Alan Ritchson’s Jack Reacher is a human tank; a crewneck-clad colossus capable of single-handedly defeating entire hit squads. But for Ritchson, he’s also an alligator. During a “Reacher” Season 4 set visit attended by /Film, the actor spoke about his view of the character as a cold-blooded predator. But this isn’t just about his formidable strength. As Ritchson explained, the alligator analogy actually stemmed from his own concerns about the character’s lack of emotional expression.

“Reacher” debuted in 2022 and set Prime Video ratings records, thanks in no small part to Ritchson’s performance in the lead. Every bit the 250-pound bruiser of Lee Child’s beloved novels, the actor finally delivered a book-accurate Jack Reacher to fans who had previously had to make do with Tom Cruise’s comparatively diminutive version. (Even Child had to admit that Cruise’s casting in two Jack Reacher movies was a mistake.) It wasn’t just his size that made Ritchson such a success in the lead role, though. The actor perfectly captured the laconic yet hyper-aware aura that makes the character so compelling, as well as absolutely nailing Reacher’s atypical sense of humor. Still, for Ritchson himself, playing a man of so few words prompted significant anxiety.

Speaking during the set visit, the star explained how he would frequently call showrunner Nick Santora during the first season to express his concern that he wasn’t doing enough in his scenes. As Ritchson explained, he would ask Santora, “Am I interesting? Is what I’m doing interesting? Because it feels like I’m doing so little, it feels unearned.” The actor admitted to feeling “panicked” during Season 1. “I was like, ‘This can’t be interesting,'” he continued. But Santora had the perfect advice for his star: Jack Reacher is an alligator.

You might be tempted to compare Alan Ritchson’s Jack Reacher to a bear or rampaging rhino. But for the man himself, it’s all about embodying the cold efficiency of a notorious reptilian predator. Lee Child has already given his stamp of approval to Alan Ritchson’s Jack Reacher performance, but it took a while for the actor to become convinced he was doing enough on camera. Nick Santora was the one to finally convince him. “I’m reminded by my showrunner all the time, [Jack Reacher is] an alligator,” explained Ritchson. “He’s an alligator if he’s in Paris, he’s an alligator if he’s in a coffee shop, he’s an alligator if he’s in a tank, if he’s got a gun in his hand. He’s just who he is all the time.”

The alligator comparison isn’t only about the predatory skills of the creature. In fact, it has more to do with an alligator’s patience and quietly threatening vibe. “The interesting thing about that analogy is […] I sort of picture a sedentary creature,” continued Ritchson. “Just the eyes above the water and sort of internalizing a lot, but dangerous and something primal about it. It drives a fear in us, but there’s stillness until the moment it snaps to action, and then it’s the most tumultuous tornado of chaos and carnage that you can ever imagine.”

For the actor, this was the perfect way to view Jack Reacher and heavily informed his own performance as the character. “It’s just such a good analogy for him,” he added. “I have to trust that I can just sit like that predator until the moment […] It’s almost like the gaps between create a tension for the audience to experience and enjoy.”

Nick Santora has spoken about the challenge of writing a Jack Reacher series, saying, “So much of what goes on in the book is what Reacher is thinking in his head. In the writing process, it was just a matter of figuring out how Reacher could say what he was thinking without getting verbose and what he was feeling without getting too wordy.” The solution was to have the character only speak when necessary, and “only explain things to people he respects.” For Alan Ritchson, that presented a natural challenge: How do you convey the inner life of a man who barely speaks?

Ritchson has developed several tricks to play Reacher in the three seasons since his inaugural outing. Most important to him is maintaining a connection to the character’s innate humanity. But it seems he’s also been envisioning Jack Reacher as an alligator this entire time, which is just an undeniably cool way to think about the character and makes watching Ritchson’s performance all the more interesting.

From what we saw on the set visit, he’ll have little time to embrace the “stillness” in “Reacher” Season 4. Interestingly enough, the book on which Season 4 is based, “Gone Tomorrow,” is one of the few Jack Reacher novels that’s told from the main character’s point of view. It’ll be interesting to see how Ritchson conveys the inner monologues from the book this time around — in the moments when he isn’t unleashing his “tumultuous tornados of chaos,” that is.