Jeremy Renner wore a silver ring on his finger at the press junket Monday for his new film, “Kill the Messenger,” but no one thought much about it. It turns out it is a wedding ring; the 43 year-old actor told CBS News that he secretly got hitched to Sonni Pacheco, the mother of his baby girl.
The publicity-shy Renner told journalists at the junket he liked to keep a low profile, that he hadn’t been to the theater for many years, and he doesn’t go out much to high profile events. “I can, sure, yeah. I just gotta be in the mood. I gotta be on.”
“Kill the Messenger” is a political thriller about real-life journalist Gary Webb who documented the link between drug dealers, contra rebels in Nicaragua and the C.I.A. He wrote a series of articles for the San Jose Mercury Times called the “Dark Alliance” series in 1996. His work received critical praise and attention from the media, who later turned on him and discredited his work.
The movie is based on Webb’s book, “Dark Alliance,” in which the journalist defended the accuracy of his articles, and a 2004 biography of Webb by Nick Schou, which gave the move its title. The movie is sympathetic to the journalist and should reinstate his reputation.
There is an embargo on reviewing the movie until it opens October 10, but I can say it is powerful and exciting and the ending, even though it is old news, is so stunning I was glued to my seat for a good five minutes after the movie ended. This movie could garner Renner another Academy Award nomination.
During the press junket someone asked if he ever anticipated this level of success since making his first big film, “The Hurt Locker” in 2008, directed by Kathryn Bigelow. “I didn’t expect any of it really,” Renner said. “As each day goes along, rolls along, it feels right, and when it doesn’t feel right, then I go do something else.”
The other trappings of success he could do without. “I’m not a big fan of fame. I mean, there’s some cool parts to it, but if someone can go buy fame, I would never pay that price for it. No.”
Renner has five very hot movies in the pipeline including “Mission Impossible: 5,” which he is shooting in London now after three weeks filming in Morocco.
“There’s some good set pieces and seems to be some good twists and turns,” he said about the Tom Cruise starrer. “We’ve got a great cast. Alec Baldwin is amazing. And again some more good bad guys there. It’s going to be cool. We’ve got the boys back together, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, and Tom, myself, it’s cool. Alec Baldwin is tremendous.”
He’s also got a little indie movie coming out next year you might have heard of called “Avengers: Age of Ultron.” He’s under some crazy gag order, but he did hint what’s ahead for his character Hawkeye and his alter ego Clint Barton.
“It was fun to finally kind of discover who Clint Barton is a little bit and got some good secrets revealed. I think what was great about the first Avengers is exponentially expressed in this one, the action to making fun of itself, and there’s a lot more time spent with the Avengers together versus being separated in the first one. We’ve got some great new goodies and some good baddies.”
[…] Kill the Messenger’s Jeremy Renner Admits He Got Hitched […]
Do you think the fact that the film didn’t show at any fests this year will hurt Jeremy’s Oscar chances? It’s a very crowded field this year and all the Oscar talk is focused the actors who had films t the various fests: Cumberbatch, Redmayne, Phoenix, Keaton, etc.
You know that is an excellent question, and I don’t have an answer. Could be their studio didn’t think it was a festival film. Also, taking your film to festivals is a full time job and can eat up nearly a year of a director and actor’s life. Renner has at least four big fillm in the pipeline. As producer and star he doesn’t have the time. He is bery much behind the film but short of dropping out of Avengers he can’t do the time required to take it around to festivals.
I will be filing a q@a with Renner including his response to a journalist who asked him what he thought the commercial possibilities for “kill the Messenget” are. It is a great story but largely forgotten and I don’t know how many people are interested in newspaper stories anymore. Also, unlike Woodward and Nernatein, this story doesn’t have a happy ending. But it is a wonderful film, fast paced, and so timely.