Alan Ritchson says studios have begged him to stop talking politics in public.
The “Reacher” star, 42, made the claim during a Fan Expo Canada panel earlier this month, where he delivered a profanity-laced monologue about the pressure he faces to stay silent. Ritchson said studios have called him repeatedly with a blunt message about his outspoken political commentary.
“You know how many phone calls I get from studios like, ‘Would you shut the f— up, please? Stop talking in public,'” he said. “I mean, but it’s not chaos I’m after.”
Ritchson continued with a sarcastic pledge of restraint that quickly collapsed into another political jab. “It’s actually the opposite of chaos. I’d like a little — I’m not going to get into it. You don’t want to see my rants starring these g—— f—— politicians everywhere,” he said. “I’m not going to do it. Sony told me not to. And I’m not going to say anything. Not today. Not today, [Jeffrey] Epstein.”
After the audience cheered, Ritchson gave the moderators a fist bump and declared, “Pedos win.”
The actor also alleges that political interference killed a “Reacher” storyline he had championed. On Threads last week, Ritchson replied to a fan disappointed that the Amazon Prime Video series would not adapt “Die Trying,” a novel in which Jack Reacher fights through a White supremacist militia camp. Ritchson wrote that he had successfully pushed for the adaptation until a recent political shift derailed it.
“My favorite book. Fun fact: I had it approved until someone got re-elected,” he wrote, suggesting President Trump’s return to the White House prompted the reversal.
Ritchson’s political commentary has drawn consistent attention over the past year. In a Hollywood Reporter interview from April 2024, the professed Christian attacked conservative Christians for their support of Trump. “Trump is a rapist and a con man, and yet the entire Christian church seems to treat him like he’s their poster child, and it’s unreal. I don’t understand it,” he said.
One month after that interview, Ritchson claimed his outspokenness came with personal consequences. “If you want to see violence flee the world, be more generous to everybody! That is the Christian ethic! That is what I don’t see happening. And when I speak up about it in my own ways, I’m met with violence,” he said.
Christian Toto, of Hollywood in Toto, said that Ritchson appears determined to undermine his own success. “The actor’s political rants are even worse than what Robert De Niro says on a given day. It’s hysterical blather, and his ‘Reacher’ fans are noticing,” Toto said. Toto added that he questions whether studio warnings actually occurred and why Ritchson ignores them if they did. “Doesn’t he realize the precious gift he’s been given, to be able to headline major motion pictures? Doesn’t he understand how fleeting that kind of fame can be and how audiences might be turned off by his unhinged rhetoric?”
Fox News Digital reached out to Sony and Amazon Prime Video for comment.
