Alan Ritchson Had to Be Stopped by Reacher Producer Not to Contact Tom Cruise After Replacing Him for 1 Reason
Alan Ritchson replaced Tom Cruise in Jack Reacher’s TV series. Cruise played the lead role in the films with the first movie being released in 2012, and the sequel in 2016. Despite the reputed actor giving it his all, his portrayal of the character wasn’t appreciated a lot by fans as it simply did not resemble the character from Lee Child’s books.
When Ritchson took over the character for the Prime Video TV series, the casting of the former military officer was met with a lot of praise. Interestingly, Ritchson wanted to express his gratitude to the legendary action star but ended up being stopped by the producer of the show.
The producer of Jack Reacher stopped Alan Ritchson from sending an appreciation letter
During an appearance on The Rich Eisen Show, Alan Ritchson revealed that he wanted to reach out to Tom Cruise to thank him for everything he did for the franchise. He said:
“I just felt it was the respectful thing to do. You know, ‘Dear Tom, Mr. Cruise, I appreciate what you did for the brand’”
However, producer Don Granger advised him not to reach out to Tom Cruise. It is worth noting that Granger has been involved with the Jack Reacher franchise since Cruise’s 2012 film and he also joined the TV series as executive producer. While recalling what Granger said about sending Tom Cruise an appreciation letter, Alan Ritchson said:
“‘You know, I think it’s best just to — you know, he wants to move on from this, he gave it his blessing, he’s totally fine with what’s happening right now, I think we should just leave it.”
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Alan Ritchson was initially rejected for Jack Reacher’s role
When Amazon started making Jack Reacher’s TV series, the creators wanted to be as close to the character portrayed in the book as possible. The same even caused them to reject Alan Ritchson initially.
While talking to Michael Rosenbaum, Ritchson revealed that the makers of the show had initially rejected him for being two inches short. He said:
“You know, I was passed on the first time. I think I mentioned to you that I was passed on at the very beginning of the process like everybody was, and I think that was because I’m 6’3. Reacher’s 6’5. I think they’re trying to, you know, everybody’s trying to get a super authentic version of Reacher on screen.”
Thankfully for Ritchson, he was able to bag the role after months of convincing and it’s safe to say that he did really well with it.
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