Heels: Stephen Amell and Kelli Berglund Talk Crystal’s Big Win, Building the Women’s Division in Season 2
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Jack and Ace Spade’s fraught relationship came to a head in the Heels Season 1 finale, with the feuding brothers beating the hell out of each other and Crystal ascending as the new DWL Champion.
Picking up where we left off, Season 2 — premiering this Friday on Starz — will explore the fallout from Crystal’s big win and how her unexpected victory brings up major issues for the male-dominated wrestling league.
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“It wasn’t the plan, so you put yourself into a little bit of a corner,” Stephen Amell, who plays Jack, tells TVLine. “But the key in professional wrestling is you have to listen to your audience. Your audience is going to tell you where to go, and the [DWL] audience is telling them, ‘No, guys. We really like Crystal Tyler, so what are you going to do about that?’ and Jack listens.”
Mary McCormack, who plays DWL’s backstage manager Willie, notes that Crystal’s title win is an opportunity to grow the women’s division.
“Through Crystal’s success at the end of Season 1, they are forced to think, ‘How can we sustain this? We can’t have her beating every guy in our promotion, and then we can’t also have her being beaten up by every guy,’ McCormack muses. “So it’s a natural progression of, like, ‘Well, then we need to bring in more women. We have to solve this problem.’”
The solution? Add a new woman wrestler to the roster. Season 2 will see former WWE Divas Champion AJ Mendez appear as Elle Dorado, a seasoned fighter who will give Crystal some much-needed competition. And while they might be opponents in the ring, Kelli Berglund says both women will also share a unique bond outside of the squared circle.
“I think [Crystal] is a little bit intimidated, honestly, because [she] was the only girl before, and she was top dog. She’s got the belt, and now she’s got some steep competition,” Berglund explains. “But we also see a bond formed between these two. Crystal [has] never really had a female wrestler to talk to and ask questions to and bond with, and it’s really beautiful to see that and to hear it from someone else, the highs and lows that might come with being a woman wrestler. We get to see it firsthand from Elle Dorado, so it’s a really special relationship.”
Play PLAY on the above video for our full interview with the Heels cast, which was conducted before SAG-AFTRA officially announced a strike on July 13.
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