Stephen Amell recently opened up about the grueling schedule while working on “Arrow” and how it affected his lifestyle. The star appeared on Michael Rosenbaum’s “Inside of You” podcast and recalled his previous on-air anxiety attack. He revealed being in “the midst of this transition in my life that I didn’t really want to accept.”
Amell shared he “used to be the guy” who would “film Arrow until 3:30 in the morning.” He would catch a 6 a.m. flight to Los Angeles and “have a couple of screwdrivers on the flight, get some sleep, and then get back on the Saturday.” The Canadian actor said he would continue the day by spending time with his family and having “a nice dinner Saturday night” and then “get up early Sunday morning.”
Amell said that “especially during football season,” he would tailgate. This was followed by meeting people and then catching an 8:50 p.m. flight to Vancouver. “At 5:30 the next morning, I would be up, I would get to the gym, I would get on the treadmill,” he added.
Amell admitted that the “problem” started when he “lost the ability to do that” and he started to realize that he is “not 29 years old anymore.” The actor shared, “It was like the chemical makeup of my body changed a little bit, and I lost the ability to then get back up, get to the gym.” However, since Amell was not “getting in and sweating it out,” he felt that the “relatively toxic weekend would live with me and just kind of sit in in my system.”
Stephen Amell reflects on the changing relationship with alcohol
By then, the cycle had started to affect Stephen Amell’s lifestyle, as he recalled, “If you’re not gonna get back up and be healthy, then you kind of continue to be unhealthy.” Amell said he would experience moments when “stuff like anxiety” had felt “almost entirely connected to a withdrawal from alcohol.” However, the actor clarified that he was not talking about delirium, but he did have “a little bit of sweats.”
“I was on this roller coaster, and it was just a yo-yo of up and down, and up and down, and up and down, and that becomes really tiresome,” he continued. Rosenbaum then asked if the actor quit drinking entirely, to which he replied that he didn’t. However, he did experience going on long periods where he didn’t consume any alcohol. After saying he could go two months without drinking, Amell noted that he did his best “to never touch any hard liquor anymore,” but he would still have “beers, ciders, wine.”
The “Arrow” actor further shared that he tries to refrain from drinking alcohol in front of his kids. He recalled a vacation from a few years ago to the Caribbean with his wife, Cassandra Jean, and daughter, Maverick. Amell noted that his son, Bowen, wasn’t born yet. “I didn’t touch alcohol the entire time I was there,” the actor said. Furthermore, Rosenbaum asked if there was any “temptation” to have a drink during outings. “I don’t like having a drink. That’s part of the problem,” Amell affirmed.
The “Suits: LA” star shared that he has an “addictive personality.” Although he confessed to having a family history of alcoholism, he wishes to “just not get on the slope.” Amell asserted he feels “significantly better” while abstaining. He noted that his 20s and 30s are long gone and he has made peace with the fact that “I can’t do it anymore.” He then made a motivational statement, saying, “You have to reconcile that — put your ego to the side a little bit. Do what’s going to be best for you personally, professionally, emotionally, physically.” Lastly, he added that he enjoys his present lifestyle and won’t trade it for “any mind altering substance.”
