Jeremy Renner Shares The Personal Reason Why He Stepped Away From The Mission: Impossible Movies
The entertainment industry is just another job at the end of the day. It’s often hard to remember that because we as the audience see actors as different than us, they live different lives. But work life balance is incredibly difficult to balance, especially when you’re away filming. This is especially challenging when you are part of a larger franchise that might take you in different locations across the world. Actor Jeremy Renner shares his reasons for why he stepped away from the Mission: Impossible movies.
In an interview with Josh Horowitz on his podcast Happy, Sad, Confused, Jeremy Renner speaks a bit about his book My Next Breath: A Memoir, as well as share his experiences working in the film industry, and in his personal life. While talking about his role as Hawkeye in the MCU, Horowitz asked Renner about his commentary in his memoir about walking away from Marvel. He had this to say in response:
It’s more the willingness to step away from things. My daughter is a priority, and it’s not even a choice. I’m gonna be a father to my daughter. If they’re gonna keep shooting in London, it’s just not going to work. I had to walk away from Tom Cruise, the Mission: Impossible, sadly.
For those who don’t know much about Renner, pre-Hawkeye; back in 2010 Renner confirmed that he was being set up at the to take over the Mission: Impossible franchise following Ghost Protocol. We at CinemaBlend even gave him a seven out of ten for his performance as William Brandt. Especially since Tom Cruise had an interesting way of convincing Renner to join the franchise in the first place.
Returning to this time on Happy, Sad, Confused, Renner elaborated a little bit more as to why he stepped away from Mission: Impossible to focus on his daughter.
I love Tom, I love doing those movies, they’re so fun. But I couldn’t. I had to really be a dad. They’re still shooting seven and eight right now. I just talked to one of the stunt guys, it took five years. I’m like ‘I have to be a dad, I can’t go do that.’
Filming for a movie does take an exceptionally long time, for us as an audience it really tests our patience. However, we do forget that all this time for filming, every delay, every reshoot is more time that this actor or actress has to be away from their family. And at the time, Ghost Protocol was supposed to be the end for Ethan Hunt, and as we know that didn’t happen, seeing as there was many movies that followed.
Being part of any movie or show does take a lot of time away, other actors like Jason Momoa have stated that they are thankful their careers took off after his children have grown older and don’t care as much to cling to their dad. This is a very similar statement Renner made about his daughter, stating that now that she’s older she’s not as big on hanging around him as much, which is why he is still part of the MCU for the time being. As for his view on being part of a movie for that long, as well as co-star Tom Cruise being willing to be away for filming for so long, Renner closed with this simple, but heartwarming statement.
And God bless him, I love that, I wish I could do that, [but] I love the choice I made, I love being a dad. It’s the best role I’ve ever had.
It’s an admirable choice for anyone to choose their family and their children over their career. While it may seem like that is a no-brainer as a parent, there is a certain level of societal pressure to keep up with the characters the audience loves; especially since William Brandt is one of a handful of characters that people want to see again. But as he has stated, Renner is proud of that choice to focus on his best job, which is being a father to his daughter.
