When Alan Ritchson auditioned for the role of Jack Reacher, he was initially turned down by Amazon, before eventually being re-considered and ultimately cast. As Nick Santora told /Film, “Alan really had to earn this job, and he did through talent and hard work and determination. And at the end of the day, everyone just felt that all the pieces that were needed to make up Reacher were embodied in this one person.” But when it came to casting Roscoe, Willa Fitzgerald had a comparatively easy time.
Santora spoke to Collider about the process of casting the Margrave PD officer who eventually becomes a love interest for Reacher. And it seems the showrunner was immediately taken with the actress. He said:
“It was hard on paper, and then very easy when we saw Willa’s audition. As soon as I saw Willa, I was pretty positive that she was gonna be Roscoe. I wanna stress that other actors that auditioned for the role were incredible, so to win the role, you had to really, really be perfect for it. Willa just jumped off the screen, and you saw the chemistry with Alan [Ritchson]. It was wonderful.”
Santora’s intuitions turned out to be right, as Fitzgerald handled herself brilliantly opposite the imposing Ritchson. That’s evidenced by the fact Lee Child said he, “was almost in tears,” at the thought Roscoe wouldn’t be returning, adding he wished he’d called the show “Roscoe,” just so, “we could have had more.”
