Reacher star Alan Ritchson is sporting a different physique these days. The actor had to bulk up for his role as vigilante former military police officer Jack Reacher on the new Amazon Prime Video show Reacher.
The actor, who has also starred in The Hunger Games, Titans, and Smallville, appeared on The Kelly Clarkson Show, where he talked about how he gained the weight for the part and what he ate.
Alan Ritchson packed on 30 pounds to star in Reacher
Recently, the actor, who is married with three children, appeared on The Kelly Clarkson Show and talked about the weight gain to guest host Derek Hough, who was filling in for Kelly Clarkson.
He said that gaining 30 pounds for Reacher was a “full-time job.”
“I put on 30 pounds, which is… Have you ever put on 30 pounds?” Alan asked Derek, to which the Dancing with the Stars dancer replied, “No. I don’t even know if I weighed 30 pounds, honestly.”
The actor laughed at that and noted, “It’s a full-time job to eat enough to put on 30 pounds.”
“I had an assistant whose only job was to bring me food. It was like a conveyor belt of smoothies and protein,” Alan added.
When asked how many times a day he refueled, Alan said, “Hundreds, maybe?”
Before his role in Reacher, Alan told Derek that he usually weighed about 205 pounds and liked having an average build to give him more roles.
“I want to be average,” he told Derek. “You know, I’m an actor, and I’ve got to be able to play like the dad, and doctor, and the superhero, you know?”
But his diet wasn’t all work and no play. Alan made sure to have fun with his diet and indulge in some treats, too. Since he was training vigorously for the role, he could have a little leeway in his diet for things like fast food and sweets.
“You can get pretty clever with this,” he said in the interview. “I would order the crew Popeye’s chicken sandwiches (and) cookies, just so I could get the kind of calories I wanted. It looks like a goodwill gesture. ‘Leave a dozen of those in my trailer, please!'”
What is Reacher about?
Reacher is a new Amazon Prime Video show that premiered this month. The show is based on a series of novels by British author Lee Child, who has written 26 books in the series.
Jack Reacher is a retired military police officer who meanders from place to place and is arrested for a murder he didn’t commit in fictional small-town Margrave, Georgia. Once he’s cleared as a suspect, the police turn to him to help solve the crime.
Alan described his character to Derek as a drifter and a lone wolf with a passion for justice, saying, “He just kind of wanders, he’s a hobo. Nothing but a toothbrush and a passport, but, you know, with a skillset like he’s got, he can’t help but seek justice wherever he goes, so, you know, trouble seems to find him.”
The two movies starred Tom Cruise, Jack Reacher (2012) and Jack Reacher: Never Go Back (2016).
The show has received rave reviews from the get-go, and Rotten Tomatoes currently scores at a 90% average audience score.
The show only had eight episodes in the first season, but it did so well, becoming one of Amazon’s top five most-watched shows of all time that they have already renewed it for a second season. The first season is based on the first book in the series, 1997’s Killing Floor, and Alan mentioned to Collider that he hopes they stick with a different book a season.
“This would be most likely a bit of anthology,” the actor observed. “The first season is the first book. That may be the blueprint going forward. I don’t know, but I would imagine that would be the blueprint going forward.”
All eight episodes of Reacher are now available for streaming on Amazon Prime Video.