Alan Ritchson’s awkward first introduction to ‘Fast and Furious’
Joining an established franchise as a newcomer can be nerve-racking for any actor, especially when the core cast has stayed intact over multiple entries. At that point, you’re stepping into a family that’s been together for years, and you’re the outsider trying to fit in. Most actors would do everything possible to make a good first impression—and that’s exactly what one of TV’s biggest current stars tried to do when he joined the Fast & Furious franchise. Unfortunately for Alan Ritchson, he unintentionally put his foot in his mouth in the process.
In February 2022, a television series was released on Prime Video that immediately shot to the top of the charts. It featured an enormous drifter getting off a bus in Margrave, Georgia, whereupon he is accused of murder and finds himself embroiled in a massive conspiracy. Luckily, that drifter is the ex-army military police major Jack Reacher, and he uses his brains, biceps, and many, many guns to get to the bottom of the mystery.
Reacher featured a star-making turn for its lead, Alan Ritchson. Before he suited up as the world’s most jacked Sherlock Holmes, he had worked for years on television in the likes of Smallville, Titans, and Blue Mountain State without truly breaking out. However, Reacher changed everything for him, and not long after the first series debuted, he was cast in Fast X, the tenth entry in the Fast & Furious series.
When Ritchson showed up for his first day of shooting, though, he suddenly found himself in a major Hollywood blockbuster alongside the likes of Jason Momoa, Charlize Theron, Jason Statham, Helen Mirren, Brie Larson, John Cena, not to mention the regular Fast cast, including Michelle Rodriguez and Tyrese Gibson. Naturally, though, the person he wanted to make the biggest impression on was Vin Diesel, the stone-faced, chrome-domed face of the multi-billion dollar franchise.
While appearing on The Rich Eisen Show, Ritchson revealed that he made a huge faux pas in his first conversation with Diesel. He chuckled, “I was mortified as these words came out of my mouth. I thought, ‘You are the dumbest person alive.'” Still, he couldn’t stop himself telling Diesel, a star who has dedicated more than 20 years to a sprawling epic of ripped torsos and rocket-fuelled muscle cars, that he loved The Fast & the Furious when he saw it in high school – but he hadn’t watched any of the other films since.
Quickly realising his mistake, Ritchson tried to rescue the situation by saying, “Uh, I hadn’t really watched any of them, but now that I’ve got the part, I’ve seen them all, and I just love what you’ve been doing with the last two decades.” He grimaced in embarrassment as he remembered Diesel pausing for a moment, before saying, “Thank you. I appreciate that.”
Now, in reality, Ritchson probably hadn’t mortally offended Diesel by revealing he wasn’t exactly a superfan of his life’s work. However, it was definitely something he could have left out of their conversation. The actor, who is set to return for the 11th instalment of the series, admitted that he wouldn’t like it if someone new came on board Reacher and told him to his face that they’d never seen the show.
“I’ve spent a couple of years working on Reacher,” Ritchson reasoned. “It’s such a fixture in my life. If somebody was like, ‘Thanks for having me on Reacher, man, I haven’t watched any of them,’ I’d be like, ‘You’re the stupidest…why would you say that?'” Then, he shook his head in mock defeat and grimaced, “And this dude is decades in. I’m an idiot.”
