Robbie Amell is on fire, literally and figuratively.

In the literal sense, he plays Firestorm on The CW's new superhero show The Flash, a character that sets himself ablaze whenever he feels threatened. Last Tuesday night's episode of The Flash saw the S.T.A.R. Labs team attempt to separate Firestorm back into Ronnie Raymond (Amell), a S.T.A.R. Labs maintenance worker, and Dr. Martin Stein (Victor Garber), a nuclear physicist obsessed with transmutation. Their bodies had been fused together the night the particle accelerator was activated in Central City. However, when the splicing occurred, all we saw was an explosion.

In the metaphorical sense, Amell has a lot more going on these days than just starring on The Flash. He's also in a new high school flick, The Duff, also starring Mae Whitman, Bella Thorne and Ken Jeong, in theaters Feb. 20. With the message that everyone has insecurities being at the core of this movie, it may even warm your heart.

Amell took some time out to speak with T-Lounge over the phone about what we can expect from tonight's episode, Firestorm's costume controversy and the possibility of sharing the screen with cousin Stephen Amell from The CW's Arrow.

What can you tell us about the fate of your character on the show? Where are we going to see Firestorm, Ronnie Raymond and Dr. Martin Stein go from here?

I mean, didn't you see the explosion? I'm dead. I'm not on the show anymore [jokingly]. Uh, no, the very cool thing about last [week]'s episode was it was kind of the Firestorm origin story. And um, now the next episode is titled "Fallout," and it's well titled, because it really is the aftermath and the fallout of separating Martin and Ronnie. You know, Ronnie wants to give his relationship with Caitlin another shot. He's been away from her for a year. Martin wants to go be with his wife. And the two of them have had more than enough of each other, sharing a body for the last year. We quickly find out that they're not as separated as they thought. They may actually have to come back together to fight a big battle on the show.

General Eiling appeared at the end of last week's episode, and he will be going after Firestorm in tonight's episode. What can we expect from that?

One of my favorite scenes is kind of the first time that... it's not really a spoiler. It's the first time that Martin and Ronnie merge together when they both want to. You know, Tom Cavanaugh's character Harrison Wells says the danger with merging again is that they may never be able to split. But if they both accept it, then it won't be one person controlling it. It'll be both people sharing control of the body. We're in control of Firestorm next episode, and we get to do some really cool stuff.

What's it like for you to play a character that is really three characters in one?

It's really fun. It is kind of weird. I mean, you got to see Ronnie in Episode 4, and then you saw this schizophrenic homeless guy in Episodes 8 and 9. And then you saw kind of the Martin Stein in Ronnie version in Episode 13. Next episode, I finally get to be Ronnie again and try and develop that relationship with Caitlin a little more. So it was nice to have that kind of roller coaster, but it'll be good to get back to developing a character, or the character I thought I was originally going to be playing.

Because you portray Martin Stein on the show as part of the character of Firestorm, did you have to pick up Victor Garber's mannerisms or did you do anything to bond with him?

I didn't want it to be too much of an impression because really, it's just his mind inside my body. It's still me vocally and everything. So I figured I would just annunciate a little more and carry myself a little stiffer and a little older and more mature. Victor became a good friend. We shot a TV movie [The Hunters] a couple of years ago. The second I found out he was doing The Flash, we were talking and went out for dinner while we were in Vancouver, so it was fun to get to play a version of somebody I know and who I really look up to and enjoy hanging out with. He got to see that scene at ADR [Automated Dialog Replacement], and he left me a really nice message, which was very sweet to get from him. But at the time, it was terrifying, because he's Victor Garber, immensely talented, and he's Victor Garber, so. It was fun but definitely a little scary.

What is Ronnie's attitude toward Dr. Harrison Wells? What are his thoughts or feelings toward him now?

Yeah, you actually get that pretty quick at the beginning of the next episode. It's Robbie being reunited with Cisco and Wells and Caitlin. There's no animosity there. I mean, he hasn't been around, so he doesn't know what Wells has been doing or what anybody's been doing, really. He missed the whole last year. He totally backed the accelerator, so there's no animosity there. He doesn't feel anything towards Wells for turning the machine on, and he definitely doesn't feel anything ill towards Cisco for closing the door. I mean, that's what he asked him to do, and I thought it was really great. They wrote it in right away, you know, Cisco tries to apologize, and Ronnie shuts him down immediately. Like, "No absolutely not. This is what I asked you to do." And he did it. So there's some nice moments right off the bat in the next episode with the kind of the family at S.T.A.R. Labs.

I want to talk a little bit about Firestorm's costume. When it was revealed last month during the Television Critics Association press tour, some fans were kind of disappointed that it didn't look like what Firestorm wears in the comic books.

As they should be. You know, it's not actually the costume. I think they did a poor job of explaining that at TCA. It just happened to be what I'm wearing the first time they put the splicer on. It's really just that those were the clothes that I was wearing, you know, as you saw at the end of the [last] episode when I went out to sacrifice myself. And then they put the splicer on. The splicer you find out is actually removable. So it's really just whatever I'm wearing when the splicer goes on, that happens to be the costume. I'm sure down the road Cisco will, you know, develop some sort of suit, because that's what he's good at. There will be some sort of costume. With that being said, a lot of fans are looking for the puffy sleeves, and I don't think there's any world where puffy sleeves work anymore. You know, it worked in a cartoon or on an action figure, but if you saw me wearing puffy sleeves, you'd know it was going to be a mistake.

Yeah, I think last week's episode cleared that up for us a lot, seeing that it was just kind of the device on the jacket.

Yeah, you know, the splicer is the only solid piece of the costume that will be following whatever the next step is.

Would you want to wear something kind of close to what The Flash wears?

Sure, everybody wants a superhero costume. I would not like it to be the classic yellow and red. I think there's a black version out there that I've seen that's really badass. But the yellow and red one I feel like just has the potential to go very Ronald McDonald. The Flash costume is awesome. The Arrow costume is awesome. I trust them to make a pretty cool costume.

Were you familiar at all with the character of Firestorm and Ronnie Raymond and The Flash comics before joining the show?

I knew who he was. I didn't grow up reading his comics or having any of his action figures, but it just kind of introduced me to a whole new world in the DC Universe. So DC sent me a care package with some Justice League comics, some Firestorm comics. My mom went out to a comic store. I was out in Toronto visiting family when I booked it. She immediately went out and grabbed anything Firestorm that she could find, so that was really sweet. One of the coolest things has been bringing, you know, a character who's been around for so long to the screen for the first time in live action. I was in New York. I couldn't believe the reception of the character. This was only my first or second episode. People were coming up to me and saying they were so excited to see a live-action Firestorm, that they grew up on this character. So that's been really special.

I think everyone would of course love to see as many Firestorm and Arrow crossover episodes as possible...

Yeah, I'm one of them. I'm working on it. I do know that it started off as kind of like, "Oh, you know, maybe we'll do this." And then it turned into them, you know, actively trying to figure out when and how to get Stephen [Amell, who plays Oliver Queen/Arrow on The CW's Arrow] and I on the screen together, which is great.

Yeah, so that is something you think could happen in the future?

Yes.

OK, awesome.

I don't know when but some time.

What would you like to see happen in that crossover?

I'd like to see them team up against somebody. As much fun as it would be to fight each other, like the Arrow/Flash crossover episode was, I think it'd be really cool to kind of have me save his ass or have Stephen save my ass. It'd be pretty cool.

So starring on The Flash now and on The Tomorrow People in 2013, those obviously have a lot of special effects and super powers involved, but now your new movie coming out The Duff is quite the departure as it's a movie about regular high school teens. What was it like for you to make that switch to something that was more grounded in real life?

It was fun. You know, the thing about The Flash and The Tomorrow People, even though there's all these special effects and super powers, at its core, you're really trying to ground it as much as possible. That's when people invest as much as they can in it. So we were really doing the same thing with The Duff. It was just a little lighter fare, and we didn't have to worry about it being too out there or too sci-fi, or sci-fi at all. But one of the nice things about The Duff is we were given a lot of freedom with the lines. I would say at least half the movie is improvised. So I would say it just feels really real and natural, which I think a lot of teen comedies are missing these days. So I think that's really something people are going to relate to when they watch it, or at least, you know, feel like it just has that special something that kind of separates it from most teen comedies these days.

This interview has been condensed and lightly edited for grammar and clarity.