Alan Ritchson shows more than his badge as Blood Drives top cop Arthur Bailey.
Ritchson is no stranger to deadly competitions.
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Alan Ritchson: Just once.
Do you remember your first car?
I remember it well.
I saved up my pennies for a 1988 Toyota pickup truck.
Where there wasnt rust, it was all black, with black tinted windows.
Probably the one I have now.
I have an Equis, which is a V8, almost 400 horsepower.
Did you ever drag race?
No, I never did.
I was gonna take that thing down.
And usually, like older people.
Id sort of pick off the weak and unhealthy and Id usually win those races.
Did you get to take theBlood Drivecars for a personal spin?
I murdered my hand that day.
I was drifting a little hard in an old Dodge Charger and I was trying to recover.
That was my first have fun driving day onBlood Drive.
Whats it like being the co-pilot when someone else is doing the crazy stunts?
A little unnerving, I have to say.
I would grip whatever, theres not much to hold on to in the car we had.
It was a little stripped down inside, the stunt car we would drive.
And then the show car, we would shoot a lot of that on the sound stage.
It was a lot more kitted out.
But she was actually a really, really good driver.
I give it to her.
I should have just relaxed.
But its a little scary whipping around when somebody else is at the wheel.
We would always spend a day on the more intricate ones.
But yeah, wed spend thirty minutes or an hour learning those.
Then figure it out on the day.
The fun part, for me, is being the one to do it.
I take a lot of pride in the fact that I can do all those fights.
Ive had a lot of practice with it but thats the most fun.
The act of doing it.
I have an absolute blast, being the one to figure it out and make it look good.
Theres not a huge difference to me.
Im dyslexic so my feet wouldnt do what I was picturing in my head.
I do still have a little bit of that with the dance stuff.
InI Can Do That, I experienced the same problem.
Im better at the fights.
I pick that stuff up as quickly as I do dialogue.
I only have to see it one time and I can get the whole thing down.
But I still approach it the same way.
Do you use music as prep, or is it too distracting because youre a musician?
It makes learning it and delivering it, for me at least, really easy.
What happens to you as an actor when you put on that cop uniform?
I would agree with him entirely.
Hes by far my favorite character on the show, by the way, for what thats worth.
I love what he created.
I think any actor would have a field day with his character.
Im envious and I admire the work that he got to do.
Anyway, I think hes right.
When I put the cop uniform on, I immediately stiffen.
It stiffens his personality.
He has the best intentions, but he spends most of his energy fighting his inhibitions.
I think that causes a certain stiffness.
So what happens when you take it off?
I wanted to really evolve the character, and show outwardly this inner journey of change.
This world pecks away at the walls that hes constructed in his inner life.
I wanted there to be some reflection of that outwardly.
If he now starts to look like these people he still inwardly detests and wants to arrest.
We had conversations for weeks and weeks and weeks.
It was a really big deal with everybody.
Everybody was taking sides.
Some wardrobe were like I really love this idea.
I really want to see you in jeans and head band or something.
He really wanted to see me in the cop uniform the whole time.
He eventually, we put a new outfit together and showed it to him.
He said uh, kinda looks cool, yeah, okay.
Once he was in that.
That uniform was the last barrier to allowing him to really change inwardly.
You did a striptease onAmerican Idoland played a stripper on Alexandra WentworthsHead Case.
If I was, it didnt last very long.
Im a very, very giving actor.
Ill allow any other dude to be naked on the show if theyd like.
Ill happily give them the rates anytime somebody would like to be the stripper on the show.
Thats totally [something] Ill sacrifice.
And yes, Im talking about episode 4.
No, Ive never had that experience.
One is the experience I had within the scene and the other is what Im seeing on the screen.
Ive never been grossed out.
Does Arthur see Grace as a sister?
No, I dont think so.
I asked that questions many times while making this.
I think its a difficult one to answer because their relationship evolves so many times.
It changes based on the circumstances, I think they continually surprise each other.
It never really felt brother and sisterly to me.
I think far from it.
And we went right back into it.
That was pure, unadulterated acting at work.
The show is a different movie each week, different set, location.
Where are you and Arthur most comfortable?
Comfortable is maybe not the right world, because he was never comfortable.
He was probably most comfortable in the police station in episode one.
Hes never really back in that world.
I dont think he ever does get comfortable.
It was a very difficult to film.
It took a lot out of me, as a person.
But that was where I want to live as an actor so that was the most fun.
He is never comfortable, which is what makes him so interesting to me.
Do you get production notes, like Slink does?
I heard the stories about what the writers did to the producers, so wondered if suits made suggestions.
Not on this show.
I have on other shows.
And I was like: oh you really want to push it to now.
We were on the same page but he thought that that change would come sooner in that moment.
So we did it that way, and it felt really nice.
It kind of sped up sped up the evolution of the character in a really nice way.
Thats as close to I think I got to that on the show.
But on other shows I definitely have and its never fun.
Blood Drivebreaks ground with sex, language and freedom of style.
Do you anticipate a lot of backlash about that?
Well, my mom, first of all, she would still ground me if she could.
I dont think shell be watching this show, but sure, there will be backlash.
I just have a different perspective than a lot of people.
They are two very different things.
I am honored to be able to provide people with escapism.
I think theres honor in that.
I do receive a lot of backlash for certain characters.
Its what he did in his world to survive.
I dont mind it.
I interviewed Roger Corman for theDeath Racereboot.
He saw the franchise as unsubtle commentary, is there a correlation between a lower budget and more freedom?
Its not always true, but in my experience.
They want everybody to come and enjoy it without feeling alienated.
Ive also been a part of something,Hunger Games, for example, was big budget.
I think the author absolutely had some intent to make social commentary on the state of our society.
I think it may have been watered down slightly from the books, a little bit.
But that world really lends itself to that.
So, absolutely, more independent or smaller budget projects lend themselves to sayng more and being more controversial.
I actually think its quite beautiful.
I think the show does that.
No, I think the setting doesnt matter.
Sometimes we need extravagant paintings like that to make a point.
I think Roland is smart enough to provide that, and does.
If you just want entertainment, you got that too.
You choose your own adventure, I think.
Blood Drivepremieres on Syfy on June 14th.
