Before Reacher, Alan Ritchson Was The Secret Lead Of A Blockbuster Fantasy Movie

Robert Zemeckis' 2007 animated film version of "Beowulf," based on the Old English poem, was one of the earlier films to make such extensive use of then-novel motion-capture CGI technology. Zemeckis seemed to feel that mo-cap was the future of filmmaking, and had previously used it to animate CGI versions of Tom Hanks in his 2004 Christmas film "The Polar Express." After "Beowulf," Zemeckis kept on experimenting, using it in his 2009 animated film "A Christmas Carol," and then again in his doll-based biopic "Welcome to Marwen." Zemeckis has, in the last 20 years, mostly stuck with unusual tech experiments that stretch what the medium of cinema can do. Some of his experiments are successful (the 3D in "The Walk" is some of the best ever) and some aren't ("Here" sucked), but one can at least admire him for trying to reach higher. 

"Beowulf" wasn't entirely successful, despite its ambition. It tried to turn the well-worn ancient poem you read in high school into a modern action epic. Ray Winstone played by voice of Beowulf, depicting him like a muscled comic book hero. Crispin Glover played Grendel, and was allowed to speak in Old English. Angelina Jolie played Grendel's mother as a naked, gold-plated seductress, and Anthony Hopkins plays Beowulf's father, Hrothgar. The film also featured mo-cap versions of John Malkovich, Robin Wright, Alison Lohman, Brendan Gleeson, and Dominic Keating from "Star Trek: Enterprise." 

One might note that Winstone, although an amazing actor, doesn't sport the massive, muscular physique that Beowulf does in the film. And while mo-cap tech did indeed alter Winstone's frame to look like a bodybuilder, Zemeckis, perhaps for an extra note of verisimilitude, used a real human, and his movements, as his visual reference. 

The real human reference for Beowulf's studly body was none other than Alan Ritchson, now best known for his role in the hit TV series "Reacher." 

Because he was only a body model and didn't actually do any of the motion-capture acting himself, Ritchson actually has no credit on "Beowulf." His professional screen-acting career had just begun by 2007, and he had, at that point, only been in a 2006 slasher called "The Butcher" and in the anthology romantic drama "Steam." Ritchson would eventually do some of his own mo-cap acting in the 2014 version of "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" (he played Raphael), but for "Beowulf," he was more or less a stand-in. 

Ritchson was asked about "Beowulf" during a recent video interview with Wired, and he recalled the gig well. He said: 

"What you were looking at on the screen, that was me. I didn't get to do the voice, though. I was fresh into L.A. and would have loved to have been a part of that, though. You have someone like Ray Winstone to come in and voice it, which is great. The main difficulty for them is that he was the only actor voicing the part who didn't look anything like their character. They brought me in to be Beowulf. It was great for me since it was one of my first projects."

Ritchson has a point. Apart from Grendel and Beowulf, all of the mo-cap actors in Zemeckis' film look like the actors portraying them. Despite this, Ritchson isn't the least bit resentful about the job, happy to have been involved in such a high-profile film so early in his career. He also recalls it being kind of weird, saying: 

"The process is so insane. They are photographing you moving, not moving, with clothes and without clothes. It was unbelievable." 

Ritchson became famous in 2004 for a striptease he performed on "American Idol," and decided to stay in L.A. to pursue acting. He was cast as Jack Reacher in 2022, and has become all the more famous because of it. Know that it's his handsome, wet, dripping chest on CGI display, though, the next time you watch "Beowulf."