All eight episodes of Reacher season one are now streaming on Prime Video, and ahead of the show's premiere, we were granted an exclusive opportunity to sit down with leading man Alan Ritchson (Smallville; Blue Mountain State; Titans) to chat to him about his biggest role to date.
While Ritchson is best known for his performances as Aquaman on Smallville, Thad Castle on Blue Mountain State, and Hank Hall on Titans, he was also the actor behind Raphael on the most recent pair of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles films, which he's alluded to having a less-than-favorable experience working on.
With him now taking on new responsibilities as #1 on the call sheet for Reacher, we were curious to learn more about how he approached the series and how he wanted to make it the best environment possible for all his castmates and crew members.
Check out the video interview below, and keep scrolling for the full transcript!
ROHAN: Since you're the second actor, after Tom Cruise, to take on this role, did you ever try to reach out to Tom or did you want to differentiate your take on the character from his as much as possible? Or were you a little curious about seeing what an older Jack Reacher might look like?
ALAN: "Yeah, I grew up watching Tom Cruise, he’s a film icon, he’s a legend and I can’t believe that I share - that there’s just one degree of separation between us with this role. It’s surreal and I’m grateful for everything he brought to this, but I wanted to make sure that I absorbed only what I found in the books and in the scripts.
I feel like that’s where I can honor this character best, I’m a bit of a behaviorist, I will naturally pick up on traits that other people have and I just wanted to avoid that, to be as true to this amazing twenty-four books, at the time, as I could possibly be and I feel like if I did that, then I’m doing my job and if I’m doing my job, I think we can create something that fans will enjoy and those that haven’t read the books, they’ll still get great TV that they can enjoy as well. I just wanted to stick to what was in the books and on the page."
ROHAN: I've been a fan since your Smallville and Blue Mountain State days, and have followed your career through Titans, of course. But unlike those shows, where you were either a supporting player or part of a larger ensemble, Reacher sees you take on the leading role - You are Reacher!
I've heard you speak on your less-than-ideal experience with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles production, and wanted to ask you about being the leading man on this show and being in a position where you can set the example for the cast and crew and make it as comfortable an experience as possible. Can you elaborate on the kind of leader you wanted to be day-in and day-out?
ALAN: Yeah, I’ve had the good fortune of having some difficulty learning how to stay in my lane as an actor. It’s tough for some people that have their own creative pursuits to enjoy the process when you’re the last link in the creative chain. Actors are the last part of the process. You write the script, you go scout locations, you build the sets, and then you go find your actors to see who you populate it with and that can be tough when you feel like - when I read it, I see it this way and I don’t see it coming to life in that way, I feel like my way is better and you want to make sure that everybody knows that there may be a better idea, but nobody else wants to hear it because they’ve already set the stage for what it’s going to be and there can be some tension there.
I learned on a show, the first time I was the lead of a show was Blood Drive on Syfy and I butted heads a lot with the showrunner on that and it was tough because I was always trying to push for what I thought was a better idea and nobody wanted to hear it and, at the end of the day, it didn’t matter because I don’t have a hand in the post-production pipeline. There’s no point in arguing, so I just learned to trust the process and the people that I’m working with, just say the line and we’ll see where it ends up and that’s served me well.
HBO’s Titans, I really enjoyed that process, it was probably the most fun I’ve had, surrendering to that, and I was able to carry that into Reacher. This was hands down the most collaborative effort I’ve ever been apart of, there was no ego involved for anybody, the writers, the showrunner, he would call me up and, “Let’s talk about the script and see if you have any notes.,” and nobody does that these days. They don’t want to hear from me. The producers, we would all collaborate together and just play and see where Reacher landed if we tried different things and it was a lot of fun. It was fun to find it and we did it as a team and I think the audience is going to enjoy an authentic Reacher because all of us care very much and we all worked really hard together as a team to find it. I think the audience will benefit.
Reacher starts streaming, exclusively on Prime Video, on February 4!