Alan Ritchson Reflects on Justin Hartley Replacing Him as Aquaman in 2006
Alan Ritchson is reflecting on a previous gig.
While appearing on the Inside of You podcast, the 37-year-old Reacher actor reflected on guest-starring in multiple Smallville episodes as Arthur “A.C.” Curry, leading to Aquaman pilot Mercy Reef being put in development.
During the filming of the pilot however, Justin Hartley was hired to play the superhero instead.
When asked if he was mad he lost out on the role, Alan said: “I wasn’t mad at all; why would I be mad?”
He went on to say that the idea of the show left him “overwhelmed…I hadn’t done anything [at that point]; Smallville was my first gig.”
“We started working on a deal…and the president of UPN…was looking at this roster of shows and going, ‘Who the hell is that guy?’ Which is the same thing I would do!” he said, laughing.
“I was sitting there like, ‘I can’t believe it was this easy. I’ve been here three weeks and I’ve got my own show?’”
He said about a week later, he was told “‘Actually, Justin Hartley just came off [the NBC soap opera] Passions and he’s available, and we’re going to go with him.’”
“I learned the best lesson I could, early on, to hold loosely to this stuff because nothing is guaranteed, and nothing is owed to me. if I hadn’t learned that lesson early, I would have been an entitled a–hole,” he concluded.
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