Willa Holland’s Thea Queen is showing off her physicality this season on “Arrow,” something that was previewed at the end of last week’s episode.

Thea is now being trained as a fighter under the tutelage of her dad, Malcolm Merlyn (John Barrowman).

“I’m still going through it,” Willa said when AccessHollywood.com asked her about her own fight training as an actress, during a set visit to Vancouver with reporters last Friday. “I’m still learning a lot, but I’ve been doing a lot of weight lifting, hitting the gym a lot with my trainer, Brady Roberts, who tortures me on a daily basis for at least an hour every day of the week, like seven days a week, Sundays even. And basically I’ve been working – I don’t know if I can reveal the other trainers that I’ve been working with. I’ve been focusing on weight lifting and getting my mobility going, and I’ve been hitting a few fronts, like kind of dabbling in almost everything the show has been offering, so it’s been kind of nice.”

In last week’s episode of The CW series, fans saw Thea fending off sparring attacks from several practice fighters using her martial arts skills.

“That’s right! They have revealed some of the katana, which has been awesome,” Willa continued, telling reporters what she is doing on the show. “That’s been one of my favorite things that I’ve been able to learn to do. It’s like crazy, awesome martial arts sword training. That has been amazing. I don’t know if I can reveal too much about it, though. I don’t want to spoil.”

Last season, Access spoke to Willa and asked if she was hoping she would eventually get to kick butt one day on the show. At the time (in April 2014), she said she couldn’t wait, telling Access, “Oh, I am praying for that. I am begging for that. I’ve been asking since day 1.”

Now that she’s finally doing that on The CW drama – or at least showing hints that that is what Thea’s future holds – Willa is having a blast, she told TV reporters.

“It’s probably my favorite part about my job,” she said last Friday. “It’s half the reason why I signed on to ‘Arrow’ in the first place is because the teasing of Speedy was in the pilot, and so I kind of just had this idea, ‘All right, I’m going to inevitably — if I’m on a DC show, maybe I’ll suit up and get to do some awesome stuff.’ And it’s slowly starting to happen, so I’m quite happy about it.”

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

(source)