"Jeremy Renner"

0:05I started, you know what I started eating for breakfast? Just almonds. That's it. Just almonds? Yeah, just almonds. That's it. Yep. Are you really eating just almonds for breakfast? Yeah, just almonds and maybe a yogurt thing. Okay, well, so now it's also a yogurt thing. Might want to take the just off the top of that. Welcome to Smartless. Smartless.

0:32Smartless.

0:38Smartless. Hey, Cool Dad. Cool Dad, you got the long-sleeved shirt on underneath the short-sleeved shirt today. Very 90s. It's a cold day for... So then why don't you just wear a long-sleeved golf shirt? No, I don't have a long-sleeved golf shirt. So I have this, and if I want to, I could take it out. Why don't you wear your short-sleeved golf shirt and just put a sweater over the top of it instead of doing the Cool Dad thing? I am. I've got a sweater, and I'm going to have a shell because it's kind of rainy, and it's very unusually cold for Los Angeles. It's really nice. And I'm teeing off at 1230.

1:13Wait, Tracy bought you both golf shirts. She did? Yeah, they're here at the house. Oh, great. Love her. Did she buy you anything? She did, yes. Driving gloves for the golf cart? Yeah. She joined me. She got me a new set of clubs. So I'll see you guys later. You don't want to know who I'm playing with today? I'm surprised you didn't ask me. Paul. You're playing with Paul. Paul, you're playing with Paul. I'm playing Paul, but guess who else? Who you got? You got Paul, our buddy from Toronto. Paul M, we'll call him. Paul MacLeese. And then we'll have him. I got a real friend of the show. Danny Dees.

1:52Danny Dees. Nice. Danny Dees. Ah, I love him. The nicest man in, the greatest guy ever in finance. Yes, yes. Sure, in many categories. And then, JB, our buddy, football legend, Gareth Bale. Gareth's in town. You're going to play five today? Yeah. No, it's me and Paul, Dan, and Gareth. Oh, sorry. I'm not great with math. Evidently. So I'm very excited. I'm doing a home game today, recording from Los Angeles for the first time in a while. It feels nice. I've got a microphone on a stand now, you know, instead of a... It's just I'm not comfortable with the New York setup. What if you came home, you've been away for a couple weeks, and then you just looked around, and you just started to notice, like, some of my stuff was there.

2:39Yeah. Your underwear's in the sauna. Yeah. That would be awful. That's disgusting. And you just noticed, like, Amanda's wearing, like, an oversized shirt to bed, and you're like, hey, is that Will's shirt?

2:55Well, you know what? We're about a minute from that. I know. I know. Well, guys, before I get into my guest here, can we just – I heard something recently, a description of a podcast. Okay. You know, we'll never be lucky enough to have a description like this, I think. Okay. It's a show about people with more balls than a bowling alley. Yeah. You know, like. Knoxville said that. He said that. Knoxville, that's right. Knoxville said it's called Pretty Sure I Can Fly. Pretty Sure I Can Fly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The Johnny Knoxville host with Elna Baker. From This American Life. From This American Life.

3:31It's about, yeah, these people that do things that have far more courage than the three of us put together would ever even dream of having. Well, thanks a lot. Right. And unlike ours, Pretty Sure I Can Fly is educational and inspiring. Exactly. Yeah. You're not going to learn a whole lot here, but we hide it right there in the title. Yeah. It's a great podcast. Yeah. It's worth checking out. Anyway, Pretty Sure I Can Fly by Smartless Media is out now with Johnny Knoxville and Alna Baker. so punch it into your nearest podcast playing machine and enjoy. Yeah. All right. Huge apologies to our guests.

4:07This has been much too long here for the Regis and Kathy Lee chatter. Here comes our guest. Sadly, even though I'm in Los Angeles, I still have not written an intro. Wow. Mostly, though, because I just love this guy. I don't need to write an intro for him. I know him. He's a buddy of mine. I think he's a buddy of both of yours as well, but I'm closer with him. Sure. Okay? Okay. We'll see. I'm a big, big fan of his work. He's an enormous movie star, global. Wow. But, you know, an even just bigger, all-time great guy. He's got some interesting things to tell us. I know you're going to love this hour.

4:50Everybody, ladies and gentlemen, it's Hollywood's Jeremy Renner. Jeremy, come on out. Oh, there. There he is. Look at him go. Hollywood's Jeremy Renner. What's going on? This guy's a major movie star. You guys better tighten it up. Look at that. What's happening? What's up, man? I wish we were all together, actually. I know, right? I haven't seen some faces on the screen, but it's nice to hear you guys. Jeremy, you know where we're all together? Right here. Right here in the heart. Right here in the heart. I didn't see where you were pointing I just realized something I had to reboot my computer right before we started all my questions are gone but that's okay I can start you go ahead Jer, first of all welcome, you look great look at the guns already I mean, crazy you're looking great I follow you on Instagram as well and I love all your positivity what?

5:54really? Yeah. I love all the positive comments. You're always so warm and thankful and grateful to your fans and everybody with all the support, with all the tragedy that you've had. And you're doing so great. It's so good to see you. Well, yeah, you're busy. Mayor of Kingstown's out now, right? It started June 2nd, I think. Yes? It's coming out June 2nd, yeah. Well, when this airs, it'll be out. So unbelievable start to the season there, Jeremy. Yeah, way to go. June 2nd. Back on June 2nd, the show came out. came out yeah um season three the first time i ever saw you i just moved to los angeles and i start i don't know if you like we can cut this if you don't want to talk about it but i watched this reality show called the it factor and it was like the one of the first reality shows ever and you were one of the actors they followed around to auditions and see about your career and i was i loved the series and i had another friend um in it as well and uh you i remember you getting Dahmer or something, playing Jeffrey Dahmer, or SWAT, and you had to pick between the two, or one of the two.

6:58And I was like, oh my god, this guy's gonna be so huge. And we're watching it in real time. You going on auditions, and really going... Yeah, that was a really random thing. I actually ended up doing that show because I did Dahmer already, and we shot that movie in two weeks for like$100 ,000. So I didn't know what was gonna happen with this tiny little movie, so I did it to kind of promote that but then in it turned into like this little cinderella story because that that movie came out and then i got like you know william morris all these things happened and then um then like you said yeah the uh audition for swat and all these other movies started coming as like this sort of cinderella story for a breaking actor you know in in hollywood yeah and that we watched it with like we were out along for the ride with you it was really cool i don't know that anybody would do that today do you think anybody that show would work i don't be hard to kind of catch that does anybody know when you're gonna break or have any sort of right yeah but i mean think about all those things over the years where they've tried to like get behind this or whatever but to actually to actually lock on to somebody to an actor and then have it pay off and actually become a big movie yeah what are the odds yeah the odds are and then like and then like months later it was like jeremy renner you were just huge star and have remained since so it was really You know, our buddy Sam Jones did a great documentary on Wilco called...

8:20Trying to Break Your Heart. Trying to Break Your Heart, yeah. And the cameras were with Wilco while they were making Yankee Hotel Foxtrot or Foxtrot Hotel, whatever it is. And the label dropping them because it was too challenging to listen to. And then they went to a different label or made their own. I can't remember. But then it ends up winning the Grammy for Best Album of the Year, I think. And, like, I couldn't believe the cameras were there for that whole thing. It sounds like this is similar. Yeah, you catch a little lightning in a bottle. Yeah, but I mean, building off of that, Jeremy, I mean, buddy, watching your career just explode right out of the gate and it has not stopped yet.

9:01Well, first of all, Hurt Locker was just phenomenal. Yeah. And everything you've done since. But that was like the thing. I remember watching that and being like, who's this fucking dude is? Who's this motherfucker taking all of our jobs? He's just crushing. Were you always so discerning from an early age in your career to be able to pick what gave you the strength to say no to certain things and not freak out about your paycheck and your rent? Yeah, yeah. I think that just, I don't know where exactly that comes from. I know for me, it was being very clear and focused on what I wanted and also what I didn't want.

9:39Early on, like, I did a lot of comedy stuff. And, my God, I wasn't trying to go down that road. And I ended up, that's why Domino was a great turning point for me to kind of go into darker, sort of deeper, sort of character roles. And I just was just kind of clear. And then if I didn't connect to it, it was an easy no. No matter how much money, I've turned down more money than I'll ever make in life. Because I never did something for money. That's great. And you have to be okay with yourself in that. In order to say no to money, mind you, I mean, I think even during that It Factor show, I was turning down a lot of money and I had no power.

10:18I had no running freaking water. I thought you meant Hollywood power. But I'm living on$5 a month to eat. Like it's yum yum donuts. You get 13 donut holes, 14 donut holes for 99 cents. I'm crushing those for two weeks. A donut hole a day, it's brutal, dude. but you know that when you know you're when you know your pants are getting crowded you know your you know your limits right you know you're allowing you allow yourself to go it's like all right well i don't have to say yes to something just from from money and so it allows it gives me the power and the ball to say to note things and i love that and then clint barton comes along you're like how much it wasn't that much i'm kidding i'm kidding yeah i'm kidding so so heart locker happens you get the academy award nomination and and is there then a waterfall of of really great options for you that that becomes somewhat problematic because you can't do them all how do you go about picking through all the great stuff you're looking at then after that i i feel like the the calendar filled up pretty quickly um i don't i don't know what was next was the town next that there's a town yeah was next and mission impossible there's mission impossible then there's And Avengers was booked, but it was shot later.

11:34And then it was born. And then it was Hansel and Gretel. And then there was Mission Impossible. So it was like all that happened probably within, you know, six months. Jesus. And so they're all, for the most part, franchises, if you will. So like I'm kind of booked up. And so they all got scheduled. So basically your three, four years, five years is booked. Yeah, it was like four years was, yeah, jammed up. I was gone for four years. And how did you deal with that, with being away from home, living out of a suitcase? I mean, that's a—and all the fame, too. Like, that transition. Talk to us about that.

12:11Well, it's actually interesting because, you know, I was kind of very excited to have the opportunities. And by the time—Born was the last thing that kind of came my way. And I'd already signed on to Avengers. That's, you know, how many a decade of your life you have to sign on for. It doesn't mean you're going to do it, but you sign on for it, right? I'm going to be 50 years old in fucking tights. right so that that's what i was having my conversation with with the team right so i'm like am i doing this am i really doing this yeah and then same with um mission impossible you know i talk with tom's like all right well we're gonna do three of these i'm like okay well there's i so my whole decade's booked for the most part right and then born comes around and it's like oh wow i really creatively obviously love to do this yeah i love to be involved love with with Matt, what he did with it.

12:58But I had to really pause and say, let me think about this here. I'm kind of jammed up already. Right. And this is also I'm the face of the thing, too, kind of different than Mission Impossible. It's much more Tom and this type of thing. So it was a quick 24-hour sort of thinking session on it, but I had to take pause on it. And all of that's very exciting, but I knew I gave up a decade of my life. And yeah, and Jeremy, were you worried that when you make these decisions, did you ever go down? Because I wonder if I would go like, yeah, today I want to do it, but how am I going to feel five years from now if I'm locked and exhausted?

13:38We don't know that. We don't know. And we don't know. You can consider it, right? That's all you can do is consider it. And it's like, you're an idiot to say no to these things. They're amazing opportunities. They're all quality franchises, if you will. But at what cost? Yeah, at what cost? It will be something that will be determined later, you know? Yeah. And I knew I was going to miss a lot, but I knew that there was an end to it, right? Yeah, right. So I'm like, let me go. Let me give it a go. And yeah, don't get me wrong. There were times where most of the time it was amazing. Most of the time it was really great.

14:11But then there was like, you know. You hadn't become a dad yet, right? Yeah, I wasn't a dad yet. Yeah. So that's why I can have a really good time. I was a single guy. I can just go out and just focus on work. and see the world, right? And get paid to be in shape and all these amazing things, right? It was fantastic. But I did miss my family, right? That I'm very deeply close with, that's very large. And so I had like four birthdays in a row with my assistant, who I'm on January 7th and he was January 8th. And he's exactly a decade younger than me. So we just celebrated our birthdays together like in a Ferrari in Abu Dhabi, going to an F1.

14:48I mean, you know. Oh, my God. Wow. That's an episode of Will and Grace or something. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, we actually shot it. I don't know. It was a great thing, but you don't know what will come down the road. It's a wonderful blessings, and the perspective to take from that, I do the same thing all over again. Yeah. I don't have the energy to do it now. Right. But the schedule of those huge, huge films with a lot of stunts and special effects, the budget on those allows for a much slower movement, pacing as far as knocking down pages each day. Was that a big transition for you coming from even, I would imagine the Hurt Locker was something that was not as highly budgeted as these things.

15:35What is that like, that snail's pace? Because sometimes on those stunt films like Mission Impossible, the degree of difficulty is just astronomical and the stunt complexity and stuff where you're only shooting like you know what the audience sees is maybe 10 seconds it might take you a week to shoot that how three weeks yeah yeah commission possibly like that the whole burj khalifa how do you keep your uh your focus and uh and whatnot uh during that well i initially i think that the the main difference is just craft services yeah yeah it's a bit different yeah it's in the trailer size um but yeah it does it does take longer but you know a lot of it is like in the prep too for for anything that's that physical when it's those physical movies there's there's so much um you know it's months and months of physical prep before you go do it getting in shape while you're doing it you're you're training like a an athletic team or an athletic sport yeah and you have to treat as such what was your favorite uh way in which to get in shape were you were you into the boxing Were you into cardio?

16:37Were you into just cross-training? I'm sure it's been a bunch of things. You've been in shape for a long time. Yeah, I think it depends on what the role really requires. Most of them, you know, like, for instance, like the Bourne Legacy, that required the most physical. And so we had to train, like, all sorts of mixed martial arts and judo and just all the different things, man. It's all my... Do you get, like, have those, like, training mishaps where you end up getting clocked in the face by the guy or you clock somebody in the face while you... I might have smashed a dude or two. Now, when you go over to something like American Hustle or Arrival is that it must be nice where you don't have to wait around for a bunch of stunt stuff and effect stuff.

17:25and you're doing much more sort of, well, it's a different kind of acting on those films. Yeah? Did you love that transition? Yeah. Well, I mean, it's just sort of, that's kind of more in the decision-making to do the job, you know? Those are the easy ones with great directors and great writing and great characters. You can go in with a lot more cerebral, much more emotional context. Right. Characters and a lot more people to work with. And the other ones, like from the Avengers and Bourne and all those Mission Impossible, It's much more about the stunts and the physical stuff. Which is fun. It's just a different muscle to use.

18:03And ideally, you're sort of switching back and forth, right? I think so. I mean, to keep it all interesting, right? I'm on the third season of Mirror Kingstown, right? I've never done that before. Repeated the same character. You've done an Ozark and you've done shit most of your life. And the pace of that, though, is much faster, right? Oh, it's nuts, right? That's enjoyable that there's momentum, yeah? Yeah, yeah. It's something interesting about it. There's a controlled chaos in television today, especially. We shoot like a film, like a 10-hour film, and a third of the time, it's crazy. We'll be right back.

18:38And now, back to the show. How were you able to struggle through the really outrageously poor direction from a guy like Ben Affleck? How did you get through the town? it's just a miracle the results uh that end up on the screen on his films um was it um well just just walk us through it yeah yeah he's great man he's great i remember meeting with ben on that i didn't that's the first time i met him i'm like how i think my first uh meeting with it with him sitting across i'm like how my first question to him was like how are you gonna direct this thing and act and star in it yeah i mean you're kind of okay actor i mean how you I'd expect to direct Dan Hackness thing.

19:23The guy is just... Kind of fucking with him. He's cool. He's a beast. Yeah. He's just so good. And he's so damn smart, man. Working with him was so, so great. And I really learned how... I mean, he gave me so much freedoms. I mean, he says, we're not going to do dialects. I've never been to Boston in my life. Yeah. Don't know anything about it, right? And he's like, we're not going to do any dialect coaches. I'm like, okay, great. Well, what the fuck am I going to do then? And I go, all right, he introduced me to a bunch of people that just got out of prison. Yeah. And a bunch of armed robbers and all this shit, bank robbers.

19:55So I just hung out with these guys in the bars for a couple weeks in town. And then I kind of found the character and found what I was going to do. Oh, that's cool. No way. That's cool. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So it was, it was, but if we didn't shoot in Boston, I would have been royally screwed. Yeah. Yeah. But thank God, thank God we were there because all, all of my access to what I needed was there. Yeah. And then he's just one of the, he's so smart. And he just kind of let me do my thing. And at first he would start, he would start to mouth my lines as I was acting with them. And I'm like, I had to turn my head.

20:34I'm like, I'm going to smash this motherfucker. I'm going to smash this motherfucker. But it only pissed me off to get me more in the mood with this guy. But it was like the very first scene we shot. And I don't think he did it after that anymore. but yeah, he was a great man. He really was so great. He was working his butt off, man. But I really was, I fell in love with him and have so much respect for him. He's just one of the smartest guys I know, actually. He's really, really smart. You know, it's funny, you watch those movies, specifically those Boston movies, and if you ask people from Boston, one of the things that they hate, and you guys did such a good job in that movie.

21:10Such a good job. And I've talked about this with Matt before, too. You watch other movies where people do Boston accents, and I'm not going to name them because there are a lot of really big names, really famous actors who've done big Boston movies and the accents are fucking terrible. And people from Boston hate it. They get pissed off. And if these people had any idea, and I'm talking big, shiny names. Tell us what one of the names sounds like. It sort of rhymes with... Dude, dude, let me say this, dude. You're not going to get me fucking classic, baby, trying to get me to say something about these fucking...

21:44No, you know what? I used to work. I worked for fucking Dead and Fire Department. My brother works for the fucking Edison. Shut the fuck up, dude. Fire Department. No, fuck you. Wait, Jeremy, how did you become Jeremy Renner, the guy we know today? Going back to the first thing we talked about today, when I was like, oh, my God, I watched you coming up and you had all this kind of chutzpah to just want to be great and not worry about anything else but the art of it. Where did that come from? Were you a kid that was inspired by something? I got to say, Sean, you've got a lot of chutzpah to use the word chutzpah.

22:19With the extra. Where do you get a, I mean, you know. Johnny Whitebread over here. Go ahead, Jeremy. Go ahead, Popman. I didn't really discover acting until I was in college. Really? Oh, really? Yeah, yeah, and in theater. So I went in, like, with a criminology sort of idea I was going to study or computer science or some shit, and then took an elective. and that's I think I told you I might have mentioned this to you Jace when we had dinner at Downey's but I saw an elective when I was signing up for the courses and acting was one of them like I'll do this speech class I'll try this acting thing the only thing that popped in my brain what I knew about acting was Michael J.

23:02Fox and fucking you Jace right because he shows he's fucking family ties and all these goddamn just the only thing I knew it's what I watched growing up I mean all those things So I'm like, fuck, I'll try it. I'll try that thing. And went into it. This guy can do it. Yeah, this fucker can do it. I can do that shit. No, but that's just kind of what I watched with the kind of, I guess, you know, related to. And then anyway, fell in love with theater and then started studying theater and psychology and just ran from there. Wow. Which is what I'm saying. So I was like 18, 19, and yeah, just stuck with that.

23:37Well, it's funny because you are such a sort of actor's actor too. You know what I mean? like you've got like very natural yeah very natural and you've got this thing you're really you're very serious and you can tell that you take your craft really seriously and that you're very you know everything's well thought out nothing's by mistake you're not just hoping to get lucky in a take you know you know what i mean yeah and and uh so it's funny that it kind of came to you later because it seems like it's really such a it comes so naturally well i mean that just comes i think that's the psychology sort of part of it and you have to i think there's a self-awareness um and a confidence that you know that comes from doing stage yeah there's you see a lot of when people are stage actors there's a there's a they hold they hold it in their body a bit more they're not just doing a scene or a thing that they they kind of kind of immerse in it in their right in their body and spirit because you have to do it for an hour and a half two hours on stage right you have really embody it longer than we do when we're doing television and film.

24:36Yeah, that's a good point. Was music something that was sort of pulling at you as well? Did you have to sort of make a decision with yourself whether you were going to kind of put all your weight behind one or the other? No, no. I never considered music as a career. It's always a form of therapy, artistic. Bit of a hobby? Yeah, well, it's so much a hobby. I don't really believe in hobbies. I feel like you either do something or you don't. I don't have fucking time for hobbies. That's hysterical. You know what I mean? Very good. I don't have time to just dip my toe in the water. I'm not taking a fucking bath here in life, right?

25:13Just dipping my toe in it. It's not happening. So you're going to do something or, yeah, yeah, you do it or you don't, right? Yeah, Jason, you dumb fuck. Yeah, you're right. I didn't want to, like, be a player of music, right? I didn't want to be a guitar player or a drummer, which I am those things, or a piano player. I don't have the time or patience or even excellence or skill set to be able to do that. What I did want to do is be able to play instruments to compose, to have a form of expression. Music is a wonderful form to express. And it's wonderfully shared as well. You can't really share poetry so much as you can with music.

25:51It's more uniting in its experience. And so I love music for that. and that'll always be near and dear to me and very important to me in my life. But I don't want some record label saying, you got to do this, you got to do that. I'm like, fuck off, or I have to do something. I do it for the purity of it for me and the expression of it for me. Do you have time to still play music with Sons of the Pioneers? No, no, I just do stuff in the studio. Yeah, okay. I do stuff in the studio at this point. And, you know, like I did for the, from after the accident, I put together an EP of a collection of songs that were about their life, death, and recovery of this last sort of 16 months of my life.

26:36Yeah. Or a year of my life. And I put out the seven songs on the anniversary of this year. Wow, that's really heavy, man. I didn't know that. I want to hear about that. Yeah, me too. And can you talk a little bit about that? I mean, obviously we all, you know, heard the devastating news when the accident happened. And then, of course, that you sort of pulled through and obviously pulled through with colors now. But what a time in your life. And just walk us through that a little bit if you could. Yeah. And I'd like to know just personally to add to that is like what do you – it's a common question, I'm sure.

27:14But what do you see differently now that you're on the other side of it? Well, you could have waited for him to answer the first question. I guess the answer to that is like... Yeah, no, don't start at the end like Sean's asking you to. Let's go at the beginning. Let's help Tracy out in Wisconsin and tell her what you were doing and what happened and action. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, look, it's probably one of the greatest things that's happened to me in my life. Yeah. Wow. And it's not just because it happened to me. it happened to well we're talking about it now because you guys are aware of it and so there's a lot of people around this planet yeah it became a very personal experience that happened on my property he's trying to save my nephew from being ran over by this snowplow and snowcat but it's it's turned into not such a private experience i i didn't know why i was already on life support i didn't and while everybody else was getting becoming aware of this incident and then i wake up for him and i'm like why is everybody freaking out i'm fine i'm gonna get out of this hospital in two days i'm walking out of here it's be no problem yeah at least that's what the drugs are telling me you know i must have been high as a kite thinking that right yeah but um there's such a there's a unifying understanding of or what was about to become knowledge of who i am as a man a brother, a father, and a person.