- The 41-year-old actor spoke about his diagnosis in a wide-ranging interview with Men’s Health to promote his new film Ordinary Angels, which is currently in theaters.
- The actor admitted to “manic behavior” on the set of Reacher during the first season, which ultimately caused the stunt coordinator to briefly leave the show.
- Ritchson said he refused to leave the set to replace the stuntman, adding, “I was like, ‘I’m doing a shitty stunt.'” It was a manic act.’
Alan Ritchson has revealed that he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder five years ago at the age of 36.
The 41-year-old actor spoke about his diagnosis in a wide-ranging interview with Men’s Health to promote his new film Ordinary Angels, which is currently in theaters.
The actor admitted to “manic behavior” on the set of Reacher during the first season, which ultimately caused the stunt coordinator to leave the show for a short period.
Ritchson said in December that he lives a nomadic lifestyle with his wife and their children, but he refuses to leave the set to let the stuntmen do the work. “I was like, ‘I’m doing this.'” he added. *Doing stunts. ”It was manic behavior. ”
Ritchson admitted that his stunt coordinator quit because he felt Ritchson was too reckless and disobeyed instructions, but he eventually returned.
He is learning how to monitor his behavior through therapy, along with his wife Catherine, who has a “deep understanding” of bipolar disorder, and an assistant.
He added, citing one example, that manic behavior at home “manifests in relatively harmless ways.”
“It’s like, ‘I have to find a pair of shoes that look like tennis shoes but are not tennis shoes and are all white,'” he admitted.
“Three days later, eight pairs of shoes showed up that were all the same. And I’m like, ‘Oh, shit, I’m manic right now,'” he admitted.
Although mania is said to be more common than depression in most people with bipolar disorder, Ritchson says mania is more common.
“When I’m depressed, it doesn’t really matter because I’m so focused on work,” he admitted.
“I could go weeks without people knowing I was having certain emotions,” he said, adding that this was not the case during manic episodes.
“When I’m manic and feel like something isn’t working to its full potential, it’s usually in a very — not mean-spirited way — way of saying, ‘It could be better.’ It will appear. “It’s almost like an almost obsessive feeling, ‘This has to be better,'” he added.
Still, this disability has helped him develop a sense of identity separate from his acting career.
He also talked about his new film, Ordinary Angels, in which he plays a widowed father trying to save his seriously ill young daughter.
Ritchson admitted that he took on the role because he “needed a clear contrast” to Reacher.
As his co-star Hilary Swank surprisingly admitted, he spent a month and a half trying to lose as much weight as he could after Reacher Season 2 ended.
“From what I was hearing, he wasn’t as big as I thought he would be. This is a great reminder that we shouldn’t categorize people, because we don’t have the opportunity to… Because if we give, we can be more than what people allow us to be,” she said.