Reacher's Alan Ritchson Sliced Up His Arm For The Sake Of Flirty Improv
"Reacher" season 1 was a big hit for Prime Video, topping the Nielson streaming chart and breaking records for the streamer. As such, it'll be interesting to see whether the show can maintain its momentum going into season 2, especially since it's set to follow the same formula as the books by essentially becoming an anthology series. That means each season will see Alan Ritchson's ex-military police officer visiting somewhere new and interacting with a fresh cast of characters. Unfortunately, as confirmed by showrunner Nick Santora, that means we're unlikely to see the return of season 1 favorites Oscar Finlay (Malcolm Goodwin) and Roscoe Conklin (Willa Fitzgerald).
That's going to make things tricky for the team behind "Reacher" as much of what made the first season so popular was the interactions between Ritchson and his two co-stars. That's particularly true for Roscoe, who struck up a romantic relationship with Reacher throughout the course of the first eight episodes, making for plenty of sexual tension and flirty back and forth between the pair. There were also some real moments of connection, with Reacher revealing to Roscoe some of the horrors he witnessed on tour in Baghdad.
It all comes to a head in episode four, when Reacher and Roscoe, ahem, consummate their relationship. But one of the best scenes in the lead-up to that episode finds the couple in a bar, where they have a few flirty beers. During the scene, Reacher opens a beer by popping it between his bicep and forearm, in a bold move that might be a little too much for most people on a first date, but which works within the slightly absurd world of the show. And apparently, it was all Ritchson's idea.
Reacher and Roscoe's 'machismo-off'
Talking to Cinema Blend, Willa Fitzgerald provided some behind-the-scenes insight into Roscoe and Reacher's impromptu first date, revealing that Alan Ritchson not only came in with the idea to open the beer with his arm, but injured himself doing so. As the actress explained:
"[Ritchson] was like, 'I wanna open it in my arm,' and I was like, 'You're insane.' He also fully cut the inside of his arm by the end of that day of shooting. And I was like, 'Well, if you're gonna do that, then you know what I'm gonna do? I'm gonna smack it off on the edge of the table.' Because it wasn't written like that. I basically pitched it to Nick [Santora] and he was like, 'That's great. Do it.' And so then it just became this kind of machismo-off between Roscoe and Reacher, and it was a really fun scene to shoot."
The show does its best to not turn Roscoe into some sort of cliché love interest or defenseless damsel, clearly defining her character and backstory across its eight episodes. After the bar scene, Reacher offers her his coat, to which she responds by telling him she doesn't need it before running out into the rain. Which makes Fitzgerald's suggestion that she match Reacher's beer-opening trick with her table technique that much more fitting.
Fitzgerald also confirmed that the beers were, of course, pre-opened to allow the actors to perform their tricks with ease — so I wonder how Ritchson managed to cut his arm so badly. But then, what's a little cut to the man capable of single-handedly taking out a whole prison gang?