REACHER Star Alan Ritchson Explains How He “F–king Wrecked” His Body To Play Jack Reacher

Alan Ritchson is freakin’ badass in the role of Jack Reacher in Amazon’s hit series Reacher. He’s the perfect actor to take on the role, and impressively embodies the character’s large physique. But, that’s something Ritchson had to work his ass off to attain.

During a recent interview with GQ, the actor opened up about what he put himself through to reach that physical level, and it turns out that he completely wrecked his body doing it. He explained:

“I want to clarify one thing because in every interview someone says ’30 pounds of muscle.’ I put on 30 pounds! I don’t know how much of that was lean muscle. I went from 205lb to 235lb in eight months, I was eating a tonne. I don’t think all of that was muscle.

A good chunk was – a little more than half, maybe. But I didn’t take steroids, I didn’t take testosterone. There was only one way to get where I needed to be and that was hard work. I f–king wrecked my body, dude. It was too much. I didn’t have time to heal. I would strain something and I was like, ‘I don’t care! I’m working through it!’ I suffered the consequences.”

He went on to explain the consequences that followed, which included surgery, he couldn’t breathe well, and he used up all of the testosterone in his body! He said:

“When I finished [season one], I needed surgery. I couldn’t breathe well. I got a blood panel done and found out I had no testosterone left [because of overtraining]. My doctor was like, ‘You need to be on testosterone.’ [Testosterone therapy] was a real gift because now I’m able to easily maintain that size.

My workouts are short and sweet – maybe 30 minutes a day. There’s no doubt that people place a big emphasis on his size, but to me, the character is much more than that.

The heart of the character really lies in his sardonic sense of humour, which is incredibly fun to play. He’s a smart guy, and isn’t afraid to be a smart-ass. That underlying humour is what brings depth to him as a character, and also keeps audiences entertained.”

Ritchson is currently shooting the third season of the series, and I’m excited to see this character’s story continue!