Reacher Star Alan Ritchson Named This Legendary Comedian His 'Hero'
On Amazon Prime's "Reacher," Alan Ritchson looms large. His character, Jack Reacher, is a big, hulking guy, an Army veteran who strikes out on his own solving dangerous cases. He can't exactly go undercover, so Reacher relies on keen intellect and brute strength to survive. That keen intellect, by the way, also means that he can be extremely quick-witted. Sure, Ritchson pulls off the action — just look at him — but his comedic timing steals the show.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Ritchson confessed that his childhood hero was none other than legendary comedian Jim Carrey. He was obsessed with "Ace Ventura: Pet Detective," the comedy where Carrey played a foul-mouthed investigator solving animal-related crimes. "I was in sixth grade, and I was enamored," he recalled. "He was so physical, goofy and unafraid. I'd never seen anything like it." Ritchson took to imitating Carrey as often as possible. "I dressed up as Ace Ventura for three Halloweens in a row," he confessed. "I showed up to school and wouldn't break character the entire time. I had the hair, the business card and I would walk up to people at their lunch tables and say, 'Excuse me, I'd like to ass you a few questions.'"
Before there were memes, there were middle school boys quoting punchlines from blockbuster comedies. "People hated it," Ritchson admitted, "but I love that it made most people laugh. Jim Carrey knew how to do that and it's a gift."
Alan Ritchson got to meet his hero Jim Carrey
A couple of years into Alan Ritchson's intense fandom of Jim Carrey, he got a chance to meet his hero. Ritchson grew up in Florida, not far from where Carrey filmed the 1998 film "The Truman Show." Ritchson convinced his mother to drive him to the set, and he and his brother waited for Carrey to walk by, hoping to get him to autograph their poster.
"My mom spotted him and went, 'There he is!'" Ritchson told The Hollywood Reporter decades later. "I unveiled my poster and said, 'Hey, Jim!' He looked over and did this big belly laugh by arching his spine backwards." Unfortunately for the young Ritchson, he didn't get the signature he was hoping for. "My brother and I ran over to him, but a security guard was there," Ritchson continued. "He put his hand on a gun and said, 'Don't go any closer.' Jim was caught in this place where he wanted to sign it but had to go to work, so he just wandered off."
Ritchson never forgot the moment. In the decades that followed, he would try to find his own place in the entertainment industry, and it would take a while before he landed on the action-star persona that has endeared him to millions of "Reacher" fans. Ritchson's "American Idol" audition is a must-watch, for example, but soon after, he'd have a chance to prove that he deserved to follow in Carrey's footsteps.
He's an action star now, but Alan Ritchson proved his comedy chops
Alan Ritchson would probably like you to forget about his first movie, a horror film from 2006 called "The Butcher." In 2010, however, he landed a starring role on "Blue Mountain State." The raunchy sitcom, which aired on the now-defunct Spike TV, centered on a college football team. Ritchson played Thad Castle, the star linebacker; though he starts the series as a villain of sorts, Ritchson's gonzo performance quickly softened Thad into one of the most lovably stupid characters on television. Though he was a hard-partying, fiercely-misogynistic, gym-rat frat-bro idiot, Ritchson played Thad as a guy who just fundamentally wanted to be liked. And we did.
His particular comedic sensibility owed a lot to his favorite comedian, including and especially the way Ritchson is able to contort his face to look utterly ridiculous in the best way. Fans noticed, too. Praising his performance on "Blue Mountain State," one fan wrote on Reddit, "I would go as far as describing him as the muscular version of Jim Carrey in a sense, when it comes to his comedic range!"
Though the football sitcom only lasted three seasons, Ritchson himself secured permission to crowdfund a 2016 movie called "The Rise of Thadland." In 2025, Ritchson confirmed that Thad would be coming out of retirement once more by showing off those Carrey-esque chops in a reboot of "Blue Mountain State."