Reacher vs Reacher

Can any actor play any role? Well, yes and no.

One of the more controversial conversations in moving casting discourse is “any actor can play any role.” This usually comes up when, for example, a straight actor is cast as a gay character, or perhaps a character’s ethnicity is changed for the sake of a more diverse cast. And it’s true, of course: Any actor can play any role, assuming they’re talented enough. The real question is whether or not they should.

There are two flavors of the “should” conversation. The first is about marginalized actors not getting enough opportunities. Why are hearing actors playing deaf characters when deaf actors exist, for example. (Or cis actors playing trans characters, young actors being “aged” to play older characters, and so on.) The second is less socially impactful and usually covers characters being adapted from another media source. Whether Daniel Craig should play James Bond even though he’s blonde, which was a real part of the discourse when he was first cast, believe it or not.

When an image of the character is already clearly established, audiences naturally want to see that image embodied by the actor. Most of the time, it ends up not really mattering. Hugh Jackman is way too tall to play Wolverine, but he nonetheless did a phenomenal job, so no harm done. Which brings us to Jack Reacher.

Jack Reacher is the protagonist of a series of books by Lee Child. He’s a ronin, essentially; former military police officer, wandering the countryside and fighting bad guys. He’s highly intelligent and extremely physical; he can handle a brawl, a shootout, and a conversation equally deftly. So, technically speaking, if you get an actor who can portray those things convincingly, they would make a good Reacher.

Except Reacher’s most defining characteristic is his size. He is an ambulatory mountain. An absolute unit. To use a line from the Jack Reacher film, he “looks like a guy who could kill someone with one punch.” And while you don’t necessarily have to be enormous to do that specific kind of harm, Reacher’s size influences how he interacts with the world, and how the world interacts with him. He can’t blend into a crowd. He’s not easily forgotten. No-one ever suspects he’s bluffing when he threatens them. To be cute about it, when it comes to Reacher, size matters.

When it came time to make a Jack Reacher film — called “Jack Reacher,” imaginatively enough — Tom Cruise was chosen to play the man in question. It was a smart choice in many ways. Cruise is box office gold, a genuinely good actor, and a proven action star. What he is not, however, is big.

But any actor should be able to play any part, right? And, for the most part, that holds true. Jack Reacher is a damn fine thriller. Rosamund Pike makes an excellent foil for Cruise (because she’s always great in everything, let’s be real about that) and Werner Herzog’s portrayal of The Zec is legitimately chilling. The writing makes the journey from Child’s books to the screen without losing any of its snappiness. These characters both sound better than anyone you’ve ever met and also so familiar you swear you went to school with them. The action scenes are balanced with the thoughtfulness of a cleverly crafted mystery. There’s just one…small…problem. Here, watch:

This line is pure Reacher, and Cruise does a fine job of delivering it. Cruise is threatening the bad guy on the other end of the phone. He doesn’t sound like he actually plans on beating the guy to death, but it’s clear that he means business.

But now compare it to this:

This is Alan Ritchson. He is enormous. And there is no doubt that when his Reacher says he wants to throw someone out of a helicopter, he means it literally. Reacher always means it literally.

Now, there’s more going on here than just two actors of different physical statures. They’re also approaching the character from two different perspectives. Cruise can’t help but play Reacher as a charming hero, whereas Ritchson appears to be playing him as being somewhere on the autism spectrum. There may very well be other reasons for this — a 2012 movie doesn’t have the same financial stakes as a 2024 streaming TV show — but I do think that physical size was at least partly responsible for the different approaches.

I knew nothing about Jack Reacher when I saw the film, and I enjoyed it a lot. I still do! Just watched it a few weeks ago and it’s still very entertaining. But I can’t help picturing Alan Ritchson in those same scenes, saying the same lines, and thinking that the movie would be vastly improved by his presence. The characters in Jack Reacher respond to him as though he’s larger than life, and Cruise does an admirable job of filling the space around him with enough personality to warrant that…well, almost.

So, have I written all this just to say that Alan Ritchson is a better Jack Reacher than Tom Cruise? Well, yes, but also to say that Tom Cruise isn’t bad at it. These kinds of conversations often get very reductive, and the idea gets put forth that the options are binary: either someone is transcendent in a role or they suck. But no, someone can do a fine job — someone who was a good choice for any number of reasons —and yet still not be the best.

Just something to consider when your favorite anime, tv show, or movie is reimagined or remade.