Actor Echo Kellum is widely recognized as Tommy from the Fox comedy Ben and Kate and Hunter from the NBC comedy Sean Saves The World. He currently stars as Curtis Holt on The CW’s Arrow and will next be seen in the feature film Girlfriend’s Day alongside Amber Tamblyn and Bob Odenkirk. He took time out of his busy schedule to chat with Tai Freligh from Flickering Myth about Arrow, Girlfriend’s Day and the four-part crossover series happening with Supergirl, The Flash, Arrow and Legends of Tomorrow on The CW.
Congratulations on becoming a series regular. It sounds like you need to hit the gym every day now.
Ha ha. I do, man.
When you’re competing with somebody like Stephen Amell, you gotta.
Yeah, it’s so true. David Ramsey tells a story where he was super skinny when he started working on the show with Stephen and then he got jacked.
So, I have to ask. Your name, is it a stage name or a given name?
My father gave me the name. He’s very much into Greek mythology and Echo is just a water nymph from Greek mythology.
Is Girlfriend’s Day your first movie movie?
It’s my first feature feature in that sense. Yes. I’ve done a couple indie films. I did this movie called Shangri-La Suite. This other film called Village People and then Girlfriend’s Day.
Tell me a little bit about your character in the movie.
I play this guy named Madsen. He’s a card writer slash beat poet. He’s a coworker and good friend of our lead character. He’s basically trying to help his character get back to his glory days where he was a famous card writer if you can believe it. He basically is there to try to help him get back to those days of his past.
Shifting over to your character on Arrow, how much of your character’s story arc do they give you upfront?
Basically, all they told me upfront was that the character would eventually become Mr. Terrific. That was really after my audition. They felt like they really had a fun journey to go on with him and really flesh him out. They pretty much keep us mostly in the dark because everything changes so much. They might have a story-line they’re working on and it can change just like that. I think a lot of it is so that we don’t get our hopes up or feel a certain way about a certain story-line that doesn’t make it into the final script. So they’re pretty cautious about letting us know too much in depth about what is going on with our characters.
How much did you read up on the character before you went in to audition?
I didn’t know that the character was a specific character when I went in to audition, it was code-named. Once I found out who the character was…I was aware of Mr. Terrific, but I hadn’t really read any of the comic books. But then when I found out they wanted me for it, I researched everything about the character and read Mind Games (Ed note: this is a comic book from the New 52 run in 2011 all about Mr. Terrific) and all the other comics.
Did you have an idea that Curtis would become Mr. Terrific so quickly?
I definitely didn’t think it would happen this fast, this season. I thought it would probably be towards the latter part of the season. I think that’s probably why the suit is a kind of prototype and then later it will be basically the final form. Basically, becomes a full-fledged hero in the later arc of the season.
Might we see some of the cool stuff from the comic books, like I was reading about a mask with nanobots that expanded and protected him?
That’s definitely a possibility. I thought that was one of the coolest things about the comic books. You know the cameras and all this other cool stuff. He goes to different dimensions and stuff, so you see them play to a lot of aspects of the comic books.
Mr. Terrific is not a gay character in the comic books, so making the change was pretty groundbreaking for television. What has that been like playing it and what has the fan base reaction been?
I think one of the cool things about the character is that I’m not playing up anything. He’s just a living, breathing, person who happens to be gay. That’s the place where you really start seeing progress in TV and film. You know, like where your skin color, your orientation doesn’t determine what type of person you are, but the quality of your character determines who you are. I think the fan reaction has been overwhelmingly positive and they really just are very vocal about liking the show. The biggest difference to me is that they’ve just been so passionate and they help us achieve it all and I’m so thankful to them for accepting me in this role and for having the love for the character.
One thing about TV shows these days is that social media adds this whole extra dimension to it. You’ve got Stephen Amell on Twitter, Melissa Benoist, Grant Gustin, David Ramsey, all these people. How do you think that impacts the show and what’s it like being part of a show where the fans and the actors are so engaged?
It’s a really interesting and awesome time if you’re a fan of TV or film or anything. You can be so immersed into the actual people that are making these things happen. Back in the day I would have loved to reach out to Will Smith after the Fresh Prince of Bel Air, that would have made my life. It’s pretty cool that we get to communicate with fans and they get to communicate right back with us. It really makes the whole viewing experience more intimate and I’m very proud to be a part of it for sure.
You guys have this amazing four-part crossover coming up. Which character out of the crossover were you most geeking out about getting to work with?
It was definitely Carlos (Ed note: Carlos Valdes plays Cisco Ramon/Vibe on The Flash). You know he’s a friend of mine. I met him last year. He said man it would be cool if we could work with each other and we actually got to. We had a fun few scenes working it out with him. Him and Curtis really mesh well. Honestly, getting to work with Supergirl, Melissa. She is so sweet and nice and genuine and down to earth and she was a blast to work with too.
Are we going to see some of that playoff between Cisco and Curtis in the crossover?
Yeah, I can’t say too much but you will definitely see us play off of that similar relationship.
Mr. Terrific is super smart and knows six different fighting styles. Are we going to start to see more and more skills picked up by Curtis over the season so that by the end of this season or the beginning of next season, he’s picking up some martial arts where his fighting improves?
The arc of this season, I think even in the first episode we establish that Curtis has the longest way to go. He has not studied the arts and stuff like that. He was an Olympian, extremely intelligent. He can pick up things quickly. I think that’s something we’re really going to start diving into, that this makes Curtis the best team mate possible. What skills he brings to the forefront. I think that mixed in with the tech stuff we will explore more in the later seasons.
Who is your favourite person to work with on the show and did that change once you became a show regular?
For me, I love working with Emily (Ed note: Emily Bett Rickards plays Felicity on Arrow). She is such a fun person to work with and she’s so down to earth and real and I will always love working with her. She is so experienced, so easy and she definitely last year helped me to really dive in and she had my back the whole way. I’m totally thankful to her for being such a warm individual and I am seriously in awe that I get to work with her.
Favorite off screen moment?
My favorite off screen moment was this episode we had, I think episode two, it was myself, Madison (McLaughlin) who plays Artemis and Rick (Gonzalez) who plays Wild Dog were all on this comforter and we’re kind of off-camera. We’re on camera, but we don’t have dialogue and just talking and Rick in character all of a sudden goes, “hey, I know we on a TV show, right?” Madison and I responded in character, “you’re insane Wild Dog.” It was just such a real meta funny moment, but it was so in character for Rick that we were dying in laughter after they yelled cut.
What can we expect to see from Curtis the rest of the season?
I definitely think you’ll see him trying to figure out his place on the team and the best way to move forward. He’ll struggle with their relationship and it’s very much a big journey for him.
You list break-dancing as a skill on your IMDb resume and you’re also working on a hip-hop album, so do you ever just bust out singing or dancing on set?
Emily and I definitely do a lot of rapping and we make up songs all the time on set, almost every day. We are in the beginning stages, Emily and I are working on a comedy album, so hopefully we can get some free time off set to work on it.
We thank Echo for taking the time to chat with us here at Flickering Myth. Arrow airs on the CW Network on Wednesdays at 8/7 Central. The four-part crossover on The CW starts with Supergirl on Monday, November 28th at 8/7 Central.
Tai Freligh is a Los Angeles-based writer and can be found on Twitter.
