Avengers Assemble - Jeremy Renner interview

JEREMY Renner talks about playing Hawkeye in Marvel Avengers Assemble and getting to grips with firing a bow and arrow. He also discusses his recent rise to fame and why it’s fun to be appearing in so many franchises. The interview took place as part of a round table following a press conference.

Q. Is this a stressful time for you being attached to so many franchises – Mission: Impossible, Avengers and Bourne?
Jeremy Renner: It’s fun! This is awesome! Are you kidding me? There’s zero pressure from where I’m standing. All I have to do is sort of perform and keep it honest and authentic and enjoy the ride. I take it 10 minutes at a time and do the best I can. That’s all I can do. But I feel very humbled and honoured to be doing the work I’m doing at the moment.

Q. Were you jealous not to have superhero skills in the movie?
Jeremy Renner: I wasn’t jealous of it. I love the idea of having a skill set and I don’t need CGI to make it happen. It takes a lot of extra work to make it happen. But I have a skill set.

Q. Did you ever shoot a bow before making this movie?
Jeremy Renner: Never! And don’t get me wrong, I can’t shoot a bow and arrow now to save my life [laughs]!

Q. But did you have to practice?
Jeremy Renner: Well, while I was shooting Hansel & Gretel [with Gemma Arterton] I actually had to start because I literally arrived on that from Mission: Impossible and I had no break between those movies. So, I had to kind of get into it very quickly. I didn’t really know what the heck I was doing. And then Hawkeye came along and it was like: “What does Hawkeye do?” So, I had to get into that very quickly as well. But I learned that archery is really not that much a part of it – there’s a lot more to him than that.

Q. How much training did you do?
Jeremy Renner: We trained for months. There’s the physical part and there’s the discipline of maintaining that, which you also have to learn. And then you have to be taught your own particular martial art.

Q. There’s an underlying romance between your character and Black Widow. Do you think that isn’t allowed to happen because it would betray the origin of your character? Or might it be developed?
Jeremy Renner: They may have gotten it on… who knows really. Maybe something happened in Budapest.

Q. You’ve achieved a lot at in a quick amount of time [post-Hurt Locker], so is that a calming feeling – that you don’t have it all still to prove? Are you satisfied?
Jeremy Renner: I try and avoid complacency and try to remain curious.