Arrow and The Flash actor Stephen Amell, 39, reveals he tested positive for COVID-19

Stephen Amell has revealed he tested positive for COVID-19 while filming the Starz show Heels.

The 39-year-old actor, best known for Arrow, The Flash and Supergirl, shared the news on Monday during Michael Rosenbaum’s podcast Inside Of You.  

‘I’m a retired superhero, but take one last thing from me,’ the star began. ‘If I’ve had any anxiety, I know that we speak about this sometimes on the pod and, obviously you know, I had a panic attack on your podcast. Take it from a guy whose only sense of anxiety and panic has been the concept of contracting COVID.’ 

The actor said he has never thought he could die from the pandemic.

‘I never worried about the lethal aspect’ of the virus, he said. But his anxiety came from the idea that ‘I would be letting hundreds of people down.’

Amell, who has been wed to Cassandra Jean since 2012, then shared: ‘I didn’t have anxiety about the fact that I would give it to other people, which again I possibly did, which is unsettling in and of itself. 

‘But you have to understand that because of this anxiety, I have actively, actively, actively tried to avoid contracting this virus. And guess what? I f****ing got it anyway, so be smart. 

‘If you’re being smart, stay smart. And if you’re not, you’re just dragging this s**t on longer for everybody else.’

It came on slowly.

‘I woke up and it was the strangest thing. My f***ing right ear was plugged and I was hot and cold,’ he said. 

He lost his appetite and was dizzy. The actor lost 15 pounds in three weeks.

When he got the positive test, ‘for me it became holy f**k. I just destroyed this show because I’m No. 1 on on the call sheet and I work every day more or less… 

‘I’m in my head going, ‘S**t, they’re going to have to shut down the production. We’re not yet done with the first block of two episodes. Did I just ruin this?’ he added.

He felt ‘incredibly fortunate’ that if he went into isolation, he had a job waiting for him.

‘Again, thank you very much to Starz for being so supportive and what they did over the past three weeks, the show shut down for one day. 

‘What they were able to do is mind boggling, quite frankly. It just goes to show that they were prepared for it, but not everyone has the luxury of taking two weeks off.

‘In fact, most people don’t. We are in the midst of a global pandemic and times are tough for a lot of people.’ 

Together Stephen and his wife Cassandra have daughter Maverick Alexandra Jean Amell, aged seven. Before Cassandra he was wed to Carolyn Lawrence from 2007 until 2010.