This is a transcript of a recent radio roundtable of this rising star who plays Brandt in Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol. He will be Hawkeye in The Avengers reprising his role from Thor.The busy actor will also star in The Bourne Legacy and Hansel And Gretel: Witch Hunters. Additionally he has a Steve McQueen Biopic film in the works as actor and producer.
Since your character is sort of the new team member who thinks, kind of, all of this IMF stuff is kind of crazy – is that a fun position to be in, to like always be getting in Ethan Hunt’s face and have everything explained?
JEREMY RENNER: Well, I mean, it was fun to play the character. It is a, I guess a little, slightly different approach, because I had no more information than you do at this point. You saw 20 minutes or so, right?
Right.
JEREMY RENNER: Yeah. There was a – when you see the movie, there’s these [SOUNDS LIKE] other things. So it was a gray, sort of complex character to jump into. And nothing is as it seems in a spy movie. And this certainly delivers that, I think.
So I guess, was that more the appeal, the opportunity to do something duplicitous, that you could go either way.
So I guess, was that more the appeal, the opportunity to do something duplicitous, that you could go either way.
JEREMY RENNER: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I’m attracted to those kind of roles, that you could be good or you could be bad, and you just don’t know. I guess I just have one of those arresting faces that look like I want to beat you up or something. I don’t know if [LAUGHTER] or whatever it is, but yeah, I mean, I like those parts.
Is it comforting to sort of walk into a franchise that has like an established sort of lead? I mean, does that give you an advantage, or is there a challenge in sort of distinguishing yourself, you know, when he’s sort of leading the charge, in a way.
I think it’s great to be part of a franchise that is successful, and obviously a franchise, any franchise is successful, because there been a continuation of the people who see it. That’s kind of nice to be a part of, when you’re – a world stage, a movie gets all around the world and you know that, because 80% of the movies I’ve done, nobody’s seen. So – kind of going into that’s pretty exciting. And getting the opportunity to work with Tom is really exciting. So – and then having a part that is worthy of the – thank you.
Did, given the fact that each of these films is kind of independent of one another and you have a new, a new director with Brad Bird, did you guys feel like you had to, did you sort of have to take a crash course in what these movies are – what’s involved in these movies? Or were you guys sort of creating from the ground up, your own thing, do you feel?
JEREMY RENNER: Well, I think that’s, well, a lot of things. You know, I was a fan of the franchise to begin with. And so I was very aware of everything. And then re-watching it all again, which was informative, now it’s sort of, now that I know that I’m part of it. But you know, like you said, you know, they’re all very separate movies, you know. Tom never wanted to do a franchise or to do a sequel to any movie, and he hasn’t, except for “Mission”, which is his baby. And he’s always had directors come on that had a very specific sort of vision for it that keep them kind of separate, as movies on their own, stand-alone movies, that if you didn’t see the first two, the third one still all makes sense. And the only through line is, you know, Tom’s character for the most part. There’s been characters that have trickled in and out, but – so with this one, having Brad come in and have his sort of slant with the gadgets and the attention to detail and character, which brings tension and cutting tension with comedy; and you have, you know, Simon Pegg there for that, which is awesome, you know. Brad Bird is all over this movie, and there’s – if you’ve seen “The Incredibles” or any of those movies, you definitely see that in this.
We have seen yesterday, just a few, a part of the movie, but we want, or I want to know – what will happen with your character, or which will be the [INDISCERNIBLE] right now, share with us something else?
JEREMY RENNER: [LAUGHTER] Well, I can’t; that’s giving away the movie, Darling. I’m not going to tell you if I live or die, if I’m good or bad. I might create more questions than answers for you. But that’s what the character is, you know, it’s one of those hinge/fringe characters – you’re not sure what’s gonna happen. And that was the attraction for me. I can tell you that Will Brandt is a Chief Analyst for the IMF, the right hand man to the Secretary, which is always the voice, now a face, finally, in this movie, played by Tom Wilkinson. He hands out all the missions. And sort of buttoned up, sort of desk jockey, gets thrown into the mix of Ethan Hunt and two other agents, Paula Patton’s and Simon Pegg’s characters. And instead of having sort of a mission sort of dished out, it became, circumstances kind of fall apart, and we’re thrown together and have to be together. It doesn’t mean we like each other, but we have to unite, and to overcome certain obstacles. And then within that spectacle of action and mission stuff, there’s an interesting character. You will see, like all four characters are very strong archetypes and how they play off each other ends up being really, is Brad Bird’s strong suit, if you’ve ever seen “The Incredibles” – I think you’ll see a lot of that within that sort of structure.
Tom is known for his enthusiasm for doing his own stunts. Are you that way, as well?
JEREMY RENNER: Umm, I don’t know if I have – yeah, yeah, I mean, I’m – yes, I’m enthusiastic about it. I’m, I don’t – he – I don’t know. Yeah. I think if it’s required of me to do it, I think I’m attracted to challenges. So there’s a great physical challenge in doing stunts. And also, there’s no ticket you can buy for that ride, to go – the opportunity to do the stunts and to do the things that we were able to do this movie, this – people don’t get that opportunity. So yeah, that’s exciting. And if it serves the story and the character, and – I don’t want to just do a stunt just to do a stunt because – to have fun – but it just becomes sort of icing on the cake for, to help, you know, Brad Bird tell the story.
Tom has prepared me for, especially “Bourne”, but all – “Hansel and Gretel” and then “The Avengers” and then, now “Bourne”, for the sort of mental place to be to know, when you’re doing an action sequence, that – like in any professional sport, in America at least, if you get injured or you hurt your knee or whatever, second string comes in. But it doesn’t happen on movies. So you can’t get injured. So it’s sort of getting on this really great program to really just – not be in shape, but just to, just prevent injuries. And Tom introduced me to some really great physiotherapists and that sort of thing, to prepare my body for that sort of torture.
I don’t do well with expectation, in my life; or I certainly can’t think about it in other peoples’ lives. All I can do is do the best I can do, and I’m consciously aware, like specifically, like you know, in the comic book world, where there’s a built-in fan base to that. But there’s a little bit of leniency because there’s a couple different universes. There’s the ultimates, and then there’s the old school version, you know. And I wasn’t interested in wearing purple tights when I’m 50, so I love that they went the ultimates route. But – and also, I wanted to serve the story and the script at hand that Josh Whedon wrote, and not bring a bunch of baggage, and where he came from, from Trickshot, and being a this and a that or what – what mattered to me is like Page One to Page whatever the heck it ended up being, you know, and serve that story. That’s what mattered to me.
Would you like to do a separate Hawkeye movie to explore the character deeper?
JEREMY RENNER: I don’t know; there are a lot of variables in that one – as if they’d want to make one; what it would be about or anything. There’s a lot of things. I suppose if they all aligned, then it could be interesting, because I certainly like the character. But I don’t know what the future holds.
Does that – do you get the feel of an ensemble movie from “The Avengers” -
JEREMY RENNER: Huge, huge – I mean, look at how many characters are in that thing. It was the ultimate challenge for Josh Whedon, who’s, you know, knows that universe so well – no one better to write it. And he was so challenged and – to write and direct that thing, to – I don’t know how you put that many characters in a movie like that. It’s immense. But you know, with that, so you know, you have to sort of pass the baton; you get to work with very few of them, because everybody’s got their own thing kind of going on; someone’s in the air, flying around; I’m on the ground, shooting a bow and arrow, and whatever – there’s a lot of things happening. So like I have no idea what that movie looks like.
And how do you feel, being one of the Avengers?
JEREMY RENNER: You know, it’s a great – great – like, it’s an amazing cast. And I wish I got to do more with them. But you know, I had fun with the people I did get to work with.
Other than him being the coolest human being who ever lived, what’s the people of -
JEREMY RENNER: [LAUGHTER]
Watching Steve McQueen . I mean, is it that you’re sort of involved in developing it, or -
JEREMY RENNER: Yeah, involved in developing it. It happened because a script came around, and they asked maybe, if I wanted to look at it and potentially maybe play him. And I thought, “Ah, it’s interesting.” And you know, obviously, I loved his movies. And wouldn’t say like I was a massive fan of him, by any means. I’ve seen probably like three of his movies. But then as it came around and I started to study him more and realized wow, what a dichotomy of a human being. He’s really, really interesting, outside of what most of him know him as, like you just said, you know, the King of Cool or the coolest human being that ever lived or whatever it is. But he was also the most insecure guy that ever lived. And most, all these other things that undercut what we know him as. So I – that was really interesting to me. I mean, I don’t care if that’s a fictitious character, or if that’s a real person. That’s just interesting to me. So I thought, wow – the script, I felt like was just sort of a retelling of what everybody already knows about him. I didn’t know a lot about him, but it’s retelling the things I knew about him. So I thought, that’s really kind of boring and didn’t do him justice, I think, for what I ended up learning about him. So that’s why we’re developing this thing; from these images that I saw. For instance, there’s him talking, there’s a photo of him – a butcher in the shop is bandaging up his hand. And the movie set’s around the corner. And he’s just preparing to do a stunt, or just did the stunt of the famous bike jump – or whatever the heck it was, whatever stunt it was. Everybody knows about whatever that stunt is. So why talk about that? I want to know what that conversation was between that butcher and McQueen in that butcher shop. That’s more interesting to me. And I think an inside sort of look into his life as a human being is – could be fascinating. So that’s what we’re exploring. So James Gray is also, is actually the one writing that.
Special thanks to EPK.TV and Paramount Pictures. Hear the audio on Episode 37 of Time Capsule.
