Jason Ritter Recounts the Pressure of Producers at Early Auditions Saying, ‘Your Dad Was So Funny’

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• Jason Ritter shared how comparisons to his late father, John Ritter, impacted his early acting auditions

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• He felt less pressure in dramatic auditions, where he didn’t face the same comedic expectations

Jason Ritter is opening up about the pressure he felt during early auditions, as casting agents and producers were often familiar with the work of his father, the late John Ritter.

Speaking on a recent episode of the Brotherly Love podcast, Jason, 46, recounted that he felt “internal kind of conflicts” during the auditioning process, early on in his career.

“I would go into a comedy audition and my hands would just be like shaking,” he said, “So many times, people would be like, ‘Oh, I just want to say before you start: Your dad was so funny.'”

He continued: “I love hearing that, of course, but hearing, ‘He would open his mouth and we would be rolling on the floor,’ and then I would open my mouth, look around, no one’s rolling on the floor.”

“Then, all my insecurities just come overwhelming me. So, it was funny that like the first couple of parts that I got were in the sort of more dramatic auditions because, for some reason, I didn’t feel as much pressure or comparison or something like that,” Jason added.

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John — who gained fame on Three’s Company from 1977 to 1984 — died in September 2003 at the age of 54, in the middle of filming season 2 of 8 Simple Rules. 

In a recent appearance on Joy 101 with Hoda Kotb, Jason opened up about dealing with grief in the weeks and months after his dad’s death. “It felt like the world was upside down,” he said, adding that he managed to see glimmers of joy during this time.

“The first beautiful thing that I remember is that around that period of time I have never seen more beautiful sunsets in my life,” he told Kotb. “It was just this strange thing where maybe I wasn’t looking for them. Whatever it was, the sunsets were so beautiful that it made me immediately just believe with no proof.”

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