“We’re not there just yet,” the actor tells Entertainment Weekly.

Sydney Bucksbaum is a writer at Entertainment Weekly covering all things pop culture – but TV is her one true love. She currently lives in Los Angeles but grew up in Chicago so please don’t make fun of her accent when it slips out.

Alan Ritchson is at the peak of his career. After hustling as an actor in Hollywood for more than 25 years, he’s finally having his moment with his Prime Video series Reacher, his heel turn in Fast X, starring opposite Hilary Swank in Ordinary Angels, and now Guy Ritchie’s comedic action film The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare.

But even with so many major roles in such a short amount of time, Ritchson is staying realistic about the longevity of his career, which is why he’s lining up projects consecutively, as he did with Reacher season 2 and Ministry.

Alan Ritchson in ‘The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare’. DANIEL SMITH/LIONSGATE

“I’ve always felt like the time to decompress is a little bit of a waste of time,” Ritchson tells Entertainment Weekly. “We’re just twiddling our thumbs waiting to get back in there. It’s like a boxer needing to take a whole round off — you get cold. I just want to be in there boxing, so I don’t mind that my jobs have been lined up back to back without breaks. It’s sort of my speed.”

“Back to back” is not an exaggeration: Ritchson finished filming Reacher season 2 and then flew to Turkey the very next day to begin shooting Ministry. “I’ve got my family with me, and as long as I have my family with me, I’m okay,” he adds.

“My wife travels with me and we homeschool [our three sons] — it’s a tough schedule and it’s a real grind, but the work is good and worth it, and working with people like Guy Ritchie is worth it. I like not having breaks. I want to ride this wave until people are tired of looking at my face on screen.”

And he doesn’t think he’s being pessimistic or hard on himself, just honest about the future. “Everybody gets tired. And there will come a point too where if there’s actor fatigue where I feel like people are going to get tired of seeing the kind of stuff that I’m doing, or we need to wait to find something really unique to do, there will come a moment for that,” Ritchson says.

He knows that won’t happen for a while though. “The next six films that we have lined up are all so extraordinary and so unique, and so artistic or inspiring for the fact that they’re based on a true story and real heroes, or whatever the conceit is that has us interested in getting involved,” he says.

“These stories have to be told, each in their own regard. So for now, I feel like it’s worth just continuing without a break, but there will come a point where I feel like it’s either right for me or right for audiences not to see me for a little bit. We’re not there just yet, but it’ll happen eventually.”

For now, he can’t wait for audiences to see him in Ritchie’s film alongside Henry Cavill, Eiza González, Alex Pettyfer, Henry Golding, and Cary Elwes, in a story based on real events recently unearthed in declassified British War Department files about the creation of the first-ever special forces organization in World War II.

The espionage group, which had a major impact on the Allies’ eventual victory over the Nazis, included decorated Danish soldier Anders Lassen, who Ritchson was thrilled to portray.

“I’m excited for people to see the juxtaposition between this almost seemingly light-hearted, gentle giant in brutal action, when the switch is flipped and he can go into this savage mode,” he says. “I think that’s really who Anders was. It’s going to be a lot of fun for audiences to see that kind of work.”

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is in theaters now.