ladies and gentlemen our first guest is a back-to-back Academy Award nominated actor
starring in a new film entitled Hansel and Gretel witch Hunters
it opens January 25th please welcome Jeremy Renner everybody how you doing I'm excellent
I was uh looking over this stuff this afternoon about your film career now you were directed
in a movie Hurt Locker that was your first Academy Award nomination yeah yeah that was
great by Catherine Bigelow yeah who uh this year her film uh Zero Dark 30 was nominated
for best picture that was and then after that your second nomination Town directed by Ben
Affleck yes his picture this year uh uh Argo Argo also nominated for an Academy how about
that yeah so you're right up there where you want to be with Big Time directors well I
feel pretty lucky to work with tremendous Talent like that what are the differences
beyond the obvious between Ben Affleck and Catherine Bigelow
um I had to make a movie tomorrow with one of them who would you like oh man it's like
just like choosing your children I don't know it's a I I don't know they work very differently
but I when I work with Ben he was acting with me the entire time right so um but they were
so similar in so many ways they don't call action or cut it's very fluid and creative
um probably more communication with Ben because again I was working head on did I hear you
right Jeremy you said they don't call action or cut well I mean the Hurlock I rarely saw
Catherine it sets were square miles and yeah I see her at the end of the day come in with
this wrap on her head and a bunch of clam shells and she's like dust all over her I'm
like hey how are you and then with Ben he was uh in the scene with me so yeah we just
kind of start doing stuff clam shells well yeah the clamps she was busy she was hungry
no no
clamshells are the small little um video screens I'm a civilian I don't know what you're talking
that's right exactly now tell me about you and your buddy I think this is fantastic this
is the kind of thing I wish I knew how to do and are you a licensed contractor let me
ask you that first no you're not a licensed contract no uh but you work with a contractor
yeah okay and the contractor hires all the subs for you or we have a lot of steps that
we've worked with in the past that we use could you would you ever think about getting
your contractor's license dad isn't that sounds like a commercial get your contractors I don't
know I I'm kind of busy well let's tell people
well that's uh that's the beauty of this program right you can do it in your spare time but
yeah I would like to you and your buddy at some point in your nascent uh acting careers
decided we need a little something to make some money and kill some time and what did
you guys decide to do yeah we we both came into just a little bit of money actually I
just had a contract for for I didn't have the money yet and we were able to pull our
money together just to get a house so we weren't paying rent and just having the money go away
and everybody said okay best friends and everybody cool let me just fix it up a little bit and
someone offered us twice is what we paid for it right so we figured heck man people kind
of dig what we're doing here I guess we continued that and this went on as 20 houses later you've
done it 20 different times yeah yeah what kind of properties do you look for in a house
to buy in L.A it it lacks in in history so I try to find really wonderful architectural
homes with some Hollywood history to it at least um that it's not the best business plan
because it's easier just to scrape something and build new but I'd rather keep on to something
that has a lot of great stories in it and history in it so we we revamped them okay
so from the time you and your buddy is he also an actor yes yeah yeah um uh it's not
George Clooney is it no no uh so from the time you guys spot a property you want to
work on build a completion date what are we talking about three months to a year and a
half depends on the house and how much work have you done yeah have you ever taken a bath
on one of these deals not our ones we've always made money offers yeah even during the down
times the market we got very lucky wow yeah so what is it we live in the structures while
we do it it's not the smartest thing to do because you're without power and water for
a while no that's so you have to find locations that have toilets and you know you have to
go to like the gym to shower and that sort of thing so you and your buddy buy the house
move into it while you're renovating and then start tearing it apart that's crazy yeah I
knew what the sleeping bags and the whole thing is so a year of doing that it's kind
of anybody who's ever done any remodeling any construction New or Old knows that it's
a nightmare it's a screaming nightmare yeah yeah how do you guys get around the nightmare
aspect of it we're on the same page with a lot of things and there's so much responsibility
and there's no there's no time to really argue I mean there's been a few arguments over the
20 that that weren't very good but for most part you know overcome the obstacles because
we have a lot ahead of us can I ask you the price range we're talking about here it all
depends I mean the first the first house was like you know 500 000 and now it's upwards
of five million and the last one my my partner built was is on the market it's beautiful
Deco structure for 25 million 25 million dollars yeah it's crazy whoa what what it and again
it's none of my business well what does your buddy pay when he bought the property that's
now selling for 25 million um it was probably around sevenish and they dumped a load into
it and wow yeah you pay like a lot of money for something that's falling down yeah is
it nearest school I imagine so yeah yeah it's in holmby Hills this is probably going to
be someone's third home Dave it's happening it's crazy truly a vacation and they're not
even going to live yeah it's people when they have money it's that's a lot of money yeah
now do you you must enjoy this kind of work right what do you know about construction
yeah yeah I mean I traveling a lot I love architecture and to me it's always been something
that's a tangible art form for me and it's there's a sense of pride in knowing that providing
a lifestyle I really feel like we don't build homes or remodel homes or flip houses or anything
we provide Lifestyles for people and people want to live like we seemingly live so it's
the details of everything from from the fabric on the couches to the Curtis to everything
and just how it's all done when the furnace blows up do they call you no man I don't give
him my number oh that would you don't want to do that give him your number no
now this movie Hansel and Gretel witch Hunters yeah this picks up where the fairy tale leaves
off am I right about that something like that yeah it's um something fun I want to kind
of go do do a movie that's not so intense and uh and I love the idea of taking the with
the Fable with fairy tale is of like leaving Hanson Gretel the forest and by the way Dave
I don't know if you for me this is not something you want to read to your child no I I agree
completely so as I reread it I feel like maybe that's why I need therapy because this was
read to me when I was a child it's terrible but you're left in the forest to die right
the witch lures lures them in with the gingerbread house and the gingerbread house come to the
gingerbread house yeah they eat the house eat the house try to fatten them up throws
them in the thing try to stir them up try to eat the kids yeah they kill or throw in
the oven at the end night night kids sweet dreams sweetheart whoa so so we take that
and we don't change it we're like awesome well now what are they doing 15 years later
they didn't have therapy back in those days so they're just very angry yeah and they become
witch Hunters what era is this where where is the what time period is this what's Fantasyland
I mean there's sort of a medieval sort of time but there's very contemporary sort of
humor to it and and action uh set pieces and that sort of thing well let's take a look
at a clip you know what this is going to be here I think it's when uh Hanson got old discovered
the very house that got them in trouble in the first place have you guys thought about
working in gingerbread no no I don't think there's a lot of money in it if you put up
a gingerbread house you're right in your own ticket there well I hope we get another Academy
Award now and every time you go out you get an award that would this is for entertainment
Dave this is uh opens January 25th it's uh Hansel and Gretel witch Hunters which is what
I've always suspected this is Jeremy Renner thank you very much good to have you here