Zap2It interviews Colton Haynes, along with a few of the other stars ‘Arrow,’ and had him explain his character, Roy Harper, and how he fits into the show.  The video does delve into how we first meet him, and then how his character forms a relationship with Thea.   Although slightly too gigglish on the interviewer’s side, you get a lot of talk from Colton as well as some from Stephen Amell as well as Willa Holland.

When we meet Roy in Wednesday’s episode, “Dodger,” he’s not exactly on the up-and-up. “Roy is a very troubled soul,” Haynes tells us. “He’s definitely not brought up in a very good part of town; he’s from a place called The Glades. It’s a down-and-out, really poor neighborhood, so in order for Roy to move forward in the world he has to make some really bad decisions and do some very bad things.”

Very bad things, including purse-snatching. In fact, he and Thea (Willa Holland) are introduced when he tries to steal her bag.  “I think that’s a good way to meet someone!” Colton jokes. “You steal their purse, you can kind of see what they have in there, and it’s only uphill from there. You get the bad stuff out of the way first.”

Colton snags Willa’s purse

“That’s totally how lovers meet,” jokes Holland. “Somebody jacks your purse on the street, you go chasing after him, and then la-de-da! Cupid!” In addition to literally chasing Roy, though, Thea will be figuratively chasing him. Despite their less-than-ideal first encounter, she’s intrigued by him, and Holland tells us that we’ll see Thea make an attempt to win Roy over and convince him that she’s more than just some brainless rich girl.

On Roy’s part, his interactions with the wealthy, powerful folks of Starling City have mostly been limited to petty crime, so when Thea Queen starts to insert herself into his life, he sees a bit of an opportunity. “It starts to weigh on his mind that there could be a possibility of maybe getting into that world one day,” Haynes says. “At the same time, he’s not used to it. His ‘normal’ is being from the ghetto, in a sense. This all is just added trouble for him, because he wants to live this life that he’s been living, and now he’s starting to feel like someone might care about him.”

In the comic books, Ray is an orphan who is actually adopted by Oliver when they team up. Though the “Arrow” version of Oliver obviously isn’t in any place to be a father, he might be positioned to be a positive influence on Roy’s life. Roy has a lot to learn before Oliver sees any sidekick potential in him.

“I think Roy could definitely be an asset to Oliver’s life, but I think in a way it could also be the other way around,” says Haynes. “Oliver could have a lot of influence on the way that Roy sees life from here on out.”

Initially, though, most of Roy’s interactions are with Thea — when we visited the set, Haynes hadn’t shot any scenes with Stephen Amell yet.

“I have an interaction with him coming up in an upcoming episode, but not necessarily as Oliver,” Amell teases, hinting that the Arrow might have a few words with Roy. “Colton’s character Roy, at his core, is a good person, but what we’re starting to learn … is there’s a fundamental problem with The Glades. Oliver’s warehouse is in The Glades, his club, by coincidence — not — is in the Glades. We heard a lot about it, all the way back into the pilot, where Tommy takes me to see my father’s factory so I can scout the location, and he just says, ‘This city’s gone to crap.’ One of the things that we’re learning with the undertaking [and] Colton’s character, is everything is kind of leading to The Glades.”

You can watch the video at Zap2it.