Jason Ritter is opening up about the strange connection between his real-life dad John Ritter and his TV dad Beau Bridges.
“Beau is adorable,” Ritter, 45, said of the actor who plays his character’s father in CBS’s Matlock reboot during a panel discussion Sunday, March 23 at PaleyFest L.A. “And there’s something weird about Beau [being] cast: Throughout my childhood and my life, my dad and Beau were always mistaken for each other.”
“There’s a little bit of a physical resemblance,” Ritter admitted, and photos of the two actors from the ’70s and ’80s show a passing resemblance.
According to Ritter, that sometimes leads to some funny incidents.
“My dad got a fan letter once, listing all the things he did and his favorite performances, and saying, ‘Can you sign the attached photo?’ ” Ritter recalls.
The photo, Ritter says, is of Bridges.
When Bridges was cast as Matlock’s father, Ritter says, “I had this weird feeling of connection with him.”
“Also, weirdly enough, I read the script with him, where I played a character that he created when he did the original play in the ’70s,” Ritter adds. “And so I met him at that time.”
Ritter explains that having a pre-existing connection with Bridges, 83, helped him tap into “decades of history” between their Matlock characters.
At PaleyFest L.A., the actor spoke to PEOPLE about another “weird and interesting” connection between his father and Matlock. John Ritter, who died in 2003, starred alongside The Andy Griffith Show alum Don Knotts on Three’s Company from 1979 to 1984, and Andy Griffith, of course, played defense attorney Ben Matlock on the original Matlock series from 1986 to 1995.
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While Jason admitted that he never had the chance to meet Griffith, he shared fond memories of getting to know Knotts through his father.
“I definitely saw him a lot when I was a kid,” he said of Knotts, who died in 2006. “He made me laugh a lot.”
