Alan Ritchson's Reacher Casting All Came Down To A Two-Second Clip
The secret to the success of the Jack Reacher novels isn't all that complicated. Author Lee Child created an unequivocally good guy, made him really good at fighting and shooting, and sent him across the U.S. on a post-Army career pilgrimage to nowhere. Or, as Child's website puts it: "He'll arrive in town, come across someone who needs his help, solve a mystery and take out the bad guys, and then get on the next bus out of town." And, across 28 novels, the ex-military police officer has encountered all manner of trouble, which, being a 250-pound badass, he naturally overcomes with relative ease.
Unfortunately, bringing Jack Reacher to the screen proved a little more complicated than the simple formula that made him so popular. Tom Cruise failed to win over diehard fans of the novels with his two Jack Reacher movies. As Child told Entertainment Weekly, "The idea is that when Reacher walks into a room, you're all a little bit nervous just for that first minute. And Cruise, for all his talent, didn't have that physicality."
Thankfully, Amazon seems to have righted that egregious wrong with their Prime Video series "Reacher," which debuted last year to acclaim and some of the biggest streaming numbers the platform has ever seen. Much of that was down to the bulky leading man Alan Ritchson, who embodied the protagonist in a much more definitive way than poor old 5-foot 7-inch Cruise.
And for Ritchson, gaining the respect of Jack Reacher fans was a hard-won triumph. The actor had to go through an arduous audition process, with Amazon initially passing on the 40-year-old, before eventually agreeing to cast him. But for Child, who serves as executive producer on the show, the decision was much more simple.
'That's the guy'
Playing Jack Reacher has been Alan Ritchson's favorite role to date, which makes sense considering how physically suited he is to the part. The actor also put on an extra 30 pounds prior to filming the first season. And standing at 6 foot 3 inches, he pretty much is the physical embodiment of Reacher. But Ritchson also immersed himself in the books, perfecting the character's mannerisms and taciturn demeanor.
Showrunner Nick Santora previously told /Film that he loved how Ritchson conveyed Reacher's ability to "exude intelligence without saying anything." And it seems Lee Child felt very much the same. Speaking to CinemaBlend, the author explained how he approached casting in the wake of Tom Cruise's two films:
"It all boiled down, essentially, to the first two seconds of the screen test. I needed a guy who would step on the screen, not do anything, not say anything, but somehow, be Jack Reacher. And that's what you need. You need to look at this guy and you need to think instinctively in that first blink, you need to think, 'If I'm a good guy, he's going to be my friend. If I'm a bad guy, he's going to be my worst nightmare.' And the point is, it's not me that decides, it's him that decides. And that had to be done in a look and a mood and a stance instantaneously in that first couple of seconds. So that's what happened. He stepped on the screen and I knew, that's the guy."
While Santora claims it was a group decision to cast Ritchson, Child clearly didn't need any help in deciding who he wanted. And considering the show's success, it seems deferring to the original author isn't a bad way to move forward with "Reacher."