Long before Reacher, Alan Ritchson was in one of the Hunger Games movies. Since then, he has regretted his death scene, which he finds ridiculous because of an error.
Some Reacher fans forget it, but Alan Ritchson had already made several appearances in major franchises before the Amazon hit. For example, he could be seen in The Hunger Games – Catching Fire. At the time, it may have been an important step for his career. But one detail about his last scene still ruins his memory to this day.
Reacher star Alan Ritchson regrets about a mistake in his scene in The Hunger Games
Ritchson plays Karriero Gloss from District 1 in Catching Fire. As a Karriero, he sees his participation in the deadly Hunger Games as the starting point of his career. But the 75th edition of the competition in the movie comes with a special twist: this time, it is not newcomers from the districts who are selected, but winners of previous games.
Gloss only has a small supporting role in the movie. He dies in a skirmish at the hands of one of Katniss’ (Jennifer Lawrence) arrows. If you watch the scene several times, you will notice a strange head movement of Ritchson’s character, which seems completely unmotivated. In fact, it is based on a blooper that still annoys the Reacher star today. He recently told Wired:
Originally, I got the [CGI] arrow in the face. So I played it that way, [by throwing my head back]. But the creators decided in post-production that it was too brutal and changed it to my chest. So my head jerks back like an idiot. Who does that? I shouldn’t have died like that.
Watch Alan Ritchson’s death scene from Catching Fire here:
For the most part, the mishap is ironed out by a quick cut, but you can still see Ritchson’s wrong head movement in parts. The star himself is not to blame for the mistake, but it may justifiably annoy him. Perhaps he is consoled by the fact that the time for such situations is now over: since the mega-success of Reacher, no director will dare to make him look bad.
