Arrow’ Q&A: Amy Gumenick On Cupid’s Return

Amy Gumenick is back on “Arrow,” but in Wednesday’s episode, her character will have a new take on love.

The death of Floyd Lawton, aka Deadshot, continues to haunt her, and it’s prompted the character to take action. Instead of moving on, she’s using her own arrows to try and stop love – dead in its tracks. 

Amy told Access Hollywood more about her character’s return.

AccessHollywood.com: Welcome back to ‘Arrow.’ When did they call you and tell you you were coming back?
Amy Gumenick: About a week before I went. There had been some talk and when we last saw Cupid the story line was definitely left open-ended, and there were various sort of comebacks that were being discussed and places that she could go and people that she could interact with and I think that the whole team was sort of waiting for the right moment, and they found that moment. It was definitely an amazing surprise for me and I was so thrilled to be back.

Access: Where do you think [Cupid has] been keeping herself since we last saw her? Did you make up a backstory for her?
Amy: Yeah. I think that there was definitely a bit of a mourning period [after Floyd’s death]. When we last see her, she has lost the most recent love of her life in a pretty brutal, horrific way, so I think that that definitely took a toll on her and I think that as time went on, she realized more and more what a profound effect that experience had on her. So much has happened with the Suicide Squad since then … I think that the past year or so has been a lot of kind of soul searching for Cupid and trying to figure out what’s next. She’s always up to something. I think that she spends a lot of her time perfecting her craft and her art and her skills and getting ready for the next adventure. There’s been a lot of that going on.

Access: What did she find in her heart when she did some ‘soul searching’? 
Amy: When we last see Cupid, she is a woman who is solely driven by love and the belief that love is the cure to all, and after losing Floyd, I think that in a lot of ways that was sort of the last straw for her. It’s really made her reexamine who she is and what she believes in and the whole notion of love because she has just been heartbroken — one after the other. So, Cupid has made a 180 and now is anti-love and is on a mission to spread that message and to save the world from the inevitable pain and heartbreak and death that comes with love. Arrow says to her in the last episode that we see them together — he talks about ‘love is the disease,’ and she comes back with ‘love is the cure,’ and I think that now she has revisited perhaps that ‘love is the disease.’ So, there’s lot of questioning. 

Access: Oliver might be feeling that way too with the fact that he could not make his relationship with Felicity work — at least at this point. She gave him back the ring. Could his single status possibly change how [Cupid] feels about love because she sees someone that she loved now [single] again? 
Amy: I think that Cupid and Arrow have a lot more in common than he is willing to admit and I think that there are some pretty profound moments in this episode that we get to sort of go inside many of the characters — particularly Cupid and Felicity and Arrow — and kind of see that on some base level, they’re all kind of questioning the same thing. And yes, I think that there is perhaps some long, far off distant hope that maybe, someday, things could work between Cupid and Arrow, but I think she’s kind of made peace with the fact that that’s not going to happen and she doesn’t really think that that exists for anyone.

Access: I’m curious if that opens a pathway for her to work with some of the bad guys on the show at this point, either Malcolm Merlyn or Damien Darhk?
Amy: Oh, I would love that. You know the thing that I think is so unique about this show and this character in particular is it’s so unpredictable and they can take it in a thousand directions and I think that we now do see perhaps a darker side of Cupid. How long that lasts, we don’t know — if this is who she is. I think that Cupid is a woman who is driven largely on emotions and changes those emotions quickly. But yes, I think that she gets in touch with a darker side and kind of yeah, I think there’s potential there. 

Access: If you pause this week’s trailer, it sure looks like you’re fighting with Diggle and Thea. Can you give us any clues as to why they might be fighting some sort of super battle?
Amy: So, Cupid has made herself very known as she always does and she is on a mission to stop love and to save the world from love, and she’s doing that by taking out one celebrity couple at a time and kind of trying to prove a point in a way that will reach the masses. And because what she’s doing is so drastic and so deadly – literally – it brings the entire team together to find her and to stop her, which is kind of what she wants. If you get everyone in the same place in the same time, your voice is heard in a different way, so they all get involved in this fun adventure.

READ: The CW Announces Season Finale Dates For ‘The Flash,’ ‘Arrow,’ Vampire Diaries’ & ‘The 100’

“Arrow” is back on Wednesday night at 8/7c on The CW.

— Jolie Lash