With a Herculean physique and towering presence, it’s no wonder Alan Ritchson has become the go-to actor in Hollywood to play cool, calm, and collected tough guys. In recent years, he’s best known for playing Jack Reacher in the Prime Video series “Reacher,” where he amazingly finds even bigger guys to fight. It also probably shouldn’t come as a surprise to learn that Ritchson has played multiple DC superheroes (Aquaman on “Smallville” and Hawk on “Titans”). While that only scratches the surface of a stellar filmography, things didn’t always look peachy for the actor.
Plenty of folks struggle to break into the industry. It’s common to have some audition horror stories while missing out on life-changing roles. Ritchson has his share of those; however, there’s a dark side to his history many fans are probably completely unaware of. Ritchson hasn’t only fought big dudes on “Reacher” — he’s had to overcome his own personal demons to stay alive to this day and continue entertaining the masses. While he hasn’t always had an easy life, hopefully his story can inspire others to seek help when needed to keep positive when life looks its darkest. That’s the Jack Reacher way.
Alan Ritchson was bullied in high school
Looking at Alan Ritchson today, it’s easy to assume he would have been the jock in high school who could shove a band geek into their locker using only his pinky. However, it turns out Ritchson was actually on the receiving end of bullying growing up. He wasn’t always built like a brick house, and told The Wall Street Journal that he was actually a shy, nerdy kid in high school: “Early on, I wasn’t physically built the way I am now, and I loved expressing myself through music, singing and in-line skating. Not ideal for a guy in an area where all the dudes wore mullets and pulled up to school in four-wheelers.”
Ritchson was a late bloomer when it came to getting a more manly physique. He apparently didn’t get body hair until later in life compared to his peers, and he recalled one incident of getting teased in the cafeteria for wearing shorts and not having any hair on his legs. To deter any wannabe bullies, he started going to the gym — a lot. It clearly worked, as he got voted “Best Physique” in his senior year.
And Ritchson’s experiences with bullying had a very odd coda. Years after graduating high school, he ran into one of his former bullies. As Ritchson explained, “He wanted a selfie. I was happy to oblige, but it felt strange. He forgot what he did, but I didn’t. I still don’t like wearing shorts.” Ritchson has become famous for his muscular physique, but the reason why he felt he needed it was a heartbreaking one.
He chose to be unhoused
At first glance, it seems like Alan Ritchson had a fairly normal home life growing up. His father was in the military, and they attended church often. Ritchson was even an altar boy at one point, but this situation didn’t work very long for him. When he was still in high school, he saved up enough money from working various jobs to buy a truck, and for a period of time, he slept in the bed of that truck while parked behind a grocery store.
Asked why he did this, Ritchson told The Hollywood Reporter, “I was fiercely independent and didn’t want my parents paying for anything for me because I felt like it gave them power over me, and I wanted to make my own decisions.” The situation didn’t last for long. After a couple months of sleeping in his truck, his father spoke with him and brought Ritchson back home. But Ritchson’s story is mostly one of wanting to be his own man and living on his own terms.
He lived with his girlfriend for a while until he could get his own apartment in subsidized housing. He also took college courses while still in high school to get a jumpstart on that. It turned out to be fortuitous, as he would meet his eventual wife, Catherine, during a college ballet class. She was around the same age as him and also taking university courses in high school. They wouldn’t officially get together until years later because they did not live near each other, but it was the beginning of something wonderful for Ritchson.
Alan Ritchson was sexually assaulted during his time as a model
Alan Ritchson eventually graduated high school and went to college for real, but it didn’t last long. He dropped out after a couple of years and soon found himself taking modeling gigs where his physique was a natural fit. While some of his experiences were fine, like low-profile work for the JC Penney chain of department stores, he also revealed to The Hollywood Reporter that he was sexually assaulted during his time in that business.
“I was booked for a shoot for this very famous photographer,” Ritchson stated. “I was sent into a hotel room to do nudes with the promise that if I did the shoot, he would offer me a very lucrative campaign for a magazine and a clothing line. I was sexually assaulted by this guy.” Ritchson later went to his agent and quit modeling shortly thereafter, turning his attention more fully toward acting.
Ritchson admitted that women models have it far worse when it comes to navigating the traumatic choice of either getting work or being passed over for being labeled as “difficult.” But there’s also no love lost there for Ritchson either: “The number of times and situations where I was put in horrific environments where sexual abuse was the goal and the paycheck that you were desperate for in order to survive was the carrot, I can’t count on two hands. It was quite often.”
Ritchson barely made a living as an actor at first
Trying to become a professional actor isn’t easy, and Alan Ritchson had his fair share of ups and downs, with mostly downs at the beginning. Ritchson auditioned for “American Idol” in 2004 and actually made it into the Top 32 of that season. After that, he managed to land a fairly high-profile role somewhat quickly, appearing as Arthur Curry, aka Aquaman, on Season 5 of “Smallville.” He appeared in a few more episodes throughout the show’s run and was promised a spinoff series focused on his character, which would have been any young actor’s dream. Sadly, it ended up as one of many spinoffs that failed to get off the ground, as priorities changed once “Smallville” network The WB merged with another upstart, UPN, to become The CW.
Infrequent gigs meant infrequent paychecks, and Ritchson, like so many before him, struggled to stay afloat early in his career. But he explained to The Hollywood Reporter, residual checks were a godsend: “I’d be running out of cash and then some episode I’d filmed nine months earlier would air.” While he’d land small parts on “CSI: Miami” and “90210,” his true big break would come with “Blue Mountain State,” where he played the loud, eccentric Thad Castle.
Ritchson wanted to ensure he wasn’t written off the football-centric sitcom, so he’d always try to do something silly in the background. It didn’t sit well with directors who thought he was causing a distraction, as he elaborated: “I would get yelled at all the time, and they would say, ‘Just f***ing sit still.'” Whatever Ritchson did clearly worked, as Thad became a fan-favorite character, and he stayed on the show for all three of its seasons, even getting his own movie with “Blue Mountain State: The Rise of Thadland.”
He missed out on playing Thor
As mentioned previously, Alan Ritchson has plenty of superhero projects in his filmography. However, there was one superhero part that got away from him which easily might have altered the entire trajectory of his career. Ritchson missed out on playing Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but the reason why he didn’t get the part makes sense — and taught him a valuable lesson.
With Ritchson’s physique, it’s natural that he would audition for and get a lot of action-oriented roles. He’s an imposing presence whether he’s on “Smallville” or in “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire,” so when he went to audition for “Thor,” he thought he could get by on his looks alone. Years after the fact, Ritchson admitted that he didn’t take the whole acting part of the audition seriously because he thought he looked enough like the character. Turns out, acting is important, and a then-unknown Chris Hemsworth wound up taking the part that would stick with him for the next decade and a half, even going into 2026’s “Avengers: Doomsday.”
What would Ritchson’s career look like had he gotten the role of Thor? Chances are he wouldn’t have done so many TV parts if he was making regular film appearances in the MCU. There’s a world where we don’t see him on “Titans” or “Reacher,” and people have never heard of some random Australian actor named Chris Hemsworth. Or perhaps Hemsworth ends up playing Jack Reacher years later. Either way, we’d love to see the audition tape of Ritchson trying to sound Shakespearean while reading Thor’s lines.
Alan Ritchson almost took his own life in 2019
The late 2010s should have been a period of joy for Alan Ritchson. He had steady acting work, appearing in two “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” films as well as shows like “Black Mirror.” He was even pursuing a career as a director, working behind the camera for a thriller called “Dark Web: Cicada 3301,” which Ritchson also wrote, produced, and starred in. However, the pressure of everything, from business to family, became too great, and in 2019, he attempted suicide.
Ritchson was burnt out from working up to 20 hours a day, and a former colleague threatened to accuse him of sexual assault. He was in post-production for “Dark Web” when he found himself spending most of his time lying in bed until one day when he attempted to take his own life. The one thing to snap him out of the attempt was a vision of his three sons, as he told the Hollywood Reporter: “They calmly asked me not to do it, and told me that they wanted me to be here, alive and part of their lives.”
Ritchson stopped himself at that moment, but several dark months followed. Ritchson found some relief in taking MDMA (better known as “Ecstasy”) for therapy, which can be a treatment option for those suffering from depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and other mental health conditions. And as a result of the experience, he wanted to focus on acting work that fulfilled him more emotionally.
He was diagnosed with bipolar disorder
Following Alan Ritchson’s suicide attempt, he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder, a mental health condition defined by alternating periods of extreme elation and depression. Several years after that, he would be diagnosed with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Ritchson has described living with these conditions, mentioning how getting that initial diagnosis explained much of his previous behavior, which included alternating between periods of depression and mania where he felt like he needed to always be working.
Ritchson spoke about his experiences with Men’s Health and how mania can manifest within him more prominently than depression. “When I’m manic and I feel like something isn’t living up to its best potential, it usually comes out in a very — not in a mean way — but in a ‘this has to be better’ way,” he explained. “Like a very, almost obsessive ‘this has to be better.'” One incident he recalled was on the set of “Reacher,” when a stunt coordinator temporarily quit the show because Ritchson refused to perform a stunt safely and did not leave the set until he had done it.
Ritchson also revealed that he sees a psychiatrist weekly to manage his symptoms and has support from his wife as well. He even regularly uploads videos to his YouTube channel, InstaChurch, where he provides motivational chats and discusses his personal history with mental health disorders.
Alan Ritchson almost ruined his Reacher audition
Alan Ritchson feels like he was made to play Jack Reacher. The character, from the thriller novels by Lee Child, is supposed to be a hulking brute force of nature, and Ritchson, at 6 feet, 3 inches with plenty of muscles, definitely fits the bill. But a simple mistake during his audition could have sunk his chances under less than fortuitous circumstances.
Ritchson’s audition for “Reacher” occurred during COVID-19 lockdowns, so he had to do it over Zoom. He channeled Kevin Costner’s character in “Waterworld” to bring a level of stoicism to the part, which Ritchson admits was the wrong choice to make. At one point during the audition process, Ritchson also had microphone feedback issues that might have derailed the entire thing. Ritchson’s lines were overpowered by something that sounded like drums — but as it turns out, it was Ritchson’s heartbeat. He had mic’d himself up for the Zoom audition but was so nervous that his heart was beating too fast, overpowering his dialogue.
The “Reacher” audition process was apparently grueling, and Ritchson didn’t land the role initially. But the casting team came back months after the fact to have him try out for the role again. By the time all was said and done, Ritchson went through seven or eight rounds of auditions to land the part, but it was worth it. “Reacher” has been a huge streaming hit for Prime Video, and it’s easily the defining role of Ritchson’s career.
Alan Ritchson suffered a horrific injury on the Reacher set
A large aspect of the appeal of “Reacher” is watching really big guys beat up similarly big guys, and Jack Reacher certainly fights a lot of massive opponents throughout the show. Season 3 took things to the next level by introducing Paulie (Olivier Richters), who stands at 7 feet, two inches, making Alan Ritchson look tiny by comparison. The season finale sees the two get into an epic brawl, easily the best fight in the entire series — but it almost ended before it could even begin.
Ritchson suffered an incredibly scary injury during the early stages of filming the fight. He insisted on doing the stunt himself, something that could be attributed to his perfectionism, so the camera would stay on his face as he gets smashed through a table. Unfortunately, the smash worked a little too well, and Ritchson got completely knocked out. He woke up a day and a half later, but he wasn’t done yet. The entire fight sequence took nearly a month to film, and this was just the beginning. So Ritchson had to hop back in the saddle, and fortunately, the team managed to get everything they needed.
Ritchson has been through a lot but has still accomplished much throughout an extraordinary career. And he’s not done yet; he even has his eye on playing Batman one day. It easily could be in the cards for him.
If you or anyone you know is struggling or in crisis, needs help with mental health, or may be the victim of sexual assault, contact the relevant resources below: