My new piece on Jeremy Renner just went up at Fandor. Go check it out!
An actor with a big range, although it may not be apparent yet in the roles he’s getting. He can go antisocial, he can go heroic, he can go deadeningly evil. Sometimes in the same role. Different sides of the same coin.
Here are some of the things I have written on Renner on my own site:
Psychopaths and morality: Jeremy Renner and Sissy Spacek
Fandor is an exciting new subscription site with a growing catalog of films to watch online. One of Renner’s earliest films was Fish In a Barrel, online at Fandor right now. He plays Remy, a dead-eyed bored sociopath with a gun in one hand and a remote control in the other.
Go check out my piece on Renner, an actor I find tremendously exciting. He’s got something special. Time will tell. All I know is, I’ll be watching him, that’s for sure.
Watch early Jeremy Renner here in Fish In a Barrel:
I find him “tremendously exciting,” also.
In my pants.
Well, yes, there’s that too. You might not think so though if you saw Dahmer, however. Like I said in the piece, he has that weird ability to mask his handsomeness, if necessary.
And I loved him in The Unusuals – which was canceled, I believe, right before Hurt Locker came out. He’s the lead – you can watch the episodes on Youtube, I think. He’s got a friendly social vibe in the series (with intensity and secrets, of course) that he’s never really shown in his parts yet. I like him a LOT in that series.
If you like cheesy, mindless entertainment (CME), Renner is great in S.W.A.T.. I’m disappointed the network didn’t give The Unusuals more of a chance. Get well soon.
Yes, I thought The Unusuals was great! Loved the dialogue, the sometimes-stupid humor, Harold Perrineau – good cast.
The first time I saw him — though I only realized this in retrospect — was in an episode of Angel where he played the villain of the week in one episode. But the combination of strong writing and Renner’s presence turned a one-off into one of the most memorable episodes of that series. It slipped my mind that Renner joining the Avengers means he’ll actually be re-teaming with Joss, though I imagine they worked only indirectly with Whedon holding down the fort on two shows at the time.
Your article gets to the heart of what’s so mesmerizing about him. He never, never loses his edge, but he also finds humanity in his characters. He added not only deeply unsettling menace but genuine tragedy to what so easily could have been just another “hey, these two used to know each other and kill together” episode of Whedon’s dark vampire/coming-of-age fable. He made a John Wayne wannabe demolitions expert into someone you wanted to examine over and over because he emerged a real man, thus making what might have been a joke into someone scary and scarred. And he makes Dahmer into a human being as well, perfectly walking that line between complexity and preserving the horror. He’s one of a handful of actors just now coming into their own that I will watch in anything, others being Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ryan Gosling, Michelle Williams and Amy Acker (who really needs to get meaningful work outside of Joss Whedon shows because she’s incredible).
Jake – I haven’t seen the episode of Angel, and now I really must. I think the only equivalent to what Renner is at least approaching in all of these roles is John Wayne – it’s something I’ve felt for some time, especially when Wayne allowed himself to get dark and human. That’s the area that Renner expresses – and nobody else today, nobody, is doing so. In a similar way to Crowe’s throwback appeal in LA Confidential – which also allowed him to be conflicted and not always likeable – Renner seems to suggest a version of masculinity that will always be with us – and thank God, I say, when I think of what he is willing to do in The Hurt Locker, but also, God Help Us, when I think of other moments in that very same movie (which is why it is such a fascinating performance). This perhaps is just personal preference, but a man who does not question himself is very attractive, a compelling cinematic and mythical image – but he can also be very dangerous, because “questioning” is what gives us philosophy, morality. Renner is outside of all that. I love what he brings to the screen, it seems to me to be very necessary, a breath of fresh air – in the way that Mickey Rourke once was (and now is again) and in the way that Russell Crowe once was (and now is not). Being a throwback does not mean you are a reactionary or against progress. It is more visceral than that. It is a type of manhood that can never be cajoled out of existence by the intelligentsia, those uncomfortable with the ramifications. Let them be uncomfortable. Man is what he is. Some can talk themselves out of what it all means – and some are unable to: this is where Renner resides.
I love the subtlety of his work, and its complexity. He is definitely One to Watch!!
And then of course there’s this, which is sheer fun:
http://www.sheilaomalley.com/?p=9936
Like Robert Mitchum, YES. He’s a mesmerizing performer.
Great piece, as always.
cheers,
lynD
He’s a beautiful brute. And what fascinates me is the gentleness you can see flickering at the edges of some performances. And which I hope some directors take more advantage of. Russell Crowe in L.A. Confidential is a good call, the same brute force that makes him break apart a chair in his hands is the flip side of the coin that makes him carefully cover the gang’s victim with a blanket and be very gentle with her. That fascinates me, and turns me on frankly. Seeing a man with big arms strip an assault rifle then later on carefully pick up a child’s toy and return it to them. Done right it’s not maudlin at all.
JessicaR – a “beautiful brute”. I love that. I have written before that I think he would make a killer Stanley Kowalski. He has it in him. That’s why when his natural gentleness is not utilized (like in North Country, where he was sheer evil) he is not as effective. He does have that flat-affect sociopath face – like Peter Lorre had – and James Cagney (in a lot of his roles) – so it makes sense he would be cast in those roles – but there’s that other side, which makes him a fascinating actor, heartbreaking, and visceral.
His bond with the kid in Hurt Locker was terrific and realistic. I know soldiers like that. Guys with nerves of steel who are, without a doubt, alpha males, the biggest dog in any room they are in … who then cuddle and kiss their daughters with gentleness and respect. It’s rarely been portrayed on film. The only time Sgt. James gets defensive – the oNLY TIME – is when his co-workers dis his wife. That’s what puts him over the edge. Every other time, it doesn’t matter to him that he’s an outsider, that people are afraid of him or baffled – He is so much himself, so true to his own nature (however complicated), that the normal cock-swinging behavior of soldiers in war doesn’t even touch him. He doesn’t HAVE to do that.
This is where he approaches John Wayne – and that’s something I want more to write about. Wayne is so brutal in The Searchers, so uncompromising in following his own path – but then when he scoops up Natalie Wood in his arms at the end, and she writhes about frightened – you can see, objectively, why she would be afraid. The man is so big. He is a killer. His killing has been sanctioned by the State up to now, but he’s veered off as an entrepreneur. He’s good at killing. He does not have normal human feelings. The one thing he loved – his brother’s wife – he cannot have. Therefore, he is always barred from the hearth. Then, after scooping up Natalie Wood in his arms, he suddenly brings her close, holding her as though she’s a tiny baby. With gentleness that brings tears to my eyes as I write this now.
You cannot fake that kind of masculinity. It is probably a throwback – but I would say more than anything that it is a natural state for some men – and to be able to portray it without making a big deal out of it, without trying to show us over and over again how tough you are, how strong you are … is no small feat. It requires some level of unselfconsciousness that most modern-day male movie actors don’t have.
Mickey Rourke has it. And totally: Russell Crowe had it in LA Confidential. I miss that complexity from him. Being a brute was something Bud White was good at – maybe the only thing, the only thing he is valued for – but he cannot hold back that gentleness. Maybe a man who is that strong, that alpha, has nothing to lose from showing his gentleness. He has nothing to prove. Insecure men think that showing softness means they are weak or feminized. They spend valuable time thinking about what it means to be a man, and trying to define it, and label it. But the real alpha dogs don’t even know what those insecure dudes are talking about. “Huh? Showing gentleness means I’m not a real man? Huh? Who the hell thinks that way?”
They are a rare breed.
And, to add to this complexity: when you see Renner in interviews he is nothing like these characters AT ALL. If I had to pick a role where he seems most “like himself” (at least in interviews, which is, of course, an artificial situation) I would pick Neo Ned. He has the same kind of twitchy nervy child-like energy. He’s kind of a dirty boy, making sexual jokes all the time – but it’s not gross or hostile – it’s just like a kid. It’s strangely endearing.
So what he was doing in The Hurt Locker was (what a shock) ACTING – which makes it an even more amazing accomplishment. He was able to tap into that guy with an energy that was so ITSELF that it actually felt like I was watching something original. I find very few comparisons to other characters with that guy – although Bud White is the closest, and Ethan in The Searchers is the other one that came to mind.
Renner’s a chameleon.
It’s amazing to watch him in The Unusuals, too – the TV series on for one season and then canceled. He’s the lead. A detective in a loser-squad in the East Village, with a bunch of neurotics and misfits. He’s the most socialized one on the squad. He has a hot girlfriend, also on the squad. He cares about her. He cares about his job. He has secrets. He was courted by the major leagues to be a baseball player – and I think he was thrown out in a Pete Rose-like situation, if memory serves. He has some demons.
It’s a real “star” part. A typical leading-man.
He can do that as well.
He’s amazing!
When I said in an earlier comment that “Thank God” men like the ones Renner played in The Hurt Locker will always be with us, I mean that if a fireman comes to save me from a burning building, I would prefer it to be someone like him: a man with a level of personal detachment, uncomplicated, and yet so complicated: the kind of man who runs towards danger as opposed to fleeing from it. We will always need such men. The Hurt Locker is fascinating (as is The Searchers) because it dares to ask the question: What do these jobs DO to such men?
But still: it’s a quality that should be cherished, although – in another context – it could become totally criminal.
That’s the line Renner walks. If he just gets a career playing villains, then we will miss a vital part of his appeal.
The military is a place where sociopaths can flourish. I don’t mean that as a judgment. I mean it as the truth. I know some of those guys. They are definitely different. They see the world differently, and their place in it. There are those who freak out, who can’t take it, who can’t detach (the soldiers around Renner in The Hurt Locker are all struggling with that) – but look how gently Renner deals with his panic-struck younger comrade. He is not gruff and dismissive. He says “thank you” when the panicky colleague passes him a juice box in the middle of the desert stand-off. He shows him how to clean off the bullets.
He is so alpha that he knows, he KNOWS, that it is his job, like it or not, to take care of everyone.
“Well, who asked you?” some people may ask.
That’s a fair question, but I still know who I want to come bursting through my burning bedroom door when the chips are down. And the fact remains that men like him are necessary to civilization – and we have to figure out how to use them correctly. And the complex part of that character in The Hurt Locker is that he knows it too. He stands with his wife, cutting up vegetables, and he knows that he is of no use in peace-time situations.
It’s like a fireman who spends his off-hours getting wasted and fucking around. The only time he is of use to anyone is when flames are licking at his heels.
Such men are different. I believe they exist already: they are not created. Plenty of actors try to fake the kind of natural machismo that Renner brought to the role of Sgt. James, but they miss the key points: that he is never EVER defensive on a personal level – he just doesn’t respond to insults. He’s beyond it. He sees everything. He is too alpha to get his back up over cock-swinging. But if you dis his wife? He could fucking kill you. Because she is personal. You leave his personal life out of it. He is totally able to compartmentalize, and that is what the other men cannot do because they do not have the necessary detachment.
Sgt. James needs no tough “front”. So many “tough” actors are all about the scowling front. Renner has NONE of that in Hurt Locker. He is stripped bare.
This is a psychological study of a very real type of man. I’ve met only one man who was very much like Renner – a friend of mine – in the military, career-military – but an independent spirit with a healthy dose of cynicism about bureaucracy. But my friend is “of use” in that structure in a way he would never be of use in regular peace-time society. It is a niche. In his off-hours, he gorges himself on science books and UFO books, listens to NPR and flies his airplane. He always carries duct-tape and a flashlight. Always. The apocalypse could come at any minute and he will be prepared, dammit. And if it DOES come, I know who I will want to seek out. Because it just seems like he would know what to do.
But does he “fit in” in normal society? Not really. However: I have watched him in social situations, devastatingly polite, charming the waitress, making jokes in his Southern accent, and loving whatever music is playing on the jukebox. I got in his car once when he drove me home, and he just had to play me a tape of Elvis Presley singing some song, and how awesome it was, and listen to how Presley almost laughs on this line, and listen to how into it Presley is here … and isn’t it awesome? Yes, yes, it is awesome! He is not a misfit. But he is different. He sees things differently. I value him for that. I ask him questions. He does not equate strength with brutality. He uses his well. I always feel protected with him. This may seem retro, and it is, in a way, but it’s a really nice and specific feeling. In the military, he has found his niche, and his freedom. The military rewards cohesion and obedience, yes – but on a whole other level, it awards ability and initiative. My friend represents that. He reminds me of Sgt. James.
Watch how Renner treats David Morse when Morse shows up, trying to ask questions in an officious pulling-rank way. Renner recognizes the rank, he knows who is who and who is above and below him, but he knows his job better than “that guy”. He is so confident in himself, so unquestioning of that confidence, that there is zero place for him in a huge plush grocery store. Civilization is not for him.
It’s the details. The “thank you” in the middle of a shootout in a foreign desert. The younger man is in a panic and feels he cannot do his job correctly. Sgt. James, instead of shaming him and making him feel bad, bolsters him up. He is unfailingly polite.
If anything, I thought that Mackie and his other colleague turning on him was somewhat unfair.
Sgt. James is the only one who really understands the game of war. He’s playing it like it should be played, if it’s going to be played at all.
And yeah. Clearly I could talk about Jeremy Renner for hours.
Carry on.
Check out James Cagney in The Roaring Twenties. You’ll think Jeremy Renner is his reincarnation. And it’s a great movie.