Alan Ritchson might have been Thor if he acted better in his audition

To be sure, an actor’s life is full of “woulda, coulda, shoulda”s. The path to success is riddled with lost roles destined to become obscure trivia for dedicated cinema nerds. Reacher star Alan Ritchson has a whole laundry list of these that still haunt him, most particularly a role that quite famously went to Chris Hemsworth. Yes, Marvel Studios casting told Ritchson that the role of Thor was “his to lose,” and lost it he did.

“I didn’t take it seriously,” Ritchson reflects in a new profile for Men’s Health. “I was like, ‘They’ll throw me the part if I look like the guy; nobody really cares about acting.’ ” Unfortunately, the casting team told him they were specifically looking for him to show “the craft,” because, well, duh. You’ve got to audition at your audition, guy!

In fairness, even Chris Hemsworth didn’t get the role at first, because in his own words, his first audition “sucked.” He’s previously said that his brother Liam got way further in the Thor audition process than he did. When it didn’t work out for Liam, “I came back in, re-auditioned a few times, and just had a different attitude. Maybe I had a little more sort of motivation that my little brother got a look in and I hadn’t,” Hemsworth told Wired. “I also had done a couple of films in between those two auditions, so I had a bit more experience and confidence in what I was going to do.”

Ritchson was also motivated enough by his Thor failure to pursue high-level acting classes (gotta get that craft in). But the Marvel movie was not the first or last time he’d get passed over. He previously had superhero success on Smallville as Aquaman and thought he was going to get his own spin-off, but they recast Justin Hartley in the role for the pilot. (It didn’t get picked up, and Hartley became Smallville’s Green Arrow instead.) He went on to more superhero success on Titans as Hawk, but apparently he was originally up for the role of Dick Grayson, which went to Brenton Thwaites. And though he played Gloss in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, he had tried out for Finnick, which went to Sam Claflin. And oh, by the way, he auditioned for American Idol in 2003, but he got cut in the second round. Always the bridesmaid, as they say….

The lesson here is, sometimes when a door closes a window opens, or maybe never give up on your dreams. Or, as Ritchson puts it to Men’s Health, “The industry’s funny. It can’t be relied on. You have to be very patient with it.” Wise!