Reacher star Alan Ritchson recently opened up about being knocked out of the competition in American Idol Season 3.

Ritchson subsequently shifted his career focus from music to acting, landing the role of Arthur Curry/Aquaman in The CW’s 2000s superhero series Smallville.

The North Dakota native’s other small screen credits include Blue Mountain State, Blood Drive, and Titans. He’s appeared in several films as well, most notably The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and the recent live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies.

But it wasn’t until Amazon Studios’ Reacher that Ritchson became a household name, winning audiences over with his book-accurate portrayal of Lee Child’s hulking hero.

Reacher’s Alan Ritchson was an American Idol dropout

And none of the above would’ve happened without Ritchson’s ill-fated stint on American Idol Season 3, according to the star himself.

Ritchson recalled his experience on the show in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, insisting this failure laid the groundwork for his future career.

“In 2003, [American Idol] announced it would hold auditions in Atlanta for Season 3,” he said. “I made it to the second round in Los Angeles. Even though I was cut, I was enamored of the passion people had there for their art. I decided to stay, and landed TV commercials and auditions.”

Ritchson’s comments to the WSJ reflect his recent willingness to revisit his brief time on American Idol. This includes an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live that saw him pull back the curtain on the artificial nature of the supposedly unscripted singing competition.

As Ritchson remembers it, the edit of Season 3’s first episode made him look like a slacker, when in reality, he was “helping people” complete a songwriting task.

Alan Ritchson wrote Tom Cruise a letter after replacing him as Reacher

In the same interview, Ritchson also noted that he penned Tom Cruise a “heartfelt” letter after replacing him as Jack Reacher. Cruise never received the note, though, as one of Cruise’s producing partners, Don Granger, talked Ritchson out of sending it.

“[Granger] said, ‘We’re not going to give it to him. It’s a terrible idea,’” Ritchson said. “‘He’s fine with [the recasting] because he’s moved on in life. He’s moved on and you need to move on, too.’”