Joe Manganiello’s team thought Sofia Vergara’s past with Tom Cruise cost him ‘Jack Reacher’ role
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Joe Manganiello opened up about a surprising accusatory thought against his ex-wife Sofía Vergara as well as Tom Cruise, whom she dated for a short period in 2005, in his new book ‘Bloodlines.’
As per Manganiello, at one point his team thought the ‘True Blood’ star did not get the role of ‘Jack Reacher’ on the Amazon Prime series because Cruise was romantically linked with his now-ex-wife in the past, Entertainment Weekly reported.
Joe Manganiello claims he was told he’d ‘never’ get Jack Reacher role
Cruise played Jack Reacher in two films, ‘Jack Reacher’ (2012) and ‘Jack Reacher: Never Go Back’ (2016). Manganiello was also reportedly considered for a co-star role in the second film but it did not work out.
The 49-year-old, in his book, has claimed, “I was brought in to meet director Ed Zwick about playing the villain in the second of the Tom Cruise movies, ‘Jack Reacher: Never Go Back’. I read two scenes with Ed and got the sense that it went really well. As soon as we finished, Ed sat back on his desk with a wry grin on his face and said, ‘I love what you did. You’d be great for this role, but you’re never going to get it.’”
“I knew what was coming next. ‘You look exactly like Jack Reacher is described in the books. Big, tall, bearded, jacked... how tall are you?’ [I said], ‘Six foot five.’ [He said], ‘Right. Tom’s never going to let that happen. But you were great,’” he explained.
Joe Manganiello claims Amazon Studios CEO did not allow his casting
However, once again in 2020, Manganiello almost got a chance to play the character in the TV series.
Referring to Don Granger, the president of feature films at Skydance Media, the ‘Magic Mike’ actor shared, “We discussed the backlash over Tom’s size and how they were only meeting with actors over six foot two for the series.”
“As the meeting wound down, he surprised me by laying his cards out. ‘I have to say that sitting here across from you, you are the closest thing to Jack Reacher that I’ve ever met in my entire life. You look like Reacher is described in the books. You don’t understand how worried I was about casting this role,’” Manganiello recalled.
However, despite the assuring meeting with writer-producer Nick Santora, and the team at Skydance agreeing with Granger, Manganiello believes he did not get the role because of the CEO of Amazon Studios, Jen Salke.
“I was hearing rumblings from my agents and Don that Jen was angry that she wasn’t included in the casting process and felt that she was being railroaded into a final decision made by a group of primarily male producers that she didn’t feel part of,” the ‘True Blood’ actor wrote.
Joe Manganiello’s team linked ‘Jack Reacher’ snub to Sofia Vergara’s past with Tom Cruise
Despite consistent discussion around Manganiello’s candidature, Alan Ritchson ultimately got the role of ‘Jack Reacher.’
This led to Manganiello’s team wondering if the snub had something to do with Vergara’s past relationship with Tom Cruise, who served as an executive producer of the series.
Manganiello noted, “Jen wouldn’t let them go with me. She never gave a reason and never communicated with anyone as to why, which gave way to a thought from my team that maybe Tom Cruise, who was listed as an executive producer because he had starred in the previous film adaptations, could have potentially come in over the top and vetoed my being cast on account of Sofía.”
“It was all just speculation. No one would tell me what the hell happened, but I knew Don Granger knew. I felt betrayed. I’d just wasted six months of my life,” he added.
Vergara briefly dated Cruise in 2005, nearly a decade before she tied the knot with Manganiello in 2015. As per Entertainment Weekly, Cruise and Vergara reportedly parted ways due to differences in their respective faith.
