Jeremy Renner recently admits that he wept after seeing the final cut of Denis Villeneuve's Arrival. The science-fiction film, which made its world premiere at the 2016 Venice Film Festival, chronicles the events after 12 extraterrestrial space crafts appear and strategically surround Earth. Linguist Louise Banks, as portrayed by Amy Adams, is enlisted to lead the United States Army in attempts to communicate with the strange spacecraft. However, tensions ultimately ensue, and war shortly follows. The film received critical acclaim and racked up eight nominations at the 2017 Academy Awards. In addition to Renner and Adams, Forest Whitaker and Michael Stuhlbarg round out the star-studded cast.
Beyond its sci-fi elements, Arrival tells a very emotional human story. Audiences spend most of the movie believing Louise is grieving the death of her young daughter, Hannah. However, a twist reveals that Hannah had not been born yet at the time of Louise's encounter with the aliens. Her experience changed her perception of time, and what appeared to be flashbacks were actually flash-forwards with Louise seeing her future with Hannah. The heartbreaking revelation is Louise chose to still have Hannah with Ian (Renner), despite knowing Hannah would die at a young age. The narrative was highly poignant and even affected Renner.
In a recent sitdown with GQ, Jeremy Renner admits to openly weeping after watching the final cut of Denis Villeneuve's Arrival. Overall, the interview touches on many of Renner's former projects. When Arrival comes up in conversation, Renner appears to be taken back, seemingly in awe of the talented filmmaker who crafted the movie. Both Renner and the interviewer speak on how beautiful they believe the film to be and continue to discuss its overall impact. Despite admitting that he does not watch any of his work besides an early cut here and there, Renner takes a deep breath and sort of struggles to find the right words to describe his experience working on the film. However, the famed actor does manage to express just how impressed he was by the accomplishment. See his full comments regarding Arrival below:
It’s funny that you say that. I don’t really watch anything I do, except for maybe like an early cut of something, or yea, that’s exactly the feeling I got when I saw that. Didn’t know much of what was going to happen in terms of, it was a very, very sparse film. The character was limited in the sense of what we could tell in the story, cause it’s such a rug-pull. When I saw that, I remember exactly where I saw that. I remember exactly what happened. I had to just sit and be like ‘God damn', I mean, I said 'that’s a f***ing filmmaker' and I walked out and I started weeping.
Before the success of Arrival, Villeneuve received high regard for his directing work on Prisoners in 2013 and Sicario in 2015. Regarding Arrival, Villeneuve earned himself the Academy Award nomination for Best Director. Most recently, the celebrated director has reached new heights with the release of Dune in 2021, and the film is now Villeneuve's highest-grossing project. Over the past handful of years, he's cemented himself as one of this era's premier filmmakers and his name alone is enough to get cinephiles excited about an upcoming movie.
Given Arrival's Rotten Tomatoes approval rating of 94%, it is understandable that taking part in such an outstanding piece of art would cause even a grown man of Renner's status to weep. As audiences have seen in his latest Disney+ solo project, Hawkeye, Renner's portrayal of Clint Barton is rather emotional and sentimental when he steps away from immersing himself in all the action-packed drama. Given his performance in Hawkeye, especially regarding the emotions surrounding his continual sacrifice of valuable time with his family, audiences can begin to glimpse how Renner's off-screen, real-life personality translates into his onscreen performances. The fact that Renner weeps over greatness is no more than a testament to his strength of character and authenticity as a fellow human being.
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Source: GQ