Ben Lewis Actually Requested William's Coming Out Scene on 'Arrow'

William’s coming out scene last night on Arrow was really wanted by one particular person!

The actor who plays William, Ben Lewis, requested that that scene was included in the series.

“My reaction upon reading it was just gratitude that it was in there because it was a scene that I actually, specifically requested,” Ben dished to TV Guide. “After I read the ending of 803, I emailed Beth Schwartz, the showrunner, right away just because I had this realization, which is something I’d never really thought much about before, the fact that William had not had the opportunity to come out to his dad before he died. So yeah, I emailed Beth and she wrote back right away and said that she thought it was a great idea and they were going to work it in, and then sure enough when I got the script it was in there. Oscar [Balderrama] and Jeane [Wongand], who [wrote] the episode, did such a good job, such a beautiful job with it.”

“Then it really became about, I asked for this scene, so now I really have to — I really want to make sure I can do it justice, because I knew how meaningful it was not only to me but to the Arrow audience and fanbase who’ve watched William grow up, many of whom are LGBTQ-identifying themselves,” he continued. “So the significance and the importance of it was certainly not lost on me. And the most sort of surprise of the whole experience was getting to set and realizing it was equally meaningful and emotionally impactful for Stephen as well. We didn’t really talk about it before, but as soon as we got to shooting it, he was so dropped in emotionally and so affected by it that I just had to sort of respond to what he was giving me and say the words that Oscar and Jeane wrote.”