Jeremy Renner Quotes

I don't want a performance to give me everything. You can look at Charlotte Rampling in '45 Years,' and you don't really know what she's thinking, but you know something interesting is happening.

We're not one thing, as human beings, so any character that is written uni-dimensional, that's just a shallow character with shallow writing and shallow acting.

Sometimes, the smaller roles in movies can be the most interesting. If you only take the stance that you'll only play central characters in movies, you'll find yourself not being able to indulge in that morally grey terrain that makes support characters so rich and interesting.

I like to play characters that are convincing, that aren't just straightforward and nice.

I think I'm drawn to characters with complexity or who are under duress in some way and have some conflict going on.

If you look at my body of work, there's always a dark side to my characters. They've always got a skeleton in the closet; they've always got a subtext.

The more secrets and twists in a character, the better.

Sometimes when you're playing a very intense character, a disturbed character, you find other layers. That's much more interesting to me, rather than just playing 'intense.' I find it too boring.

You have to be careful so you don't make your character dull and predictable. Sometimes you have to bend the script a little... The bad guys are mostly the same on the paper... A bad guy wouldn't think of himself as bad.

I'm always just drawn to those roles that present one way and have many other things going on underneath. It's just more fun to play as an actor.

Even while I'm really interested in playing female characters that are varied and interesting and dynamic, I'm not of the mind that you always want to play strong female characters. I think I just want to play characters that are interesting, and not all people are 'strong.'

I think conflicted characters are always more interesting.

I would probably choose supporting roles if I had to make a choice. It's actually a really hard thing to say. It's all on a role-by-role basis, ultimately. I shouldn't be so quick to say that. I feel like you're given greater license to be colorful and eccentric in supporting roles, and that's interesting to me.

When a character has so many secrets and so much inner life, it's a joy to play those characters because you can use your craft.

The beauty of Sudhir's protagonists is that they are not shown as black and white. There are various layers to the characters.

I love roles where it's not about being perfect or being beautiful, where there is more of an interest in what's going on inside the character.

It is difficult to portray grey characters because there is a very thin line between being nasty and slightly negative.

I try to keep my characters raising more questions than giving answers. I don't want to leave too much on the table. I want you to have your connection and your secret understanding of the character.

One of the things that I really enjoyed playing with Ender was how he's constantly struggling between his brother and his sister. It's like he's got two sides to him. And I've always wanted to play a darker character, and in this film and in the novel, Ender has his moments where he isn't a glorified hero.

I just think, in every acting choice that you make, you've got to go for the least obvious choice.

I don't know whether it's audiences or filmmakers who want characters to be likable today, but I don't think actors are afraid of their characters being unlikable.

These people I play are not usually wish-fulfillment characters.

I'd seen Titus Welliver in a few shows and felt he had some inner demons in his portrayals, as does Harry Bosch.

I didn't like characters that were one- or two-dimensional. I liked a guy to have a lot of different levels to him and layers, and I think I pretty well succeeded with Thanos.

I don't like this concept of second role, small role. It is a story, at the end of the day. If I am suitable for a character, I am glad to reflect that through my choice of films.