He’s the fearsome hawkeye in the Avengers, But actor and sometimes musician Jeremy Renner is only beginning to combat villains. In fact, some might say his inner superhero is just arriving

by Jen Goldenberg

Jeremy Renner has described his new sci-fi thriller, Arrival, released on November 11th, as “dense and emotional” to the Daily Mail, and how he outlines the film runs an interesting parallel to his own personal manifesto. The 45-year-old actor, born in Modesto, California, was one of five children. He discovered the craft thanks to inspiration provided by a drama teacher at Modesto Junior College, from whom he attributes his passion for the arts, along with his father, Lee, who encouraged him to be the best at what he chose and to love what he did, regardless of vocation.

“[My father] just gave me permission to go fail,” Renner said at this year’s Silicon Valley Comic Con at the San Jose Convention Center.

Eventually moving to Los Angeles, Renner made his film debut in National Lampoon’s Senior Trip (1995), a comedic role that’s a far cry away from the multi-layered characters he later dived head-first into. For example, in 2002, Renner found notoriety in the role of Jeffrey Dahmer in the biopic Dahmer—offering a bravely nuanced interpretation of the serial killer that would earn him an Independent Spirit Award nomination. The film helped win him the role of Staff Sergeant William James in The Hurt Locker (2008), cast by director Kathryn Bigelow, who was captivated by Renner’s portrayal of Dahmer. (After several hours on the phone with him, Bigelow offered the role without even meeting her lead.) For The Hurt Locker, Renner was nominated for his first Oscar (for Best Actor), and the film went on to win many awards, including the Oscar for Best Picture

From that point forward, the 45-year-old would take major parts in studio films like Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011), The Bourne Legacy (2012), American Hustle (2013), Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015) and of course, the arrow-dispensing super-human Hawkeye in three iterations of The Avengers, with another in pre-production for a 2018 release.

In Arrival, alien spacecraft visit earth, and humanity is tasked with communicating with extraterrestrial life for the first time. This effort is led by linguistics expert Dr. Louise Banks (played by five-time Academy Award nominee Amy Adams) and theoretical physicist Ian Donnelly (Renner, who was reunited with Adams; both had parts in 2013’s American Hustle).

“Working with her, it’s just easy,” Renner offered to the Daily Mail. “I’m blessed to work with a woman that I respect and admire. She’s the main reason why I wanted to be a part of this movie. How about Amy Adams for president?”

Renner has, quite literally, danced onto the red carpet at the Venice Film Festival, with a child-like exuberance that’s at once confident and humble, a rare tandem trait in modern Hollywood. And it’s not that he’s dismissive of his talents, but rather doesn’t take himself too seriously. His craft, however, is another matter entirely. That he is deadly serious about.

Offering advice to prospective actors, for example, he said at Comic Con, “If you have a plan B, you’re planning on failing if you ask me.”

Jeremy Renner as Ian Donnelly in ARRIVAL by Paramount Pictures

In his new science-fiction film, based on the short story Story of Your Life, Renner approached his mathematician character with a sense of humor, and to him, that’s what made the intellectual Donnelly accessible. That interpretational freedom is something he appreciated about working with Arrival director Denis Villeneuve. At a press conference at the Toronto International Film Festival, Renner described the director of the upcoming Blade Runner 2049 as collaborative, patient, and thoughtful.

“He’s got a real great sense of framing and patience with his storytelling with the camera,” Renner said. “And he’s just genius. [Working with him] is a really pleasurable, easygoing experience.”

So what’s next for the on-again, off-again superhero? Well, just about anything. Perhaps even music. Before Renner became an actor, he was a musician, often playing acoustic guitar and piano during his formative days in a home without electricity. He also wrote songs then, and is just now recording them, though at Comic Con, Renner expressed a lack of interest in sharing the tunes. “I’m very conscious about being known as an actor, and not all of a sudden becoming some musician,” he explained with a laugh. “I’ll spare people that.”

That said, Renner actually creates a playlist for each character he takes on. “Because,” he explained, “music can in three minutes transport you into a place or space that I might need to be in. It’s a beautiful thing. I love music for that.”

The actor explained that he also moonlights as a real estate mogul, flipping multi-million dollar homes in California—in the process remodeling more than 20 homes in the past 15 years.

Louise Banks (Amy Adams) and Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner) in ARRIVAL

As far as romantic comedy roles go, Renner said with a laugh that, “I’ll go maybe romantic tragedies. Look at this face, man; it’s a very, very angry resting face. I can’t do romantic comedies.”

Through all the success, he seems to go out of his way to embrace just that brand of unpretentiousness. “I constantly have to pinch myself,” he responded when asking about achieved fame.

Next year, look for Renner in an as-yet untitled Bourne sequel, as well as in Wind River, with costar Elizabeth Olsen, in a voice role in the animated Arctic Justice: Thunder Squad, and in M:I 6 – Mission Impossible with Rebecca Ferguson and Tom Cruise.