“Reacher” star Alan Ritchson said he was sexually assaulted as a model, and after the alleged attack occurred, he quit the business for good and “acting” found him.
In a lengthy interview for The Hollywood Reporter, the 41-year-old actor talked about the early days of his career as a model, comparing the industry to nothing but “legalized sex trafficking.”
“The industry is not regulated, and it’s a widely known secret that if you’re hired on a job, you’re basically being passed off to a photographer to be trafficked,” Ritchson said.
“The number of times and situations where I was put in horrific environments where sexual abuse was the goal and the paycheck that you were desperate for in order to survive was the carrot, I can’t count on two hands,” he added. “It was quite often.”
#Reacher made Alan Ritchson a star, but it was no overnight success story. The 41-year-old actor (and onetime #AmericanIdol hopeful), has been knocking at stardom’s door for nearly 20 years. He opens up about the high highs and low lows along the way: https://t.co/LgUXS4HA4F pic.twitter.com/euDw7vIcry
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) April 3, 2024
The “Fast X” star said his final modeling gig was after he agreed to do a nude shoot with a “very famous photographer” for a “lucrative campaign.”
“I was sent into a hotel room to do nudes with the promise that if I did the shoot, he would offer me a very lucrative campaign for a magazine and a clothing line,” the actor said. “I was sexually assaulted by this guy.”
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“I left and drove straight to the agency that I was at in L.A,” he added. “I stormed in and said, ‘F*** you for sending me there. You knew what was going to happen, and you did it anyway.'”
“I told them to never call me again,” the actor continued. “I quit the industry and it was the last photo shoot I’ve ever had. Those pictures were never seen or published. That was it. I swore it off and thank God acting found me at the exact same time so I was able to make a switch to a new career, but it left some scars.”
After the abuse he said he endured and the demise of a business partnership, he experienced “an existential crisis” that he said lead to a suicide attempt in 2019.
“I hung myself. It all happened so fast, and I was dangling there,” Ritchson said, adding that it was the vision of his three children as grown adults that saved him. “They calmly asked me not to do it, and told me that they wanted me to be here, alive and part of their lives.”
The Amazon Prime star said he then pulled himself up off the rafters before he blacked out. “I was diagnosed as bipolar right after,” he added. “Deep down, I was comforted to know, ‘OK, there’s a name for this.'”
“I came out of that whole thing asking myself, ‘OK, if I am going to choose to be alive here — a decision we all make, some to a greater degree than others — what am I doing?” Ritchson continued. “Why am I here?’ What I kept falling back on was the meaning and purpose of life as someone who believes that there is a creator and we are created beings, our purpose in life is, without qualification, to make the world a better place and serve others. That is what life is all about.”