Reacher is the role that Alan Ritchson was meant to embody. There’s no doubt about that, but it’s wild to consider that the Fast X actor had been kicking around in Hollywood for over a decade before landing what would ultimately be his household-name-making role. Perhaps he’s even so fitting as Jack Reacher — managing to even infuse a layer or two within a brick sh*thouse — because Ritchson knows what it’s like to fail and forget that “details matter.” For that reason and more, he has blown auditions in the past.
In his recent Men’s Health interview, Ritchson describes how his life before apprehending every goon and irritating stunt coordinators included a series of small gigs punctuated by failed bids for larger roles. These included losing out on Thor, for which “the casting cabal told his team the role had been his to lose but he hadn’t shown that he had ‘the craft'” because he assumed, “They’ll throw me the part if I look like the guy; nobody really cares about acting.” Additionally, he was deemed “too old” to portray Finnick in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, but that’s neither of these stories feel as brutal as that time when he went and bought an expensive car after deciding that he nailed an audition and then nope:
[H]e auditioned for the lead on the show Titans. “I was so confident. I was like, ‘This is the best damn audition I’ve ever had in my life. There’s no way they can do this show without me,'” he says with mock bluster. He was so sure he’d gotten the gig that he bought a Tesla. The role went to Brenton Thwaites instead. Ritchson was told he was too old again.
Well, everything did eventually work out for the best. Reacher keeps soaring higher in streaming popularity, and viewers eat that show up like the yummiest vending machine junk food that ever existed. If Ritchson had been cast in Titans, there likely would have been too much overlap for him to take on the Big Man for Amazon. Speaking of which, the third season is filming now, and we await further word for a release window.
(Via Men’s Health)
