Reacher star Alan Ritchson details 'toughest scene' of new series 'Lot of pressure'
REACHER star Alan Ritchson has revealed what he thought was the toughest part about bringing author Lee Child's iconic character to life in the new Amazon Prime Video series.
Reacher: Alan Ritchson stars in Amazon Prime trailer
Alan Ritchson is Jack Reacher in the brand new Amazon Prime Video series from the mind of Lee Child. Based on the long-running series of bestselling thrillers, Reacher finally hopes to do justice to the iconic character after fans were less-than-enthusiastic about his first foray into live-action. The actor chatted to Express.co.uk recently about the pressure of taking on his biggest role to date.
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The new-and-improved Reacher, Alan, has opened up about some of the challenges of filming the first season of what could be another major hit for Prime Video.
Reacher’s small screen debut is based on the first book in Lee Child’s series, The Killing Floor, which introduced readers to the ex-officer-turned-vigilante.
After leaving his life as a military police officer behind him, the nomadic anti-hero stumbles across a sinister conspiracy when he arrives in a small rural town.
Later novels One Shot and Never Go Back formed the basis of two films starring Hollywood star Tom Cruise in the title role.
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However, fans weren’t too impressed with his interpretation of the character, so there was a lot riding on Alan to get it right on Reacher’s second go-round.
Alan told the Express and other press: “I think the toughest scene for me was actually one of the first scenes we shot in the season, probably for that reason.”
Reacher is introduced without speaking for the first few minutes of the premiere, so Alan had to sell the character solely on his personality.
Standing six feet five and having put on 30 pounds of muscle for the role, Alan strikes an impressive physique which is easily recognisable to fans of the character.
Even so, Alan also had to embody Reacher’s unique, impenetrable personality as well as hold his own in several brutal action sequences.
“There’s a lot of pressure to get this right,” he admitted.
“Desire to get this right for myself as a fan of the books - I want to please all the many readers that have loved Lee Child’s work for 25 years.
“And also there’s just a lot of pressure on the producers, writers, director - everybody has their own idea of Reacher. It’s different than most projects in that sense.”
In addition to Lee Child serving as an executive producer for the series, some impressive talent worked tooth and nail behind-the-scenes to ensure they delivered the best Reacher series possible.
Prison Break writer and Scorpion mastermind Nick Santora serves as showrunner, whilst the director of the first Reacher film, Christopher McQuarrie, is also back as an exec.
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Alan added: “I was serving a lot of masters, so I was nervous!
“The first scene was a huge one. It was like a six-page interrogation scene. And it was a scary moment for me in the process.”
Thankfully, the show’s directors and producers were always on hand to offer their interpretations and make sure Alan was as comfortable as possible.
“We’d play around and we ended up finding Reacher and I like where we landed with it,” he explained.
“But when I think back to the toughest, scariest moment, it was that first scene that we shot.”
Reacher gradually settles into his new surroundings and finds some reliable allies in the form of Roscoe Conklin (played by Willa Fitzgerald) and Chief Oscar Finley (Malcolm Goodwin).
However, fans will have to tune in on Friday night to find out if Reacher can unearth the chilling mystery at the heart of Margrave and bring justice to his brother’s killers.
Reacher season 1 will be released on Friday, February 4 on Amazon Prime Video.
