Jeremy Renner Was So Unhappy About His Avengers Role He Had Heart Attacks On Set (Actors, Right?)

When Jeremy Renner is annoyed at you, Jeremy Renner lets you know. Why? Because Jeremy Renner is an actor, with not one but TWO Oscar nominations and certain expectations for his characters. Yeah, let that sink in.

So, for example, when Jeremy Renner signs on to play Hawkeye in what should be the franchise role of his lifetime, and he learns that said character – a SUPERHERO, mind you – is set up to spend his cinematic debut in one of the most-anticipated movies of all time serving as a mind-slave to an annoying little-brother Viking Alien with a horned helmet, Jeremy Renner does not hold his tongue. As it turns out, that’s true of his decorum on set as well.

Speaking at London Film and Comic-Con, Renner revealed:

“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. 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. I just had a heart attack in every scene – I’d just be walking with… Scarlett Johansson, and just like be ugh [clutching my chest]. And they said, ‘What are you doing man?’ I’m giving you an option, if you just want to kick me out of this movie. Just you know, at any given moment, if you wanna kill me off, daddy’s gonna be having a heart attack.

I don’t really want him to die now. I really got to explore him a lot, and I can’t wait to explore him more, and there’s some really cool ideas coming up. Really cool ideas. Great deaths! Amazing ways to die.”

Jeremy Renner always has a point, but Jeremy Renner especially has a point here. Dude takes a sweet deal playing a comic-book character in a franchise that will literally go on forever, and he ends up playing a mindless drongo sidekick to the film’s villain for most of its length. It’s a bum deal, in every sense of the term (which is I guess just one, meaning that it’s just a real, terrible, no-good, very-bad downer for the guy).

When Jeremy Renner gets bum deals, Jeremy Renner does not take them lying down. Instead, he says stuff. Like back in 2013, when he said this stuff:

“For 90 percent of the movie, I’m not the character I signed on to play. It’s kind of a vacancy. [He’s] not even a bad guy, because there’s not really a consciousness to him. To take away who that character is and just have him be this robot, essentially, and have him be this minion for evil that Loki uses … I was limited, you know what I mean? I was a terminator in a way. Fun stunts. But is there any sort of emotional content or thought process? No.”

One has to imagine director Joss Whedon wasn’t so happy about those comments, and that Marvel won’t be thrilled about these ones. But the entertainment industry as a whole, and all of us as audience members, should find a valuable lesson in all this. We need to take better care of our Jeremy Renners. Understood? Understood.

Good talk, everyone. Together, we can create a brighter, better future for all of the beautiful Jeremy Renners out there.