Alan Ritchson has a lot of thoughts about James Bond, and feels his Reacher role is an American version of the iconic character.

“It’s funny, I kind of feel like Reacher is the American James Bond,” he told Entertainment Weekly.

“And I’ve never had more fun playing a character. I love those larger-than-life, over-the-top action thrillers and spy movies and the heists that are smart and ahead of the audience.”

alan ritchson, reacher, season 2

Amazon Prime

Despite loving action roles, Ritchson highlighted why a James Bond part wouldn’t be right for him.

“I feel like Bond, to me personally — people are going to hate me for saying this — I love Bond, but I feel like it’s all a little misogynistic and predictable at this point.”

The actor reiterated the similarities between Jack Reacher and James Bond, but suggested the former is more unassumingly smooth.

“Reacher, to me, is like the American Bond, and I think it’s a cool way to go about doing it where it’s a little less purposefully cool. He’s not in on how slick he is.

jack reacher, oscar finley and roscoe conklin standing in a car park talking in tv series reacher

Amazon Prime
“I don’t feel like we can have characters these days that are in on the joke. Either they know that they’re funny, they know that they’re smart, they know that they’re very cool or capable or invincible — I feel like it reduces the stakes of stories, and we’ve seen too many movies, we’re too savvy as an audience to be entertained by that,” he explained.

Ritchson went on to describe what he thinks makes a better story in a high-risk situation: “Characters who are not so sure that they’re going to make it, but they just maybe by the skin of their teeth figure it out.

“That’s me, personally, at least. A lot of people can disagree with that and will,” he added, diplomatically.