Arrow’s Kat McNamara Talks Mia Smoak With ET Live

Katherine McNamara (Mia Smoak) visited the ET Live studios today to promote her Freeform series Shadowhunters which sadly airs at the exact same time as Arrow (Mondays at 8), but in addition to discussion about what’s up with Clary Fray in Season 3B of that show, she spoke a bit about what’s coming up for her on Arrow.

But first, she talked about what it’s like to play an action-based character on both shows.

“It’s a lot of fun,” she exclaimed. “You know, it’s never something I intended to be, but when I was a kid, Mulan and Pocahontas were always my favorite Disney princesses. They were the ones who fought their own battles, who took matters into their own hands, and to be able to play two characters that are doing that, in this era where we have so many amazing, female, independent, driven characters, it’s wonderful. It’s a great community to be a part of, and the fact that both characters are so different, as well, really shows the diversity that can be the empowered woman.”

“Mia’s really wonderful,” Katherine continued. “Now we know who she is on the show – she’s Olicity’s daughter – and tonight, we get some more answers on that bomb that’s been dropped. Why she and William don’t recognize each other. Who Connor Hawke is. How he fits into the story. Why Dinah and Roy clearly don’t even know that Olicity had a kid.”

“I’m in a lot of the episodes for this season, and things are only getting more interesting,” she teased. “In fact, they even shot an entire episode that is just flash-forward. So you get to see a lot more about Mia’s childhood, and her past, and what made her this hardened fighter.”

You can watch the interview here. A new Arrow titled “Brothers & Sisters” airs TONIGHT on The CW; photos from that episode can be found here.