Alan Ritchson Shares How He Met Wife Catherine, Addresses Fumbling His 'Thor' Audition & Having Bipolar Disorder

On being bullied as a late-blooming teenager in Florida, especially once a tumor began pushing his chin bone out:

“When you haven’t hit puberty and you’re 17 and you’ve got a face growing out of your face, it fortifies a sense of kindness that I’m grateful for.”

On meeting his wife, Catherine, in a ballet class while in high school—finally speaking to his crush after recruiting a friend to find out whether she had any interests that might serve as an in:

“After the millionth time of us sitting next to each other, inches away, tying our shoes—so now it’s super awkward—I was like, ‘So I heard you ice-skate.’ She was like the sweetest thing in the world.”

On a long cycle of high expectations and profound disappointments, thinking he’d made it after landing a multi-season run as bombastic football captain Thad Castle on the Spike TV sitcom Blue Mountain State:

“I just sort of expected that there would be a cornucopia of comedies for me to choose from, and nobody really wanted to see me for anything.”

On fumbling his audition for 2011’s Thor, a role had been his to lose:

“I didn’t take it seriously. I was like, ‘They’ll throw me the part if I look like the guy; nobody really cares about acting.’”

On when Hollywood finally took notice:

“I had about 50 offers the weekend after season 1 of Reacher opened [in 2022]. I knew my life had changed.”