By ‘Big, buff and somewhat blond’ aptly describes two well-known pop culture characters – Marvel’s Thor and Lee Child’s Jack Reacher.
The former has been played on the big screen by Chris Hemsworth since 2011, whilst the latter saw Alan Ritchson take on the role for the Amazon Prime series in 2022.
It turns out though that Ritchson was up for the Thor role at one point, but it turns out he blew the audition – leading to Aussie native Hemsworth taking the part.
In a new interview with Men’s Health, Ritchson reveals he didn’t take the audition for the film seriously: “I was like, ‘They’ll throw me the part if I look like the guy; nobody really cares about acting.’”
He was told by the casting people that the role had been his to lose but he hadn’t shown that he had ‘the craft’ at that point. Before auditioning, he’d had a couple of small film roles, a guest starring part on four episodes of “Smallville”, and was a regular on “Blue Mountain State”.
Hemsworth, on the other hand, had come off four seasons on Australian soap “Home and Away” – appearing in nearly 200 episodes and racking up the experience of working a drama series that churned out half-hour episodes five days a week.
Ritchson also auditioned for the Finnick Odair role in “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” – a part that ultimately went to Sam Claflin because a 30-year-old Ritchson was deemed too old. Finally he also auditioned for Dick Grayson in “Titans,” only to lose to Brenton Thwaites for the same reason (too old) though he did end up on the show in a supporting role.
The post “Reacher” Star Talks Missing Out On “Thor” appeared first on Dark Horizons.
