Although Jeremy Renner‘s Hawkeye has become a fan favourite after the success of Joss Whedon’s The Avengers, many felt that Renner was wasted in the role. According to The Playlist, the actor has expressed some of the same dissatisfaction with his character’s lack of depth in the movie.
“At the end of the day, 90% of the movie, I’m not the character I signed on to play,” the actor said in an interview with the LA Times. “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.”
Indeed, Hawkeye spent most of the movie under Loki’s hypnosis. Accordingly, Renner pointed out that the role did not require much acting on his part.
“…it’s kind of a vacancy. Not even a bad guy, because there’s not really a consciousness to [Hawkeye]. 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…I was limited, you know what I mean?”
Despite acknowledging the limitations of his character, Renner graciously accepted being a part of the blockbuster megahit.
“At least I was still in the movie,” he added. “And I was glad for that…there are a lot of people in that movie. And a lot of important characters. And my character, I felt like if I can help serve the story, then I did my job.”
I think Jeremy Renner‘s concerns are valid; he definitely has the acting chops to pull off a more substantial role, as he has demonstrated in films like The Hurt Locker. Since the other superheroes in The Avengers have their own movie already – except for Black Widow, who is most likely getting her own spin-off as well – perhaps a Hawkeye spin-off would do Renner’s character some justice.
What do you think? Do you agree that Jeremy Renner was underutilized in The Avengers?