Reacher star Alan Ritchson revealed how one of his high school bullies changed his tune when the actor got his big break years after graduation.
“Before [my family] left Florida, I ran into one of the guys who teased me in high school,” Ritchson told the Wall Street Journal in an interview published on Wednesday, December 27. “He wanted a selfie. I was happy to oblige, but it felt strange. He forgot what he did, but I didn’t.”
Ritchson, who now stars as military police officer Jack Reacher in the Prime Video series, told the outlet that sports were the key to popularity while growing up in Niceville, Florida. Ritchson, however, was an artist who “didn’t know it yet” and had his “share of bullying” during his formative years.
“I was [more into] expressing myself through music, singing and in-line skating,” he explained. “Not ideal for a guy in an area where all the dudes wore mullets and pulled up to school in four-wheelers.”
Ritchson noted that he was a “late bloomer” physically, adding that he would “pray” that hair would grow on his legs and armpits so he would no longer be targeted by his classmates.
“One day, I was in the high school cafeteria in my gym shorts when a kid shouted, ‘Hey, everybody, Ritchson doesn’t have any hair on his legs!’” Ritchson recalled. “Everyone laughed. I was mortified.”
Ritchson initially got his start in the entertainment industry as a model before auditioning for American Idol in 2003. His big break didn’t come until two years later when he was cast in the low-budget horror film The Butcher. He later nabbed a role on The WB’s Smallville, a series that “opened the door” for him to bigger projects.
In 2022, Ritchson was cast on Reacher, a remake of the 2012 Jack Reacher film starring Tom Cruise and based on Lee Child’s book series. The show follows the retired military officer after he is arrested for a murder he did not commit and finds himself in the middle of a deadly conspiracy full of dirty cops, shady businessmen and scheming politicians.
For Ritchson, landing the part was anything but easy. He told WSJ that the show “wanted someone who was 6-foot-5,” but he came in at 6-foot-3 and only “205 pounds.” A six-month break in between auditions, however, gave him the opportunity to gain muscle.
“By then, I’d read Lee’s books and had a feel for the character’s bone-dry humor and physicality,” he said. “I bulked up and won the role.”
Season 1 of the crime drama premiered in February 2022, with the second season dropping earlier this month. While Alan — who shares three children with wife Cat Ritchson — is thankful for his success, he’s often been candid about the importance of being “more” than his career.
“We sell ourselves so short when we settle into a job and say, ‘This is who I am right now.’ And maybe we have a dream that someday we’ll have an identity that’s a little bigger, [but] we’re more than that,” he recently shared during a December episode of the “Inside of You” podcast. “We’re more than our art, we’re more than our most creative ambitions for our highest self. I think we are spiritual beings, and we should be thinking of high things. That’s what love is.”
