To the average film and TV watcher, Jeremy Renner is an enigma wrapped in a mystery.
From a secret marriage and random bar brawls, to flipping houses and freak injuries, this
is the tangled life the Hawkeye actor made for himself.
Before his acting work started paying the bills, Jeremy Renner sharpened his skills
on the stage at Modesto Junior College.
During his 2021 "Hot Ones" appearance, he revealed that his first-ever acting role was
playing the Scarecrow in a production of The Wizard of Oz.
He learned to do his own theater makeup, which helped him land a job doing makeup at the
mall.
However, Renner realized that using Lancôme products to replicate the exaggerated, theatrical
paint jobs he was used to was not going to win him any customers — or dates.
In an interview with Elle, Renner said this about the experience:
"I figured I could tone it down and do it on hot girls all day.
It wasn't the case.
It ended up being older ladies, which was just fine."
On the "Armchair Expert" podcast, Renner said that he got good enough at his job that he
received a lucrative offer to do makeup for Playboy models, but he turned it down because
he wanted to keep pursuing his dream of becoming an actor.
Music has always been a big part of Jeremy Renner's life.
Appearing on The Tonight Show in 2015, he revealed to Jimmy Fallon that he and some
friends started a garage band in high school.
Renner idolized Def Leppard, but his group lacked the skills needed to match the hair
band's success.
Their name was also lacking that appealing can magnify a group's mystique.
"Tell me the name of the … what was the name of your band?"
"Well, it was … it was Hot Ice."
Renner told Men's Health that he later taught himself guitar during a time period when he
was so destitute that he was using candles to light his apartment, and on "Hot Ones,"
he revealed that he also frequented karaoke bars during those lean times.
His singing voice was impressive enough that he rejected an offer to become a boy band
member in the '90s, but when pressed by The Guardian, he wouldn't reveal the name of the
group he could have joined.
Before he played a bank robber in "The Town”, Jeremy Renner landed a role as a sheriff in
the Western-themed music video for Pink's 2003 song "Trouble."
He wears a black hat to let you know he's a baddie, bashes Pink over the head with a
bottle, and throws her in jail — before getting seduced into releasing her.
When Renner shared an Instagram post about the video in 2017, he recalled doing a lot
of perspiring on the hot, dusty set.
While he played her enemy then, Renner was a vocal ally of Pink in 2016.
After she shared a message praising women who rely on their skills and smarts to succeed
rather than their appearance, Renner quote-tweeted it, writing,
"Strength and honor my lady!"
On Watch What Happens Live, Pink confirmed that the message Renner endorsed was a response
to one of Kim Kardashian's racy selfies.
When he started recording music himself, Renner listed Pink as one of the artists he'd love
to work with.
He told #Legend in 2015:
"She's kind of got that thing where her voice is gritty and throaty and raw."
Jeremy Renner was still scraping by when he landed a role in the 2003 action film S.W.A.T.
According to Esquire, he had just two-hundred dollars in the bank at the time, but his movie
contract made it possible for him to secure a loan.
With the help of his longtime pal, Kristoff Winters, he used it to purchase a house.
The friends renovated the property and did such an exceptional job that they received
an offer for it: $900,000, which would leave them with a $241,000 profit.
And thus, their lucrative house-flipping side hustle was born.
To save money, Renner and Winters used to live in the houses they were renovating — even
if the plumbing and electricity was nonfunctional.
When Renner's performance in The Hurt Locker earned him a ticket to the Academy Awards,
their unconventional lifestyle made getting ready for the event a bit tricky.
Renner recalled on The Howard Stern Show:
"I was literally, like, had to brush my teeth in a Starbucks because we had no running water
as I got in a limo to go to the Academy Awards."
Charlize Theron and Jeremy Renner worked together in the 2005 movie North Country, which is
about a sleazeball boss who sexually harasses the female workers at his iron mine.
Renner plays said boss, while Theron stars as an employee who decides to fight back.
During filming, Theron told IGN that she turned the tables on Renner when the camera wasn't
rolling.
Theron recalled:
"We'd cut, and then I'd be horrible with Jeremy and grabbing his a-- and saying, 'Yeah, you
like that?
Huh?'"
Although she mock-harassed him as a lark, Renner became close friends with his co-star.
Per People, Theron even threw a big party for him to celebrate his Oscar nomination
for The Hurt Locker in 2010.
Renner and Theron were also spotted getting drinks together around this time, and their
outings naturally sparked dating rumors.
But Renner told People,
"We're just friends.
We're crazy about each other.
I can go hang out with her and play her piano and sip Scotch."
The 2013 film American Hustle was a bit of a reunion for Jeremy Renner and Amy Adams,
who first met at a karaoke bar in 1999, per The Scotsman.
Little did Renner know that it was also a family reunion between two actors who had
no idea they were relatives.
People spoke with Ancestry researchers who discovered that Renner and Jennifer Lawrence
are once-removed fifth cousins.
They share a familial link in a farmer from Kentucky named Robert Tague.
Upon learning the news, Renner invited J-Law to join his family for Thanksgiving in 2015,
writing on Instagram,
"I'll save a spot for you at the holiday dinner table ... CUZ!"
But Lawrence shouldn't expect Renner to come to the negotiating table for her just because
they're blood.
When Insider asked him to weigh in on the discovery that he and his American Hustle
co-star, Bradley Cooper, were paid more than Lawrence and Adams, Renner said that he had
no plans to start consulting with his female castmates during salary negotiations to make
sure that everyone's pay is equitable.
Renner told the outlet:
"That's not my job.
I don't know contracts and money and all that sort of stuff."
His rep, however, later told ABC News that Renner is against the gender pay gap and wants
women treated fairly, explaining,
"He is most supportive, but doesn't involve himself in those conversations."
On The Howard Stern Show, Jeremy Renner said that he prefers to do his own stunt work,
but some of his job requirements likely make him question this level of commitment to his
craft.
For a scene in Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol, he had to lean out of a window on
top of the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, which is the tallest skyscraper in the world.
This made him so queasy that he had to warn Tom Cruise that he was in serious danger of
launching his lunch on his co-star.
Renner recalled to Digital Spy:
"I almost vomited.
I told him, 'Tom, I might throw something down on you.'"
But when Renner suffered multiple injuries at work, it was from a much lower height.
While filming the 2018 comedy Tag, he fractured bones in both of his arms.
The actor told IndieWire:
"It was a freak accident.
It was a stunt with a stack of chairs 20 feet high."
The stack was supposed to fall over with him on top of it, but he went down without the
chairs.
During an appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, he revealed that he didn't immediately
realize he was hurt, so he performed the stunt again.
Renner later went to the hospital and learned the extent of his injuries, but he didn't
let them stop him from returning to work to throw donuts at co-star Ed Helms for a bit
in the movie.
"And what's cool about going back to work is I had to chuck donuts at Ed Helms, which
is so awesome."
In 2017, Jeremy Renner created his own app to engage with his fans, much to the bewilderment
of many.
Monetizing a social media network centered on one's self seems more like something a
Kardashian would do, not a grizzled guy who gunned down invasive rats while renovating
one of his properties, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
But the app was a real thing that existed.
It was a magical place where users could purchase stars to prove that they were more die-hard
than other Renner fans and wish one another a "Happy Rennsday."
But all was not sunshine and rainbows, according to The Ringer.
Some fans complained that bullies were being allowed to run amok, and attempts at moderation
resulted in complaints about censorship.
However, what apparently killed the platform in 2019 were trolls who started impersonating
Renner en masse, according to The New York Times.
Renner wrote on the app before it shut down:
"The app has jumped the shark.
Literally."
As reported by The Sun, Jeremy Renner first met Canadian model and artist Sonni Pacheco
while filming the 2011 movie Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol in Vancouver.
She was reportedly a stand-in for the film.
In January 2013, Us Weekly reported that Pacheco was pregnant.
By then, she and Renner had supposedly split up, with an insider saying that the parents-to-be
had only dated casually.
But Pacheco continued to reside in Renner's home in Los Angeles as the exes awaited their
child's arrival.
Their daughter, Ava Berlin, was born that March, and Us Weekly published photos of the
parents out together with their baby girl two months later.
Renner revealed that he was romantically involved with someone in a November 2013 interview
with Elle, saying,
"My girl is masculine in a lot of ways, even though she looks like a supermodel.
That works out.
A girly girl just doesn't do it for me."
The following September, he unequivocally confirmed that he and Pacheco were a couple,
telling Capitol File that they had tied the knot.
He also explained why he kept their marriage a secret:
"I have tried to protect my family's privacy, my wife's privacy.
I don't need her to get hammered with my life."
In December 2014, E! News reported that Sonni Pacheco had filed for divorce from Jeremy
Renner just 10 months after they wed.
A source claimed:
"Jeremy wanted out of the marriage almost as soon as he got into it."
The insider added that Renner was concerned that Pacheco would try to gain sole custody
of their daughter, Ava, so that she could take her back to Canada.
The actor did, indeed, find himself embroiled in a bitter custody battle.
In legal documents obtained by TMZ in 2019, Pacheco accused Renner of verbal and emotional
abuse and of having substance use issues.
She further alleged that he spoke about killing her and taking his own life.
According to Page Six, Pacheco additionally claimed that Renner left a bite mark on their
daughter's shoulder, but Renner said that the mark was caused by Ava's skin getting
"pinched" by her seatbelt.
Renner made allegations of his own, claiming that Pacheco sent nude photos of the actor
to the evaluator working on their custody case in a bid to embarrass him, according
to TMZ.
He also alleged that his ex is the one who excessively uses drugs.
Both parties have categorically denied the accusations lobbed at each other, and Renner
has explained why he doesn't want to address the custody case outside the courtroom.
He told Men's Health:
"It only empowers it.
If you respond to it, you give it gas.
[...] I just don't do it."
Unfortunately for Jeremy Renner, Hawkeye doesn't carry any of Cupid's arrows in his quiver.
Speaking to Details, he revealed that his romance woes started early in his acting career
when he was simply too broke to take anyone out.
They actor quipped:
"I didn't even have electricity.
You try to put a positive spin on it, like, 'Hey, this is so sexy — look at all these
candles!'"
The actor wanted to make sure that he was financially secure before getting serious
with anyone, but even when he was working, he struggled to find dates.
It certainly didn't help matters that one of his jobs was trying to play a convincing
serial killer.
Dahmer director David Jacobson told The Guardian,
"After the movie opened, [Renner] told me that Carmen Electra had run away from him
after seeing it.
He accused me of ruining his sex life!"
Renner did eventually settle down with DC's Legends of Tomorrow star Jes Macallan for
four years, but the couple's relationship ended long before they could become star-crossed
lovers on opposite sides of a comic book rivalry.
In fact, Macallan hadn't even started acting when they split.
In a 2012 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Renner revealed that the beginning of Macallan's
Hollywood career was the end of their romance, explaining:
"That was part of the issue.
I was going through the 'Hurt Locker' campaign and she's like, 'Where do I get headshots?'"
Jeremy Renner was more than willing to put his career on the backburner when he became
a dad, even if it meant hanging up his Hawkeye costume for good.
In 2021, he told Men's Health that he wanted to ensure that he could spend as much time
as he could with his daughter, Ava, so he demanded it when meeting with Marvel bosses
about his future in the MCU.
Renner was warned that their response might be simply to show him the door, but this didn't
deter him.
He recalled to the outlet:
"I said, 'Fine, recast me.
I'm going to be here with my daughter.'
It was pretty gnarly."
In a 2016 Live with Kelly and Ryan interview, Renner revealed that he was spending some
of that precious time passing Hawkeye's archery skills onto his daughter.
However, the then-3-year-old was still oblivious to her dad's superhero status at the time.
Renner told the hosts:
"She knows that I look like the guy on her pajamas."
Renner said.
He made a valiant effort to convince her that it's also his face on her Avengers PJs, but
according to Renner, she insisted,
"No, it's Hawkeye!"
For Renner, no superhero role or acting accolade will ever top his accomplishments as a proud
father.
He told Esquire:
"Am I a good dad?
Without a doubt.
It is the thing that I'm best at in life."
Jeremy Renner has experienced some surreal life moments that seem more like scenes from
one of his action films.
In 2012, TMZ reported that he witnessed a massive fight that occurred at a bar in Phuket,
Thailand.
Some of Renner's companions got stabbed multiple times, but Renner escaped unscathed.
He told The Hollywood Reporter:
"I was in flip-flops.
I don't do bar fights."
Then there was the time he got attacked by a bar patron the night before Christmas.
According to Renner, it ended with the assailant taking a long winter's nap.
He recalled to The Hollywood Reporter:
"This guy chokes me with the scarf I was wearing.
[...] Then he shoved my sister and I got behind him and I choked him out — put him to sleep."
Another ill-mannered drunken man earned the same fate when he shoved Renner's A Little
Trip to Heaven co-star, Julia Stiles.
Renner told Playboy:
"I kindly choked him out and remedied the situation."
But one of Renner's most bizarre encounters came after he kept running into the same man
and refusing his repeated offers to grab a drink with him.
One night, he saw the mysterious man outside his home.
Renner told Esquire:
"He had my cat tucked like a football, under his arm."
The man fled with the feline, never to return.
On January 1, 2023, Jeremy Renner was critically injured near his sprawling ranch located in
the mountains near Reno, Nevada.
He'd been using his own snow plow to clear the roads around his home.
Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve told Reno Gazette Journal that the actor exited the massive
vehicle to come to the aid of a stranded motorist.
When the snow plow began rolling, Renner attempted to get back inside of it but got trapped underneath
its chain wheels.
The actor lost a great deal of blood, per TMZ, and his chest was crushed, making it
a struggle for him to breathe.
Once first responders were able to make it to Renner, he was transported to a local hospital.
His family later said in a statement to Variety:
"We can confirm Jeremy is in critical but stable condition with injuries suffered after
experiencing a weather related accident while plowing snow earlier today."
A source told CNN that his extensive injuries required two surgeries while he was being
treated in the ICU.
Two days after the accident, Renner took to Instagram to let his fans know how much he
appreciated their outpouring of support, writing,
"Thank you all for your kind words.
[I'm] too messed up now to type.
But I send love to you all."
Hawkeye might not have superpowers, but Captain America himself, Chris Evans, put it best
when he described his co-star as "tough as nails" in response to Renner's post.
If you or someone you know is dealing with domestic abuse, you can call the National
Domestic Violence Hotline at 1−800−799−7233.
You can also find more information, resources, and support at their website.