing needs to happen, he’ll make it happen. He’ll just go out and do what needs to be done. So, off they go, marching around Starling City trying to get the bad guy. It’s hilarious!

What is the history between Quentin and [the villain of “Broken Dolls”] Barton Mathis?

Mathis is a serial killer that Lance put away, when he was a detective many years ago. The crimes themselves were pretty hideous. The guy was murdering these young girls, and that in itself is obviously enough to give anyone a bad taste in their mouth, but the reason it was heavier even for Lance, because all that was happening at a time when he lost his own daughter. He felt a great responsibility to stop these other girls from dying, and other parents going through the grief that he was going through. He felt responsible for every girl that died… it drove him more, at the time that it was happening, to stop this insane criminal. Unfortunately, a number of girls had died by the time he did get to them, so of course carrying that grief and responsibility and guilt. But then of course, the years go by, and then what do you know? The fellow’s back on the streets again. [Quentin] can’t tolerate another girl going down because of him not putting the guy away, so he has to do what has to be done. Vigilante time!

How does Quentin react to his daughter, Laurel, trying to bring the Hood down now?

There’s a role reversal that occurred and a conflict therein, given last year that Lance was after him and Laurel was certainly more sympathetic to him, and now the roles have reversed. And it’s great. Because once again, we’re in the family dynamic. We’ve got this strange sort of other dynamic going on, in terms of opposing views on the vigilante once again.

It’s great. It feeds into the characters so nicely. One of the great things about Arrow is that for all of the comic book sort of drama that’s going on, the way in which that feeds into the characters’ emotional lives, and their relationships with one another, there’s so much depth brought to the characters because of that. It’s great to play. It’s not just like going out there and playing cardboard characters in a comic book. These are real people that are trying to get by and do the right thing within their lives in every sense, especially within their families, and then you get all these conflicts created, and you see how hard it is for them to do that. It’s great, juicy stuff to play.

If Quentin were to find out that his daughter Sara was indeed alive, how do you think he’d react?

I think he might be slightly affected by it. I think there’d be a turmoil of emotion, initially one of absolute disbelief, wouldn’t it, really? Disbelief, followed by happiness that she was alive, and then a bit further down the line, he might be asking her “hey, young lady. Where have you been, and why didn’t you tell us where you were?” If that were to happen, I’m sure those would be those emotions, but who knows if that’s going to happen or not. So, we’ll see.

If something like that were to happen, would that make Quentin think again about his relationship with his wife?

In a hypothetical world of if that were to happen, then yeah, of course. Well, it depends if she knew anything about it herself, or not. So, we would see. I think we’d cross that emotional bridge if we came to it.

Are we going to get to see Quentin interacting with Felicity again this week?

[Laughs] I don’t think we do, specifically. Not this one. But there’s one in a couple of episodes’ time where she pops up in Quentin’s face, and he’s like [jittering] “Go away! I don’t want to be seen with you!” The poor old conflict that Quentin’s going through whenever he sees Felicity pop up. It’s quite amusing.

I was just thinking, actually, this morning: The scenes with her are great. She’s such a great actress, and such a great character. They’ve been some of my favorite scenes; the one or two that we’ve done together, and there is a nice little scene – a simple little scene, but it’s a really lovely little scene, I think in Episode 5, where Lance is heading home for his takeaway food and suddenly she’s in his face and trying to demand all sorts of things from him. She’s great fun.

Do you think Quentin is in a happier place now that he doesn’t have all of the drama of being a detective anymore?

That’s one of the things… in a public sense, of course he’s been humiliated and brought down. He’s been demoted, and such like, but as a result of that, yeah, he’s not dealing with the politics of Starling City and the police department so much, and he’s able, really, just to concentrate on doing what he wants to be doing. He’s on the streets of Starling City with the people, trying to make it a better place. And within himself, he’s comfortable with the decision he made, in terms of what happened in the finale of Season 1, because, yes, he sided with the Hood – the vigilante – but in terms of the greater picture of justice and what had to be done, he did the right thing. For the first time in his life, he had to step outside the system of law to do that, and it took a lot to reconcile that thought in his mind, but in the bigger picture, he knows he did the right thing, and no matter how he’s being viewed publicly in whatever sense, he’s comfortable with himself. He’s at peace with himself. It’s nice seeing him in that place. It’s great.

You have a documentary that’s coming out this week, called “This American Journey.” What can you tell us about that?

We were at the Hollywood Film Festival this weekend, screening at the Arclight, which was fantastic. It’s being released on DVD and Hulu — the same place where you can get Arrow as well, so that’s very handy!

I drove through America with a friend of mine and we interviewed people as to how they felt about the state of America, and ultimately we wanted to fall in love with America again. Because I wasn’t sure how I was feeling about it at the time we made it, in terms of America, and I didn’t feel qualified to really form an opinion of America until we had driven across it, in between New York and L.A., the worlds in which I generally inhabit, and speak to the people of the heart of America, getting to the Heartland. So we drove across it, interviewed random people along the way, and we were able to create a wonderfully uplifting, inspiring film basically demonstrating that America may be going through some times but the American spirit, with these kind of people? It’s going to be fine. So, it’s a feel-good documentary about America and falling in love with America again.

How do you feel that Arrow Season 2 has been different, if at all, from what we saw last year?

It’s interesting, the mythology that builds up over the course of the seasons of any TV show – Season 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or whatever. Once all that rubble hit the ground in that earthquake last year, whole other worlds turned circle, and everybody’s world did a spin around. “You’re this” and “you’re that” and “who are you now” and “I thought you were this” – everybody’s world did a 180, and you’re left with this new mythology to sort of emerge, and new relationships. Like with Laurel and Lance. Suddenly, they’re opposing again but only because they both did a 180 in their relationship with the vigilante. So, the way in which the writers has been fantastic, to suddenly create a whole new mythology, in the same town, but born out of the rubble of the Season 1 finale, is fascinating to see.

A new episode of Arrow airs tonight at 8PM on The CW! Take a look at some preview images and be sure to join the countdown at our Arrow forum! Our thanks to Paul Blackthorne for taking the time to do this interview!