Jeremy Renner got his Mission: Impossible role after a surprise meeting with Tom Cruise. The Mission: Impossible film franchise kicked off in 1996, spawning eight movies and counting thus far, with a combined worldwide box office of more than $3.5 billion to date. Cruise plays Ethan Hunt, the leader of the IMF, a contingent of U.S. agents taking on "impossible" missions around the globe. The films have featured a regular rotation of supporting characters, including Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Michelle Monaghan, Alec Baldwin, Vanessa Kirby, and Jeremy Renner, as well as numerous guest stars.
Renner has made a name for himself in a number of roles throughout his career so far, starring in films like Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker, Ben Affleck's The Town, and as the lead in the fourth Bourne franchise film, The Bourne Legacy. The actor's biggest break came with the role of Hawkeye in 2012's The Avengers, which eventually led to finding his way to the Mission: Impossible franchise, although it wasn't exactly what he was looking for at the time.
In a new Vanity Fair video, Renner breaks down his various roles throughout his career, giving some insight into how he got them and how they went down. For Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, Renner was actually meeting with director JJ Abrams about a part in Super 8, when Abrams quickly shifted focus to the actor meeting with Cruise. Renner, of course, jumped at the chance and drove with the Abrams to meet with Cruise, director Brad Bird and the crew. Later that evening, Renner got a call from Cruise on his personal home number, who offered him a role in the film.
"So, I’m driving across from Santa Monica now all the way back into Hollywood, and I was sitting in this room, and talking to Tom Cruise and all the people who were involved in that, the director… And they say ‘Hey, we really want you in this movie,’ and I’m like, ‘Okay, great. All this sounds really amazing, but why me?’ And they're like 'Well, because we look at you and you can be a good guy or a bad guy. People might be on the fence. You're like a coiled spring.' I'm like 'Great, I understand that. I get why you say that.' I didn’t say yes or no, I just gave them all a hug, and I went home. And I got a phone call from Tom – first of all, how does Tom Cruise have my home line?... And he says ‘So, do you wanna do it or not?’ ‘Yeah, of course, I’ll do it. I’ll do it, yeah, sure.’ And I hung up. So that’s how I got the role."
Renner goes on to say that it was a "strange, odd thing" as he went in for a role in a JJ Abrams movie and ended up in a Mission: Impossible movie, agreeing to do it without even seeing a script or knowing anything about the character. He goes on to credit Cruise with teaching him about how to be "an actor in the stunt world and treating it like that's a big part of the job." Renner explains that he has always been an athlete and that action movies are just as fun to him as character-driven roles. He says Cruise inspired him to be the best he could be, which has helped Renner in a multitude of roles since, including more Mission: Impossible and Avengers films, as well as his latest turn as Hawkeye in the new Disney+ series.
Renner has always shown an aptitude for action, having the physical prowess to match his acting strengths. The actor has made the performance of Hawkeye into its own unique thing as both a character and a superhero, which audiences will see more of in the new show. His Mission: Impossible character, William Brandt, hasn't been seen since Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation and it's unclear if he'll return to the series. However, Renner has no shortage of projects to tackle, including his new Paramount+ series, The Mayor of Kingstown, and while the Hawkeye series has a passing-of-the-torch element to it, Renner doesn't seem quite ready to hang up the bow just yet.
Source: Vanity Fair