Jeremy Renner Really Hated His Hawkeye Character in ‘Avengers’
Marvel recently announced that Jeremy Renner will have his very own Hawkeye TV series at some point in 2021, but hasn’t revealed exactly when the show will be released. A member of the Avengers and a former special agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., Hawkeye is considered one of the most enduring characters in the Marvel cinematic universe.
Even though Renner has made a ton of money and earned a lot of recognition playing the character, he hasn’t always loved the role.
In fact, when he was cast to star in 2012’s Avengers, Renner actually hated playing Hawkeye and even offered to have him killed off.
‘Avengers’ star Jeremy Renner hated Hawkeye’s characterization in the film
Renner shared his dislike for the early representation of his character during a Q and A at London Film and Comic-con, according to Radio Times
“I never really told anybody this, but in the first Avengers… I was just getting to know who Hawkeye was, and then zap, I go round like a zombie, I’m like Loki’s minion.”
According to Renner, he became upset once he realized that he wasn’t going to have an opportunity to delve deeper into the Hawkeye character in The Avengers.
“And I’m still not even sure who Hawkeye was at that point. So I’m a little frustrated, because I was so excited to figure out who Hawkeye was,” he said.
He felt like his character was 1-dimensional
Renner is an accomplished actor who has delivered powerful performances in films such as The Hurt Locker and The Town, so it makes sense that he’d be upset by how limited his character was.
“At the end of the day, 90% of the movie, I’m not the character I signed on to play,” he told Hero Complex. “I’m literally in there for two minutes, and then all of a sudden…So there’s not a lot of back story or understanding we can really tell about who Clint Barton is, or Hawkeye, and is he working for SHIELD or not. There’s a lot of unanswered questions, even for me. And I was OK with that. At least I was still in the movie. And I was glad for that…”
Even though most actors say playing the good guy is less fun than being the bad guy, Renner would’ve preferred playing a hero instead of the mindless zombie he portrays in The Avengers.
“I prefer [playing] the good, because if we go to the evil part, or hypnotized or whatever the heck you want to call it, it’s kind of a vacancy. Not even a bad guy, because there’s not really a consciousness to him. The interesting part was being guilty about the bad things I did do when I was hypnotized. I think he’s already an interesting enough character. To really kind of take away who that character is and just have him be this sort of robot, essentially, and have him be this minion for evil that Loki uses,”
Jeremy Renner offered to have his character killed off
By the time filming started for The Avengers, Renner was fed up. Believe it or not, he was so sick of his character that he even offered the production crew the freedom to kill off Hawkeye, if they saw fit.
“I just had a heart attack in every scene – I’d just be walking with… Scarlett Johansson, and just like be ugh … I’m giving you an option, if you just want to kick me out of this movie,” Renner said, according to Radio Times. Just you know, at any given moment, if you wanna kill me off, daddy’s gonna be having a heart attack.”
