To embody action hero Jack Reacher in a new series, actor Alan Ritchson wanted to do things by the book.
Aiming for a “Reacher” portrayal true to the popular novels that introduced the hulking character more than two decades ago, Ritchson bulked up by 30 pounds and went through intense combat training.
“I’ll say about the fights, I’ve done a lot of those in my career,” Ritchson told the Daily News. “I’ve played superheroes and a Ninja Turtle and a UFC fighter. I’ve run the gamut and I’ve done a lot of that, but seeing the ‘Reacher’ fights, it was the first time that I’ve ever said to a stunt coordinator, ‘I’m not sure I can do that. Where do we begin?’”
The new series — making its debut Friday on Amazon Prime Video — is an adaptation of 1997′s “Killing Floor,” the first of author Lee Child’s novels to center on the Reacher character.
The show introduces Ritchson’s Reacher as an ex-Army police officer who happens to show up in the sleepy town of Margrave, Georgia, just as a string of murders begins to mystify local authorities.
“He’s an interesting guy because he travels light,” Ritchson said of his character. “Nothing but a toothbrush and a passport. He’s a minimalist, so he wants to see the country on his own terms now, live by his own set of rules, but he also has that insatiable need for justice and an insatiable curiosity, so he gets wrapped up in these mysteries that we get to unravel.”
The series marks the newest addition to a Jack Reacher franchise that also includes 26 novels — and two movies starring Tom Cruise as the character.
Ritchson, 39, read each of the 24 books that had been released by the time he was cast in the “Reacher” series, and enjoyed learning the character has a sense of humor and sometimes has to pay the consequences for his mistakes.
“He’s also somebody with a propensity to violence,” Ritchson said. “He blurs the line between good and evil. This is somebody who we’re not really sure if he’s all good. He cares deeply about protecting the innocent and bringing about justice, but he’ll do it in a way where the body count gets high.”
Ritchson previously portrayed Raphael in the live-action “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” films, a fighter in the MMA movie “Above the Shadows,” Aquaman on “Smallville” and Hawk for the DC Comics series “Titans.”
His training for “Reacher” involved mastering fighting methods that differed from what he’d done in past roles.
“It took every minute that we had to get there, but they patiently sort of deconstructed my fight style and rebuilt this much more precise fighting style,” Ritchson said.
Ritchson and the show’s makers shared the goal of bringing “the most authentic version of Reacher to life,” the actor said. And he believes Reacher continues to connect with readers and audiences because he’s a hero anyone can get behind.
“As long as there’s injustice in the world, and there’s corruption, greed, (and) that villains exist and get away with murder, that institutions triumph over the individual, we will crave a hero to come along and bring balance to that disorder,” Ritchson said. “Somebody who will take the law into their own hands and just fix things for us.”
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