Alan Ritchson plays the muscular Jack Reacher in the Amazon series Reacher. In an interview, the actor shared how testosterone helped him prepare his body for the role.
Initially, Alan Ritchson started working as a model. In 2005, he made his acting debut as Aquaman in the DC series Smallville. Later, he was seen as Castor in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.
You can read more about the actor here at our colleagues at Moviepilot.
However, it was only with the Amazon hit Reacher that Alan Ritchson achieved great success. The first season premiered on February 4, 2022. The second season followed in December 2023.
In an interview with Men’s Health, the actor talked about how he prepared his body for the demanding role in Reacher. He clarified how, at the age of 41, he can still have so much muscle mass: testosterone doping is the answer.
Here you can see a German trailer for season 2 of Reacher:
“I don’t want to have to undergo surgery after every season”
Before the filming of the first season of Reacher began, the actor was supposed to gain 30 pounds (approximately 13.6 kilograms).
So Alan Ritchson built a home gym. However, he pushed his body to the limit with all the training:
“I harmed my body. I mean, I had a broken AC joint (Acromioclavicular) in my shoulder that I had to get repaired. There was a huge hormone imbalance in my body. I was falling apart. I made it, but it’s probably true that it shouldn’t happen so quickly and in this way.”
After the intense training came stress and exhaustion. For the preparation of season 2, the actor didn’t want to ruin himself completely again. So he used testosterone doping to help his body with muscle building.
You can find out more about the possible side effects here at the German Sport University Cologne.
Alan Ritchson’s testosterone therapy was most likely medically supervised and as he himself says, he only takes small amounts to support his training.
Especially since the actor wanted to keep his body in shape for the long term, he explained that it was simply more sustainable: “For me, this is a long-term game. I want to play Reacher for 15 years […] I don’t want to have to undergo surgery after every season, and testosterone helps with that.”
Alan Ritchson is a big advocate of using testosterone in small amounts for muscle building. Especially for people over 40, it can be “life-changing,” as the actor mentioned.
However, he still has to train hard at the gym. So doping does not replace training itself, but leads to faster results, as the 41-year-old explained:
“It definitely helps with muscle growth. If you take a little bit of it and then work your butt off in the gym like you normally would, you will see enormous results.”
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