Alan Ritchson on What He Learned About Fame From Arnold Schwarzenegger

Alan Ritchson took a break from his Reacher duties to star opposite Arnold Schwarzenegger in the upcoming holiday film The Man With the Bag.

Directed by Adam Shankman and due to hit Amazon Prime Video on Dec. 2, the family comedy casts Schwarzenegger as Santa Claus who goes on a journey to retrieve his magic bag after its stolen. In order to get it back, he turns to his naughty list on which he finds a former thief, played by Ritchson, who comes along for the expedition.

After filming with the action icon, Ritchson said he was the one who left with a valuable gift. “It was a treat,” the Reacher star told Dax Shepard and Monica Padman on a recent episode of Armchair Expert. “He taught me a lot about how gratitude should manifest in the life of somebody dealing with fame.”

Ritchson said he’s transitioning to a part of his life and career where he’s aware of “how present fame is and how toxic and intrusive” it can be, not only for him but his wife, Cat, and their young boys. But he was able to watch how Schwarzenegger moved through the world and dealt with his own fans while on set and off, and that helped him shift his perspective.

“I worked with Arnold, who deals with this on a degree that I will probably never experience,” he explained. “He’s dealt with it for decades on a degree that I can’t quite understand. He stops for everybody. We would be in the middle of a scene in a diner and people would be banging on the glass because our lockup wasn’t tight enough. They’re like, ‘Oh my God, will you take a picture with us?’ [He says], ‘Oh, be right there. Come outside and take a picture with us.’ He has no problem. He makes time for everybody. And so I look at that and I’m like, ‘Cat, if this is his attitude, I have no excuse.’ … He showed me something really interesting in the way that he approaches life and his lot in life. And I really deeply admire how he treats people.”