Jeremy Renner Quotes

I think cinema should provoke thoughts, sure, but using it as I soapbox I think is the wrong place.

People find themselves in ruts all the time.

You're in a complacent lifestyle where you work 9 to 5 and then you add a mortgage and kids. You feel trapped, but guess what, brother? You constructed that life. If you're OK with it, there's nothing wrong with that. But if you've got unease, then you've got to make a change.

The movie business is very difficult but the music business is just impossible.

So I'll play in bands and record and play songs with other people, but for me it's a form of expression that all I need is me. I don't need cameras or agents, I can just have a piano and sing and feel totally verified.

I like to stay busy, I like to stay focused, and I like to stay creative.

Without being creative I'd be dead.

I have a bad sweet tooth. I'm pretty good when I have to eat well for work, but otherwise, I could eat a whole roll of raw cookie dough.

I used to hang out at karaoke bars all the time.

It was the most fun you could have when you had no money.

The most experience I had in the criminology field is playing a thug as an actor. That was my first paid job. The police academy at the college was paying people to reenact the calls that potential cops would get. So I got to play thugs and people who were unruly.

I do music because I can just pick up my guitar and sing, and completely satisfy, instant gratification. I don't need a script, I don't people, I don't need anything, cameras, I just have myself and my guitar, or keyboard.

I like to play unpredictable characters, and I like to be unpredictable in what movie I'll do. I want to skip to work. I don't want to repeat anything. What the future holds, I don't know, but that's what I like. I'll take any risk there is.

Our friendship [ with Don Handfield] has remained all that time, and I'm godfather to his kids, but then when The Hurt Locker came around, I just knew there was a lot of opportunity that was coming in, and just couldn't really manifest any opportunities because things were busy.

In the 'Hurt Locker' there's a lot of me in there, a sense of humor, a man of few words and a lot of action.

I lived by the candlelight for two years because I couldn't afford power.

It was nice and romantic at the time, but if you can't afford power you're pretty broke. You endure it.

Accents can be a great tool to tell a story - but if you do it wrong, it pulls you right out of the movie.

I'm consciously aware, specifically with the comic book world, where there's a built-in fanbase. But, there's a little bit of leniency because there are a couple different universes.

I'm a simple, simple man.

I like repressed characters. That gives me a lot of freedom to make a lot of different choices through subtleties.

I think it's great to be a part of a franchise that is successful.

Any franchise is successful because it's a continuation and people have seen it.

I light candles because I want to have candles lit, not because I need to see!

There's too much down time making movies. That leads to boredom. And that leads to trouble.

So I take a little sleeping pill, pop it and realize nothing's happening - but something else was happening.

There is nothing new, from Greek mythology to Shakespeare to every romcom ever made, we're just reimagining the same 12 story plots over and over again - so what makes people keep watching and listening? It's all about the character.

Aren't we taught as kids that we're beautiful because we feel beautiful and not because someone else says so? You don't look like the model on the magazine cover but you can still be beautiful, so I can't say I really want to change anything. I'm happy with the flaws I have.

What matters to me is learning and growing, and getting to do what I love to do.

As long as I can do that, I'm happy.

I live my life through fear. If I'm afraid of it I'll do it just so I'm not afraid of it anymore.

When you get praise from someone that you really admire it's really surreal.

Getting to play with Thor's hammer while he stroked my bow

I had to do a lot of work and allow myself to go places that were a little scary. You know when you play a guy like that it allows you the freedom to explore really weird parts about you. And it's OK. In order to really get it, I've got to allow myself to go there.

I guess I just have one of those resting faces that makes me look like I want to beat you up.

I was always a singer. But I was always focused on being an actor as my trade. Music I do just for me. The movie business is very difficult but the music business is just impossible.

I want to be a good human being.

I need to react to a script, to feel strongly about it in some way.

And I need it to be a complex character for sure. And also, I think a lot about what kind of audience there is for the film, what they're looking for and ways to connect with them in the playing of a character.

I don't want to play a bad guy who doesn't have a bit of good in him.

Other people can think ahead all they want. I just focus on the task at hand and try to move on.

My philosophy on what makeup is...it's very different from what a woman's is. Makeup came from a very psychological place - of the peacock.

I was very shy when I was younger. But I did have a terrible temperament. I would get angry very quickly, but the rest of the time I was this big goofball, playing the drums in a band and making out with girls.

I think cinema should provoke thoughts, sure, but using it as I soapbox I think is the wrong place. I never want to be part of something like that, where there's an agenda there that's not about telling a story, where its someone getting on a soapbox and preaching their own beliefs onto somebody.

I want my personal life to be personal.

.. And I don't care if you're talking about things that are true, you're still talking about my personal life.

Any script, even like The Founder, if it's something that I imagine myself playing this character or that character - any of the characters, basically - how do we flesh these characters out to be good enough to have amazing actors that come in that make it really difficult for them to say no? Even though I'm not right for any of those parts, that's just kind of how we go about it.

I know what I like and what I want, and I can sit and enjoy every 10 minutes that go by. And truly enjoy it.

It takes a lot out of you to do a stage play, but I'd love to do that.

I'd love to continue to do challenging material, whatever shape or form that comes in.

And I don't care if you're talking about things that are true, you're still talking about my personal life. How about I go peek in your window, take what underwear you wore last night, whose husband you were fucking, and shove that in the megaphone throughout your neighborhood? How does that feel? It's none of your goddamn business.

Music I do just for me.

I don't really think there's much difference between a character actor and a leading man besides aesthetics.

I was an athlete when I was growing up.

I know it's a cliche but I never wanted to be famous. I don't believe anybody wants to be famous.

You have a great road map when you play somebody that exists.

That's the amazing thing. But then you have great limitations from that road map. It's hard to deviate from it creatively as an actor. It's like, "Oh wait, he'd never do that."

I like to play unpredictable characters, and I like to be unpredictable in what movie I'll do.

People love to yammer on about things that aren't real.

I think, strangely, a strip club can tell you a lot about the city you're in.

If you call a strip club "Tuna's," I've gotta go in there. Usually you're not seeing the top talent around, but it's not about that. It's about the experience.