Reacher has been such a home run for Amazon that Season 3 has been greenlit even before Season 2 premieres later this month. Let’s just say that they found the right dude for the job, even though Alan Ritchson is 6’2″ instead of 6’5″ and doesn’t have hands quite as big as dinner plates.
As well, there was (as you definitely assumed) a rigid round of prep work (diet and exercise) involved with portraying the hulking hobo. This is where I gotta mention that, in the show (based upon Lee Childs’ bestselling Jack Reacher books), Jack Reacher does not make any effort to look the way he does. He was blessed with “genetics” and doesn’t go to the gym. He also eats a bunch of garbage (whatever is in a vending machine, fries, diner sammiches, and so on), so yep, the dude simply got lucky. Now, Alan Ritchson? Not so much.
The Catching Fire/Fast X actor previously revealed on a Reddit AMA that he lifted serious weight while gaining 30 pounds to get to 235. As for his diet, he declared on The Kelly Clarkson Show that “it’s a full time job” to inhale “a conveyor belt of smoothies and protein.” However, he kind-of ate like Jack Reacher, too: “I would order the crew Popeye’s chicken sandwiches, cookies, just so I can get the kind of calories I wanted, and it looks like a goodwill gesture.”
Hmm. Considering that he doesn’t usually diet in real life, according to his AMA, his revelation of Popeyes’ and cookies seems plausible:
“I built a modest gym in my house and hit weights 5 days a week. For twenty years I almost never used weights. 4 sets of 25 Pushups, pull-ups, dips, and sit-ups always kept me at 205. Weights for 8 months got me to 235. I usually eat whatever cause I run so much. I clean it up a little when going to camera.”
Now, if only the man could get some really great pie.
Reacher will return on December 15.
