Alan Ritchson Goes Against His ‘Primal Brain’ Filming ‘Reacher’
When you’re as big as Reacher’s Alan Ritchson, you sometimes want to do your own stunts. Ritchson talked about one stunt in particular he did in an interview with Variety.
“There was a stunt where I got to run through a full sheet of glass, and I was the one to do it. Of course, they asked, ‘Would you like your stuntman?’ And I said, ‘No, man, I’m doing this. I can’t tell you how much of your primal brain you have to override as you’re approaching a sheet of glass at a sprint pace.
Everything in you is like, ‘Don’t do this.’ I smashed through that thing, and I was wearing little shards of glass for days. But when I saw it in the cut, it was shot so wide, it could have been anybody. I was so disappointed because it was me, and that was a very harrowing, terrifying five seconds of running.”
The series is extremely violent, but the scripting is what holds the show together. One of the best lines in Reacher season two was delivered by Robert Patrick as he played one of the villains of the season, Shane Langston. In the scene, one of Langston’s henchmen is calling in and informing him that Reacher and Neagly have registered in a hotel under assume names.
One of the names is Sara Conner and the henchmen ask if he should find out who Sarah Conner is, Langston says, “I don’t give a s#*t who Sara Conner is.” This is of course funny as Patrick played in Terminator 2 where he was hunting Sarah Conner. But according to showrunner Nick Santora, that line wasn’t written because it was Patrick delivering it.
According to an interview Santora did with TV Line: “everyone thinks we’re so smart and funny for doing it, but that the Sarah Connor line was in there before Robert Patrick came in.
I don’t want to lie; that’s the truth.” Originally, Langston was going to be played by Rory Cochrane, but Robert Patrick took over the role after Cochrane dropped out.
Santora even considered removing the line when Patrick came on board: “I really did have a thought, if I’m being a 100-percent truthful, ‘Do I need to cut this line?’
Because it’s a phone call, so I could have easily put something else in [Saropian’s mouth] and just show the other side of the call. But I figured that fans might enjoy it. It’s such an iconic movie franchise and Robert Patrick is such an iconic actor, so let’s have a little fun!”
Not sure I would’ve admitted it was purely accidental. Would you?
