Jeremy Renner has been persona non grata for a few years now. His public statements about various feminist issues or actual female costars have come across as blatantly misogynistic or, at best, just problematic. He kept going on and on about how Black Widow is a “slut” and a “whore.” When asked about wage equality and his female costars being paid less than him for similarly-sized or even bigger roles, Renner said “that’s not my job.” Even his favorite curse word seems designed to offend the ladies. So… 2016 has brought us a whole new Jeremy Renner. He was at CinemaCon this week to promote Story of Your Life with Amy Adams, and Renner tried to introduce the world to his new persona, Jeremy Renner: Feminist Ally and Woke Dude-Bro.
Jeremy Renner was on stage at CinemaCon with Amy Adams for the trailer presentation of Story of Your Life, Denis Villeneuve’s alien movie in which the government enlists Adams to translate alien messages and Renner plays a theoretical physicist. But that’s not even the unbelievable part! “The main reason why I did [the film] was because of this awesome woman standing next to me,” Renner said of his co-star. Then he added, “It’s Amy’s story, and there’s not enough cinema in Hollywood where we have a strong, badass, intelligent female lead. I think that’s important.”
Yes, this is the same Jeremy Renner who called Black Widow a “slut” and a “whore” during the Avengers: Age of Ultron press tour, said that his favorite curse word was “c-nt,” and that fighting for equal pay between men and women in Hollywood was “not [his] job.” (Also for the record, Renner never actually apologized for the Black Widow thing, merely releasing a sorry-you’re-offended statement and defending his remarks on Conan by saying he was calling a rock a rock.) But this is a new Jeremy Renner guys, a man willing to point out that basic gender inequality exists in Hollywood. Publicists: not so bad after all.
While I do not buy that there’s a new, woke version of Jeremy Renner going around, I can’t really say that I think he should be slammed for making an effort. Maybe he doesn’t believe what he’s saying about female leads, maybe he does. But isn’t it a decent first step that he’s at least paying lip-service? That’s how low the bar has been set, I realize. It would be great if all of these dudes were feminist warriors willing to fight the good fight for equality. But instead we get some vague words from Mr. Black-Widow-Is-A-Slut. Sigh…
Photos courtesy of WENN, Getty.
Yeah, right, whatever.
I don’t believe a word he says. Put your money where your mouth is, mate, then we’ll talk.
I think it’s worse that he pays lip service, if that is what this is. I’d rather hear his mysognistic drivel and be able to see him for what he is, rather then be falsely lured into believing that he’s a decent man by a smiling assassin.
Then I am afraid you need to despise Amy Adams too, because if what you say is true then she is helping him in his deceit.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4tUmMmodHs
Oh rreaaaalllllllyyyyyyyyy, Jeremy?
Blink once if your publicist make you say that? Blink twice if you’re still thinking Black Widow is a sl-t. I can’t handle Renner’s bullsh-t, now he thinks it’s time to say that. Not when J Law talked about equal wage pay, or when Amy was mistreated by that douche director, or calling his allegedly good friend ScarJo’s character Black Widow a sl-t.
But they should be strong, bad-ass, non-slutty, non-whore-y female leads, eh Jeremy?
Not buying it.
I can’t help but like him, despite the cringey moments. And the thing is, I don’t think he is misogynistic or douchey to the women he works with or in his private life. But I guess he’s a dude who just sits there and doesn’t think anything has to change because he has it really well. Which in itself is not OK. Instead of parroting the lip service themes du jour, he could learn the much more subtle and arcane art of knowing when to STFU.
Skim through his archives on this site and read about how he treated the mother of his child, and I bet you’ll no longer feel that way.
I am sorry, but the mother of he child filed for divorce and demanded sole custody and that the 10 month old prenup be torn up. Over 3 months, whilst she made more accusations, he made no negative remarks about her but just insisted that they continue to share custody and that the prenup should stand. During that time a document embarrassing him was leaked to the The National Enquirer and when, a week before it was due to go to court, he fired back at her and it included an accusation that she had tried to blackmail him to force him to cooperate with her demands. She denied some things, but not the blackmail. The settlement seems to have gone 100% his way and it appears she alone had to take parenting classes. We will never know what went down, but it certainly seems her accusations came to nothing, whilst his seem to have carried some weight. This divorce was made nasty by her actions, she and her very expensive, notorious muckraker of a lawyer instigated and maintained it and ultimately, after 3 months, Renner reacted and got to keep custody of his daughter. From beginning to end the divorce took 12 months and all the comments complained about in this article were made by Renner during that time. Maybe now he isn’t worried about losing his daughter or constant legal attacks to relieve his of his money, things have gone back to normal. How many women come on here and attack men based on their own experience of divorce?
The mother of his child is shady at best.
@Jellybean, who wrote: “Over 3 months, whilst she made more accusations, he made no negative remarks about her but just insisted that they continue to share custody and that the prenup should stand.”
Right. He got his catty boyfriend to cast the negative remarks for him.
The remarks made by Kristoffer Winters were in court documents which were not filed until the very last opportunity. So the ex wife had three months to realize that the threats were not going to work, during which time she was not attacked in anyway that would become public. Whatever you may decide Renner’s motivations were, his daughter will never see a report of her father bad mouthing her mother, unless it is reported incorrectly and since the daughter will know the true nature of Winter’s relationship with her father, she can come to an informed decision about how she feels about what he said.
….. The mother,on the other hand, accused Renner of all sorts of neglect and endangerment, escalating over 3 months as each stage failed to get her what she wanted. That is all on record and seems to have been totally dismissed by the court, since it was only the mother who was required to take parenting classes and none of her demands were met. Her final legal volley was very emotive, saying he was putting the child at risk by not fencing his pool. Well, the pool appeared in a magazine shoot this month still without a fence, so the court must have been happy with all the other safety measures he had put in place, but that will never get reported by TMZ.
Wow, why is everyone so hung up on every word that comes out of actors mouths…. so what if that’s his favourite word – are all the women on here seriously saying they haven’t called someone a di*k before or ars*hole – which both male and female have? Get a grip and give it a rest already discussing this same old crap and see it for what it it – an actor, making films that entertain us… and that includes all those Marvel Movies – that have tons of bad ass women in them. Also, isn’t black widow actually supposed to be a bit of a slut, so what’s wrong with them saying it?!
Preach….
and women on this site constantly call men that object that goes inside a woman’s vagina to clean her out. That word was also created by a man to use in a derogatory way against other men. But women run with it as if it’s such a good word to call a man when it’s just degrading to the female sex. They might as well call a man a tampon. Yet they have a problem with a man calling a woman the C word.
“and women on this site constantly call men that object that goes inside a woman’s vagina to clean her out. That word was also created by a man to use in a derogatory way against other men.”
You mean douche, that totally unnecessary product that women were told for years they needed but turns out can actually be really harmful to them? Seems to me that’s a perfect way to describe men like Jeremy Renner.
“…all those Marvel Movies – that have tons of bad ass women in them. Also, isn’t black widow actually supposed to be a bit of a slut…”
Lmao. You give new meaning to the word “clueless”.
Go away, Jeremy.
I really think he said that because of his friendship and respect out of Amy Adams. But it ends there. If he really was putting his money on what he says, his production company Combine should have at least one project for badass female leads as he calls it. And guess what, Combine doesn’t have any projects with badass female leads , or neither femail leads at all. He shouldn’t get blasted for saying those things, but also not to named this the new and improved Jeremy Renner. Ridiculous
Well his company has only had a green light on 3 films. The first was largely about abuse of power by the CIA and the media, but it did win a national prize for the representation of women. The second looks like typical oscar bait, but there are at least two major roles for women over forty, Laura Dern and Linda Cardellini, but we will have to see how that goes. The third has cast a Latino man in the lead role. So for a small company I would say that is a reasonable start, certainly not something to bash him over the head with.
Don’t look of what they have done, which is more than you have listed. Look at their pipeline of projects. Zero female lead roles. I understand he did this to improve the qualit of roles he s involved with, but certainly his company isn’t helping by developing more female lead roles, which is the issue we are talking here.
Shut up, Jeremy.
Someone is listening to their publicists……
It’s only when they are called out they they completely change their point of view. If nobody critisized him his stance would still be a sexist jackass.
He did literally hundreds of interviews supporting Kathryn Bigelow in her campaign to win best director. She also had Renner present her with a major award 5 years later, honoring her career. Statements like this are nothing new for Renner.
I feel like he’s shown who he really is, and this is just damage control. I am wiling to believe people can grow and change, but he needs to prove it – his future words and actions will tell the tale. Let’s see how he handles it when not standing next to human-ray-of-sunshine Amy Adams, but instead sitting around with his Marvel bros.
Ugh. I hate this guy, so gross. He’s always given me a bad vibe, even before he opened his mouth and let the misogynistic diarrhea out. For the last 6 years we’ve done a “Marvel-ous Mother’s Day” and gone to see the latest release as a family. Last year I lectured my kids in the car about how we were not going to cheer for Hawkeye no matter what. D-bag ruins my Mother’s Day now!
I used to really like him-I was very impressed by THL and Dahmer. Then the wheels came off. He opened his mouth without a Thought Nanny minding him, and some dumdum came out. Nope, not believing you JR.
Meh. I think he’s just saying it because he thinks it will give him cred with women moviegoers and will make him relevant and get him press (I guess it worked?). I don’t think paying lip service to something (that you don’t actually care about or believe in) is an authentic, sincere thing to do. And I can’t stand people who are insincere and fake. So no, I don’t agree it’s a good “first step”. I will forever be mad at Jeremy Renner for ruining my favorite franchise (Bourne) and I just think he’s generally gross and sophomoric. I wish he would just go away.
I guess Marvel’s PR department sat him down and gave him a few lessons in “how not to piss off a nice chunk of movie-going audience.” Whatever, dude, your douchiness is still showing. Just wait until your daughter gets older, then you’ll really understand it. Because you’ll see how crappy she gets treated. Too bad it’ll take that to open his eyes.
Signed,
Grouchy McCrankypants
Love your sign off name! 👏
Cranky McGrouchypants
It comes out wrong this way too, like ‘I’m letting her get the spotlight because I’m an awesome feminist’.. wtf?
This irrelevant jerk should shut up.
Jeremy’s in full on PR mode. Aside, I never used to believe those closeted rumours about him, but when I looked up his roommate situation, his “best friend” Kristoffer set my gaydar off like crazy. I do believe Renner is bisexual or gay.
How is he even an actor I don’t get it. He looks like a bird with guy liner. Amy on the other hand is one of the best out there.
I like him as Hawkeye, I don’t get why people hate Hawkeye. OK the “secretly married with loads of children” move from AOU stank, but I like that a regular dude with a skill can play with the enhanced lot. It’s a bit like in real life, when someone smart of humble origins gets to hang out with the super rich.
But Jeremy really needs to watch what he says, because people don’t love him like they love Chris H for instance and he doesn’t get any free passes.
And what I don’t get is why people hate on him for perhaps being gay, like it’s an extra piece of evidence to him being an asshat. I think his shady ex would have outed him without hesitation if it were true. I’m best friends with my housemate too, and I would totally bring her to live with me if I made it in Hollywood.
Can someone explain to em what ‘woke’ means? I mean as an adjective instead of a verb. Is this some more language crap we have to put up with now? What’s wrong with ‘enlightened’? Although, this is clearly a case of him doing damage control. Idiot.