Alan Ritchson auditioned for 2011’s Thor, and he still sounds rueful when he describes his performance. “I didn’t take it seriously,” he says. “I was like, ‘They’ll throw me the part if I look like the guy; nobody really cares about acting.’ ”

After the audition, the casting cabal told his team the role had been his to lose but he hadn’t shown that he had “the craft.” Chris Hemsworth would be Thor, and Ritchson would simmer for another decade.

Tormented by the fumble, he practiced the scenes for three weeks with an acting coach following the audition. Then he asked to join an exclusive acting class with Deborah Aquila, who cast The Shawshank Redemption and who is now executive vice president of casting at Paramount Television Studios and CBS Studios. He was not, as he had expected to be, a shoo-in.

“All I had to go on when he came in was—bless his heart, this man, I love him—he was so earnest and he really, really wanted to take the next step,” Aquila says. “He had done Blue Mountain State, and I watched episodes of it. And I was scratching my head going, ‘How am I going to help this man?’