Reacher star Alan Ritchson claimed that he was sexually assaulted while he worked in the modeling industry.
The 41-year-old actor said the incident happened while he was ‘one of the highest paid models at the agency’ and offered a gig with a ‘very famous photographer’ in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter published on Wednesday.
‘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,’ he explained. ‘I was sexually assaulted by this guy.’
The North Dakota native said he immediately left the photo shoot, drove to his agency’s office, and told them to never call him again.
‘I quit the industry and it was the last photo shoot I’ve ever had. Those pictures were never seen or published,’ he claimed. ‘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.’
Reacher star Alan Ritchson claimed that he was sexually assaulted while he worked in the modeling industry; pictured in 2022
![The 41-year-old actor said the incident happened while he was 'one of the highest paid models at the agency' in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter; pictured at the Versace Atelier show 2014](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/04/03/16/83198569-13268095-image-a-12_1712156511937.jpg)
The 41-year-old actor said the incident happened while he was ‘one of the highest paid models at the agency’ in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter; pictured at the Versace Atelier show 2014
Ritchson did not name the photographer.
‘Let’s be honest, it’s like legalized sex trafficking,’ he said of modeling. ‘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.’
He said that there were numerous occasions when he found himself in these situations where sexual abuse seemed to be the objective, and the paycheck he desperately needed to survive served as the incentive.
‘You’re always dancing around this very terrible line of, “How do I keep the job and not completely offend this photographer or this agent or whoever set this thing up, and how do I not get raped?”‘
Ritchson said he deeply empathizes with women who face power struggles and predatory behavior in the workplace.
‘If I really had to, I could get myself out of whatever room I was in through a physical altercation. Most women don’t have that option. Imagine how terrifying it must be.’
The action star did mention that his modeling work for the department store JCPenney was a different experience.
!['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,' he explained. 'I was sexually assaulted by this guy'; Versace show 2014](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/04/03/16/83199177-13268095-_I_was_sent_into_a_hotel_room_to_do_nudes_with_the_promise_that_-m-14_1712157293577.jpg)
‘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,’ he explained. ‘I was sexually assaulted by this guy’; Versace show 2014
![The North Dakota native said he immediately left the photo shoot, drove to his agency's office, and told them to never call him again; pictured in Prime's Reacher](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/04/03/15/83196827-13268095-image-a-11_1712155509764.jpg)
The North Dakota native said he immediately left the photo shoot, drove to his agency’s office, and told them to never call him again; pictured in Prime’s Reacher
‘Nobody was trying to get you naked and oiled up in the back of a hotel room so they could sexually assault you or threaten you that if you didn’t do it, you wouldn’t get a campaign.’