Fans of Emily Bett Rickards’ work as Felicity Smoak on Arrow have been happy to see the character become more and more integral to the series in recent months, with her not only working alongside The Arrow, but now also having a new cover identity as Oliver Queen’s assistant. With Arrow about to go into a big two-parter this week that will introduce Barry Allen, setting up a potential spinoff for The Flash, I sat down with Rickards to discuss all things Felicity Smoak, including how she and Oliver relate to each other, what she makes of Barry, whether she might learn to physically defend herself and more… including why Rickards loves Gorilla Grodd so much.

Emily Bett Rickards as Felicity Smoak in Arrow.

Emily Bett Rickards as Felicity Smoak, Stephen Amell as Oliver Queen, Paul Blackthorne as Quentin Lance, and Grant Gustin as Barry Allen in Arrow.

Definitely. I mean, just seeing her develop alone and becoming stronger, more vocal -- I think what's really important is that becoming a part of this team is changing her. It's making her stronger. She's still scared of things. Her fear just won't go away, but she's finally taking a stand. She's at a time in her life where she's going to change a lot.I know it's out on the Twitter-verse, like “Who’s her mom and dad?”, that sort of thing. I think Marc [Guggenheim] actually said something on Twitter. Sometimes people will say things, from production, and I haven't heard about them, so I find them out on Twitter too, about a mom or dad coming on, which would be really cool -- that, or even a friend, a friend that doesn't have anything to do with Queen Consolidated or the Arrow, just something different. That would be really great.Yeah, definitely. I love Summer. I've loved her since Firefly. It is really cool. Now Felicity’s wearing a mask too, right? So that's really interesting. She was doing it before, but she didn't really have to put on a mask. She's sort of like, "Okay, I am an assistant for Oliver Queen, billionaire, Queen Consolidated," that sort of thing. Then she goes down to the lair at night and just hacks federal, you know, FBI, Interpol, all that. You're like, "Sweet, so when does this girl go work out? When does she have the time?" I don't know. Does she have free time? When she's sleeping?What happens is that his expertise is needed, and Felicity recognizes that in him. His intelligence is used to help the team take action. He's very smart, and she's very smart, and they get along really well. She's intrigued by him, and it takes a lot for Felicity to be intrigued, because she's usually smarter.He's cute. He's cute, he's smart, he's quick. He's witty.He might get even faster! He might, he just might. Just like lightning.What I really liked about the last episode "State v. Queen," was when she's wrapped up in a blanket, and she looks over and is sort of like, "What do I do when you're gone?" That sort of look. Not like she's expecting him to leave, but nothing's permanent, and I think she recognizes that. You know, it's funny, I feel like she recognizes that nothing's permanent, but I don't know why yet. There had to be something in her past. I just feel like she's a "nothing lasts forever" kind of girl. I feel like the end of that was sort of like, "What would I do without you?" Once again, that doesn't need to be romance, but that is a heavy thing to realize when you're looking at someone.Oh no, it was just the one. I mean, it wasn't even on a set, it was on a location, with Guy Bee -- he let me keep my industrial piercing in, which is why I still have it [as Felicity]. To this day, he's one of my favorite directors. We just worked with him on [episode] 12. He is one of the coolest people I've ever met. So calm, stuff gets done, he's funny, he's quoting Anchorman in the middle of a scene. You're like, "What? Why are you singing Afternoon Delight?" I'm in the middle of the scene, and I'm like, "What the s**t?" Yeah, it was just supposed to be the one episode, and here I am.

Continue to Page 2 for more with Emily Bett Rickards as she talks about familiarizing herself with DC Comics, Felicity learning to fight and more.