Thor was even bigger than that, at least in terms of muscle mass.
Reacher star Alan Ritchson told Men’s Health that he was a top candidate for the MCU role until he mailed in an audition in 2011.
“I didn’t take it seriously,” he said. “I thought, ‘If I looked like that guy, they’d give me the role.’ Nobody cares about acting.”
Apparently so. As the magazine writes, after the audition, casting directors told Ritchson’s team that the role “should have been lost to him,” but Ritchson “recognized that he had the ‘talent.’ I didn’t show it.” The rest is MCU (and Chris Hemsworth’s bank account history). It’s worth mentioning that Hemsworth is no slouch in the Thor-like department either.
To his credit, Ritchson took the fallout from a failed audition far more seriously than the audition itself. He took his scenes from “The Avengers” to an acting coach and practiced with him for three weeks. Ritchson then enrolled in an advanced acting class led by Deborah Aquila, a former cast member of The Shawshank Redemption (and currently vice president of casting at Paramount Television Studios and CBS Studios).
Ritchson isn’t a big enough guy to make Reacher much more believable than Tom Cruise. He studied theater arts at Northwest Florida State, appeared on most of the early seasons of “American Idol” (he was eliminated in the second round), played Aquaman on “Young Bill,” and starred in Spike TV’s football comedy “Blue.” He played the role of Thad Castle in “Mountain State”. ”
“Blue Mountain State” was canceled in 2011, and Ritchson hit a wall.
“I kind of expected there to be a cornucopia of comedies to choose from, but no one wanted to show me anything,” he said.
Well, as the star of Amazon Prime Video’s hit Reacher, you can’t miss him now.
Season 3 of Reacher was ordered in December, and the cast (currently including Anthony Michael Hall and Sonya Cassidy) is currently filming in Toronto. Ritchson will be credited as an executive producer on that season. “Reacher” Season 2 was the No. 1 title (including series and movies) on Prime Video worldwide for each series or movie premiere weekend in 2023, according to Amazon.
Reacher, from Amazon MGM Studios, Skydance and Paramount Television Studios, is based on the novel by Lee Child, who serves as the series’ executive producer. The showrunner is Nick Santora (Prison Break).
Oh, and before you go to Google, Men’s Health asked and Ritchson answered: His bench weight is 355 pounds.
Ritchson co-stars with Hilary Swank in Lionsgate’s Ordinary Angels, which is currently in theaters. Perhaps he took the audition seriously.
