Jeremy Renner Says In 'The Avengers' Hawkeye Is "Not The Character I Signed On To Play"

As much as we enjoyed "The Avengers," one of our disappointments in the film is how thoroughly wasted Jeremy Renner's Hawkeye is in the film. As we wrote in our breakdown of the superhero movie earlier this year: "…as soon as we meet him properly in 'The Avengers,' he's immediately turned to the dark side, a personality-free zombie serving Loki. He's eventually turned back, but the fact that we've never been that invested in him in the first place means that his return doesn't serve as some grand victory. It's presumably been done to give Black Widow some emotional investment in the whole thing, but it's hard not to feel that sidelining him is a waste of Renner's talents.." And it would appear that Renner, to a certain degree, agrees.

Chatting with Hero Complex, the actor talks at length about working on "The Avengers" and is fairly candid about the fact Hawkeye didn't have much depth or dimension. At least not how he evisioned it would be. "At the end of the day, 90% of the movie, I’m not the character I signed on to play. 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. And I was OK with that. At least I was still in the movie. And I was glad for that..."

And Renner continued to balance his concerns about his role, particularly about being hypnotized, with a general acceptance that unlike playing a guy who defuses b0mbs in Iraq, the part doesn't require that much work. "I prefer [playing] the good, because if we go to the evil part, or hypnotized or whatever the heck you want to call it, it’s kind of a vacancy. Not even a bad guy, because there’s not really a consciousness to him. 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," he explained. "Again, I could just focus on the task. I was limited, you know what I mean? I was a terminator in a way. So yeah, fun stunts. But is there any sort of emotional content or thought process? No. That doesn’t exist in that time [that he's hypnotized]. It happens to be for most of the movie."

But lest you think he's hating on the movie, Renner saw this participation thusly: "You know, 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 story, then I did my job."

With Joss Whedon now signed on by Marvel to oversee phase two of their movie slate, and of course, write and direct "The Avengers 2," hopefully he can give Renner a bit more to do by time the mega-sequel arrives. But what did you think about Hawkeye and Renner in the film? Weigh in below. And if you want to see the actor in something meatier, check out "The Bourne Legacy" this weekend.

Jeremy Renner Says In 'The Avengers' Hawkeye Is "Not The Character I Signed On To Play" | The Playlist

Sucks for him but Hawkeye & Black widow were !!.[pic]

I was disappointed that Hawkeye didnt have bigger parts, i hope he does in the sequel.


Hawkeye >>>>>>>>>>>> [pic]

nicca didn't have his costume on so !! it em.. that would have been epic... purple and black attack..

Well their were a !!load of characters in the film. Whedon did a remarkable job trying to give every one a shot at shinning in the film instead of coming off like Iron Man & Friends. I'm sure he learned from making the first one giving him a chance to outdo himself in the sequel. Only he can pull it off. At least from a writing standpoint. Directing wise? You could have giving it to someone else and I wouldn't care less.

Hawkeye was the worst part of the movie. I agree though that his character wasn't given much to work with though.

good thing the movie wasnt built around them otherwise youd have wound up with a movie like dark knight rises where the the main villians were !!

your skill is being good at shooting a bow and arrow in a movie populated with characters that include a god, a man who transforms into an unstoppable monster, a billionaire wise cracking playboy and a super soldier. what the !! do you expect.

Didn't mind Hawkeye or Black Widow.[pic] why yall hating.

hawkeye was a lame[..] character in the flick, his shining moment was getting wrecked by s jo.

I mean Black Widow and him could've @ least had a !!in scene or him gettin domed up afer his recovery [pic]. would've made them both more interesting

[pic] well he was the only never featured in any movie prior so why would we waste time explaining him

[pic] [pic]

they need to swap him for black panther

Preach [pic][pic][pic]

Watch people !! on Hawkeye & Renner's performance anyway [pic]

I actually think they did a good job of giving him "shine time" once he was free from Loki's control. He did some pretty bad-ass archery in a short span of time. I was pleased [pic]

cosign

Hawkeye was in Thor

Yeah he was....... He was in Thor> The scene when Thor tried to get his hammer back from S.H.I.L.D

he has on the Ultimates version of the Hawkeye costume.