Hawkeye Star Jeremy Renner Dared Marvel to Recast Him Over Time Off

Jeremy Renner has been playing Hawkeye/Clint Barton in the Marvel Cinematic Universe since Thor was released in 2011, but the upcoming Disney+ series, Hawkeye, will be the actor's first standalone project in the franchise. Renner often talks about his daughter Ava in interviews, recently explaining that the eight-year-old barely even knows he's a Marvel hero. During a recent chat with Men's Health, the actor revealed that when his daughter was born, she became his priority and that he didn't back down when requesting time off from avenging. 

Renner had Ava with Sonni Pacheco back in 2013 and spent a year and a half of flying from London to Los Angeles every weekend to see her. This led Renner to start creating boundaries with Marvel. "It taught me how to have the nuts to say, 'Everyone, f*ck off. It's my time with my daughter.' " The article adds that people close to Renner warned him he could be fired from Marvel, but he chose to stand his ground. "I said, 'Fine, recast me. I'm going to be here with my daughter.' It was pretty gnarly."

Thankfully, Renner's bold choice worked out as he's now able to visit his daughter or have her visit every weekend during productions. If producers are unable to accommodate his time with his daughter, he'll pass on the project. "Acting and everything else goes out the window," he explained, "until my daughter says, 'I want to hang out with my friends, and I don't want to be around you so much, Daddy.' " He added, "I never knew that resting face I have could be beautiful. It's not on me. It is on her, on Ava." 

In another recent interview with ComicBook.com's Brandon Davis, Renner revealed that the original Avengers still have a group chat, but they don't talk about working in the business. Instead, they mostly chat about their families. 

"Just because you die on camera doesn't mean you die in real life, so we have a group chat and it's all of us, some that are still alive and dead on screen," Renner shared. "Yeah, we're all very, very good friends, and we don't really speak too much about our job, and that's what's also great about being, you know, Avenger friends, you know. We speak about our kids. You know what I mean? We speak about our kids and, you know, divorces and marriages and house building. We speak about just our life stuff, you know?" He added, "Our friendship is very, very special and very unique, and I love them. I love them."

Hawkeye premieres on Disney+ on November 24th.