I have always gravitated to DC characters who are human. There is something about a character whose own mortality is a key strength and weakness at the same time. As a pop culture fan, you can also gravitate to these types of characters too because after all we are human. For the record my two favourite dc heroes are Batman and Green Arrow, in that order too.
I’m a Stephen Amell fan, love his show and how he handles himself in the public eye. His Facebook page is a great example of how actors can maintain a social connection with their fans in a genuine way. Yesterday the Arrow star shared a story with his fans on how human he really is in an in incident that caused him to almost have a panic attack. Communicating a story to show his vulnerability, and connect with his fans was a symbol of how down to earth he is and why he is so popular amongst DC fans.
Direct from his official Facebook page:
Hey everybody — something really interesting happened to me today: I had a full blown panic attack in a public place.
A little background, over the past few years, since I’ve become a parent really, I’ve become risk averse in really particular ways. Ninja Warrior? No problem. Professional wrestling? Can’t wait for my next match. But for some reason heights have started to destroy me because when I’m up really high I start asking myself a simple question: What the fuck am I doing up here?!
This morning I got left behind on a ropes / zip line course in the middle of the forest on a small island in French Polynesia 45 feet off the ground and I thought I was going to have a heart attack. My fingers went numb, but also started to shake. My knees began wobbling but I was having trouble feeling my toes. And I went from mild sweating to full hot yoga sweat at a faster acceleration rate than the new Tesla. But I also had to keep going. I had to shimmy my safety clip along, detach and reattach the main clip and fasten the third clip… but not before walking across a full on Temple of Doom style ropes section with one broken rope just dangling there. I swear to God this is true.
So I made it across the next two zip lines, back towards the start of the course and then got off even though it was the halfway point. All I wanted was water and oxygen. Not in that order… but a funny thing happened: Arrow is incredibly popular here and there were 40-50 school age kids waiting with their parents to take photos.
I don’t understand the depths of social anxiety because it’s never something that I’ve dealt with before today… but I’m pretty sure that if you search my name on Instagram over the next few days you’ll see me with a backwards cap on, standing with excited teenagers looking like I’m desperately trying to avoid sobbing. So ya… it’s a real thing.
I’m going to try to be more responsible, or, at the very least, try to learn from what I already know: My daughter made me allergic to heights. More importantly, I’d like to take the opportunity over the next few months to learn more about social anxiety. How it affects different people and how they attempt to deal with it. If you’d like to share your story with me, either in this forum or in person sometime in the future, I’d really appreciate hearing it. I’m the interim, I’ll try to be more empathetic and educated.
Thanks for reading. Please go back to your regularly scheduled holiday season.
Arrow returns on the CW Thursday January 18th 2018
