Reacher's Willa Fitzgerald Explains The Key To Jack & Roscoe's Chemistry
When "Reacher" ended its first season on Prime Video last year, it left the door open for future adventures featuring scrappy Georgia police officer — and Jack Reacher's sometimes-lover— Roscoe Conklin (Willa Fitzgerald). The last time we saw Roscoe, she was handing Jack (Alan Ritchson) a candy bar wrapper with her phone number on it and asking him to hit her up sometime. The show's return date has yet to be announced, but the cast and crew have still been breaking down what made season 1 a success in the off-season, starting with the relationship between its two super-capable heroes.
In an interview with CinemaBlend (via Yahoo) Fitzgerald explained what exactly made Roscoe and Jack's partnership work, and it all comes down to chemistry. "I think that even from our chemistry test, which was over Zoom, so not ideal circumstances to really have chemistry with anyone, we kind of managed to find chemistry there," Fitzgerald told the outlet, referencing an audition the pair shared in which they immediately hit it off as scene partners. She went on: "I think it was a really good sign that we weren't gonna have a hard time."
Fitzgerald isn't the only person with good things to say about Ritchson: the actor has gained plenty of acclaim for his take on the role of an ex-military investigator made famous by Lee Child's book series. /Film's own Vanessa Armstrong wrote in her review of the series that "If Sherlock, MacGyver, and the Terminator had a baby, that very large baby would be Reacher, and Ritchson embodies the part beautifully."
A spitfire and a brick wall
Fans of the "Jack Reacher" books have been itching for a great adaptation for years now, as Tom Cruise's two-film run as the hero earned a so-so reception from fans and critics. But Ritchson's take on the role was different from the start: "From his fighting style to the delivery of Reacher's memorable one-liners, Ritchson has Reacher down," Armstrong writes.
Ritchson and Fitzgerald apparently continued to work well together on set, where the latter says the pair "really enjoyed shooting the s**t and having fun together." She reasons that "all of that translated really beautifully into our on-screen chemistry as Roscoe and Reacher because we already had a foundation there of liking each other." Fitzgerald, who previously starred in MTV's "Scream" and the cheer drama "Dare Me," says great scripts made a difference to the pair's success, too. "The characters of Roscoe and Reacher are written really well as these almost kind of foils who are both kind of hard-headed in the same way," she tells CinemaBlend.
The actress says had to urge to read Roscoe's lines out loud the moment she read her scenes, which she took as a sign the show was on the right track. Calling Roscoe an opinionated, self-assured "spitfire," Fitzgerald admits, "I think that had she been written any other way I probably wouldn't have been as interested in playing her." If Roscoe's a spitfire, though, Fitzgerald describes Jack much differently – and with hilarious accuracy: "He may be a brick wall, but Roscoe also has an opinion that she's really going to stick to. And so, when you're throwing a ball against a brick wall, it still comes back."
"Reacher" season 2 does not yet have a release date. Season 1 of "Reacher" is now streaming on Prime Video.