Collider – The CW series The Flash is kicking off its eighth season with a five-part event called “Armageddon,” in which a powerful and mysterious alien threat arrives on Earth promising the end of the world. Barry (Grant Gustin), Iris (Candice Patton) and the rest of Team Flash are up against a ticking clock with time running out and in order to save humanity, they will need to enlist the help of some of their other super friends.

With one of those superheroes to the rescue being Mia Smoak, aka Green Arrow, Collider got the opportunity to chat 1-on-1 with Katherine McNamara, the actress who first brought the character to life on Arrow. During the interview, she talked about how it was a dream come true to reprise her role as Mia, what it was like to see her character through the eyes of the creative team on The Flash, having kept up with training on her own during the pandemic, and what fans can expect to see from her in “Armageddon.” She also discussed teaming up with Alcon PRECISION1 contact lenses and how they’ve helped her vision, especially when it comes to safely pulling off the badass stunts she’s become known for.

Collider: First of all, I think it’s so interesting that you’ve teamed up with Alcon and their PRECISION1 contact lenses. How did that come about? Why was it important to you, especially when it comes to your work and the stunts that you do, to find the right contact lenses, and what made them the right fit for you?
KATHERINE McNAMARA: It was a very coincidentally fortuitous situation, that’s for sure. I had good vision, my whole childhood. I never thought I needed vision health. I was fine, or so I thought. I ended up going to an optometrist to get a contact lens fitting for some special effects monster contacts for a job. I thought, “Well, it’s been about 10 years since I’ve gotten my eyes tested. I probably should. I’m here. Why not?” I was shocked and quite embarrassed at the results. I did not know how bad my vision was. It’s something that is so simple and can be right in front of our faces, and yet is so easy to forget about doing. You go about your life and things can change drastically, right before your eyes, literally, and you don’t even know. I started wearing glasses and, obviously, doing what I do, it’s not always conducive to work or to fitness, or for a lot of the other activities in my life. Glasses got to be very cumbersome.

So, mid-pandemic, when the world started opening back up again, I went, “Okay, I’m gonna figure out contact lenses. I’ve never had them before. I’ve never explored them. I’m in my mid-20s. It’s time to adult and take care of myself.” Around the same time, Alcon had reached out, seeing that I was wearing glasses and going, “Hey, have you ever thought about contacts?” I went to my eye doctor and it turns out that PRECISION1 was actually the perfect lens for me. They’re so comfortable. They’re daily lenses that you just throw in and I completely forget about. They truly have opened up my world and have made me feel as though I have my own superpower, as it were.

I love their See What Happens campaign because it really aligns with a lot of the way I live my life. It very much centers around encouraging people to go out into the world and have experiences and live your life and go on adventures and don’t let anything stop you, including your vision, which is exactly what Alcon did for me. I know being a young adult, I’m learning how to do all of these things in the world. It wasn’t necessarily something I knew how to do. So, they have a great feature on their website. You can go to SeeWhatHappens.com and find an eye doctor near you, where you can go get your vision tested. You can explore the options on their website and see what’s available to you, so you can go in with a little bit of knowledge and have the right questions to ask so that you can really find the right lens for you.

When you do as much physical work as you do, that must also help with stunts and making sure you can actually see what you’re doing.
McNAMARA: Oh, absolutely. Especially if you’re holding a bow on set and having to pretend to fire an arrow or you’re throwing a sword, or doing anything like that, it helps if you can see where you’re going or where you’re stepping in the dark or what you’re aiming at. If you’re throwing a kick in the dark, and there’s smoke and fog and your hair is blowing in your face, it helps if you can see, just a little. There’s only so much smolder that you can get away with.