Movies - TV
Alan Ritchson’s Reacher Casting Was Decided By Two Seconds Of A Screen Test
By JOE ROBERTS
Author Lee Child explained to CinemaBlend about how he approached the casting of Jack Reacher: “It all boiled down, essentially, to the first two seconds of the screen test.”
Child said, “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.”
Child added, “It’s not me that decides, it's [the actor] that decides. And that had to be done in a look and a mood and a stance instantaneously in that first couple of seconds.”
With his hulking 6 foot 3 inch frame, Alan Ritchson has the body of Reacher, but the actor also pored over the novels to capture the character’s idiosyncrasies and reserved nature.
It was clear that Ritchson embodied Jack Reacher from the opening moments of his screen test, as Child concluded, “He stepped on the screen and I knew, that's the guy.”