My Interview with Jeremy Renner

Bourne Legacy star gives Phl a thumbs-up By Raymond de Asis Lo, L.A. Correspondent (The Philippine Star) Updated May 01, 2012 12:00 AM Comments (0)

Jeremy Renner: To me, people make the place. It is not the architecture; it’s not the landscape. The Philippines has the most beautiful islands I’ve ever seen in my life.
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MANILA, Philippines - Ask Jeremy Renner about the Philippines and he will instantly light up, form a slight smile on his face and look back with fondness on the two months he spent in Manila (and in various cities across the country) while filming forThe Bourne Legacy early this year.

“The thing that pops out of my brain mostly is the people,” the actor shared during our 10-minute one-on-one interview two weeks ago inside his suite at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills. “The people in the Philippines are… it’s a third world country, the people are in such terrible, terrible poverty in some areas and they always have the big damn smile on their faces.”

“The kids are gorgeous. You’ve never seen more beautiful children — in terrible conditions in some areas, but they always have a smile on their faces.”

It is safe to say that Jeremy was bitten by the famous Filipino smile: The smile that brought Imelda Marcos worldwide fame years ago. It’s the smile that makes Manny Pacquiao’s every victory more meaningful. The same smile that Lea Salonga gives to the world at her every curtain call; the very smile that all our OFW ambassadors share all over the world.

“To me, people make the place. It is not the architecture; it’s not the landscape. The Philippines has the most beautiful islands I’ve ever seen in my life. They have such beauty and they have such squalor; very polar in a lot of ways... but the people make it great.”

“The people were really so welcoming; so giving, and they spoke English so well.”

Jeremy met with this writer during the junket for his current movie, Marvel’s The Avengers, which is currently drawing record crowds all over the world and is projected to become the top-grossing movie of all time in the Philippines.

In The Avengers, Jeremy portrays Hawkeye, one of the seven superheroes assembled by Marvel in what this writer consider one of the best superhero movies of all time. He joins a stellar cast that includes Robert Downey Jr. who plays Iron Man, Chris Evans as Captain America, Chris Hemsworth as the mighty Thor, and Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow.

Considered by many to be one of the finest actors working in Hollywood today, Jeremy first donned his rubber suit in a brief cameo in last year’s Thor. He was the first choice by Marvel president Kevin Feige for the part and writer-director Joss Whedon felt he was perfect, too.

“He was Marvel’s idea and my contribution was ‘Good idea!’” Joss told this writer during our own separate interview. “I can’t think of anybody who would be better suited for the role.”

Jeremy brings to Hawkeye a certain character depth that hints at a more explosive past and an unspoken affection for Black Widow, which should excite the core fans of these two Marvel characters. (And to further excite the fan base, Joss revealed his ambitions to give Black Widow and Hawkeye their own movies in the future.)

“There’s no good or bad for me when you play a character,” Jeremy explained on how he approached his character. “Behavior can be perceived as good or bad. If you are doing terrible things, or you a villain, per se, you hope to have some sort of empathy or sympathy for that character otherwise you are just a twisting-moustache bad guy.”

“Same on the other side for a hero: If you’re just a good guy; just do good things, everybody is falling the hell to sleep. Have a guy that’s flawed, a hero that’s flawed. It’s just common Shakespeare 101 or even Greek mythology.”

The 41-year-old actor received critical acclaim and an Oscar nomination for playing a tortured war hero in the Oscar-winning The Hurt Locker two years ago. He has portrayed a serial killer and a CIA spy since then.

“These are the characters that I want to play. Heroes, they should be flawed — we call them antiheroes, that’s what I love to play. On the villain side, I have to find some sort of human quality… I have to find a way into this villain, if you will, to be seen as a human. And how do I play these guys? As a human.”

As Hawkeye, Jeremy invested more to his character that what one would expect — even if that would result to him getting injured doing some of his stunts. This dedication was part of the reasons why Joss thought he had the perfect actor for the role.

“You know, you don’t hire Jeremy Renner to play Hawkeye and then just say, ‘Go, carry a bow,’” Joss said. “You’ve got to find what makes him tick and you’ve got to find what he can do that no one else can do.”

Jeremy’s career is on a roll. After The Avengers, he is destined to become a bigger movie star because The Bourne Legacy is expected to also do very well when it opens in theaters a few months from now.

The only drawback of becoming famous is the level of recognition and public scrutiny an actor usually gets but Jeremy is already getting used to it that when he was in Manila, he was no longer surprised when almost everybody knew who he was.

“That’s a strange thing anywhere you go,” he noted. “Over there (in Manila), it was really strange. It was really intense.”

But in Manila, he turned the table somehow and he got to become a fan himself when he met two of the biggest Filipino superstars in the world: Manny Pacquiao and President Noynoy Aquino.

“I got to meet Manny Pacquiao — it was awesome!” he exclaimed. “I also got to meet the President and it was cool. He was a lovely guy. He talked about the infrastructure because there was a lot of traffic over there, lots of people.”

“Sorry for all the traffic, sorry for all the traffic,” Jeremy repeatedly said when asked if he had any message for the Filipino people. “We were like shutting down the streets. I was like, ‘Oh, they hate us, they hate us,’” he recalled.

But he knew, by looking at the people and their ready smiles, that somehow, the city didn’t really hate him. While in Manila he said he tried the local food, like adobo (“It was really, really terrific!) but declined to eat balut (“I didn’t do that. I am not too adventurous with food. Some duck egg thing? It wasn’t my style.”).

He was quick to add that he is only less adventurous with food but in other areas, especially his career, he is on a constant adventure.

“Satisfaction? I don’t know if that is the right word. I feel like that ties in to complacency. I love to work. I get more opportunities to work — to learn, to grow. I am insatiable.”

As we wrapped up the interview, he said he would welcome the chance to return to Manila to promote his movie. He also told this writer that he and his friends already have tickets to Manny’s next fight.

My coverage of "The Avengers"

When Marvel superheroes band together By Raymond de Asis Lo L.A. Correspondent (The Philippine Star) Updated April 26, 2012 12:00 AM Comments (0)

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The Avengers is the best Marvel movie ever!

That’s how this writer greeted every cast member of the massive and spectacular action movie during last week’s junket in Los Angeles — it was strictly forbidden to tweet or post any review about the movie on Facebook until the movie would open in theaters (it opened yesterday in the Philippines and on May 4 in the United States) so I had to keep my excitement about the movie to myself but when I saw the stars the morning after the world premiere, I just couldn’t help myself but rave to them how much I had fun watching their movie.

This latest Marvel movie assembles all the biggest Marvel superheroes in one big giant movie that’s so grand and thrilling this writer, who, admittedly, can sometimes get too loud while watching a movie, joined nearly everyone in the audience cheering for almost the entire second half of the movie. It is so good I am so tempted to give it an A-plus rating. No one who watches this movie will leave the theater unsatisfied. 

The press day held at the Four Seasons in Beverly Hills was just as epic as the movie. It was a hectic day. There were five 20-minute roundtables scheduled for the day, two 30-minute press conferences and two 10-minute one-on-ones with director Joss Whedon and with newly-minted action star Jeremy Renner, who was still raving about the Filipino hospitality he experienced to this day.

We started the roundtables with Brit Tom Hiddleston, who plays the nefarious Loki, the role he originated in last year’s box-office hit Thor. Tom was paired with Jeremy, who plays the sharpshooting Hawkeye.

“It was very, very challenging for me: Who’s Hawkeye? I was trying to figure that out,” Jeremy told us when asked how he felt now that he is officially a part of the current gallery of Hollywood superstars playing a Marvel superhero.

The star-studded cast also includes Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, Mark Ruffalo as The Hulk, Chris Evans as Captain America, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury, and Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow, the lone female superhero in the story. The gorgeous Scarlett did not join the press junket but was present at the premiere the night before. Chris Hemsworth and Robert Jr. skipped the print roundtables, too, but joined the press conferences held in the afternoon.

Tom and Jeremy mostly talked about how they were cast in the movie and the challenges they faced during filming, including the physically demanding stunts each of them had to do.

Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, Chris Evans as Captain America and Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow

“I hurt myself when I was up against The Hulk,” Tom revealed. “Basically, I had to throw myself backwards into the ground and I smashed my elbow — it was like, ‘I’m an idiot’!”

“If you don’t get hurt, you’re not working hard enough,” Jeremy added before confirming reports that he suffered several concussions doing one very physical stunt with another character which I will not mention here so as not to spoil the movie. He also strained his neck after he twisted it too hard while doing his character’s signature archery move.

The cast had stunt doubles but like the superheroes they play, they opted to do most of their own stunts to provide some form of realism to the movie. “I get such a thrill anyway when I am in the movies and I am watching actors do their own stunts. I love it!” Tom said before declaring that he was a big fan of Jeremy’s stunts in the recent Mission Impossiblemovie.

When Chris (Evans) and Mark joined us next at the roundtable, the two had different stories to tell but most notably was Mark’s funny (or unfunny, depends on how one sees it) experience after reaching out to Marvel fans online after he was cast as The Hulk.

“I made the mistake of going online early on,” Mark recalled half-smiling. “I’ve never had a role that had more speculation and been more dissected before I shot a frame of film. I got my ass handed to me early so I learned pretty early on not to go online and look what the fanboys are saying.”

“It’s a slippery slope. It’s a dangerous game to play to go online and start reading opinions and get feedbacks,” Chris commented. “At the end of the day you are making a movie and developing the character with the director.”

It’s good that Chris had foreshadowed what might have happened otherwise he would have also seen firsthand how nasty, mean and zealously possessive some fans are of their favorite Marvel superheroes because some of the worst comments Mark read online were indeed really harsh: “How could Mark play The Hulk when he can barely talk? He sounds retarded!” were some of the bad ones Mark enumerated.

But if there was one group of fans that always believed in Mark, it was his three children, including his 10-year-old son, who he jokingly referred to as his inspiration when The Hulk starts losing control of his rage. “My son was like ‘yes!’”


Marvel fans have since mellowed and embraced Mark as the latest addition to Marvel’s gallery of superhero actors. “There was a lot of support, too. There was a lot of other good stuff but it’s funny, as an actor, you only remember the bad things people say about you. There was a lot to prove and I just hope we came through with it.”

“In my opinion these movies don’t get made without the diehard fan base,” Chris stated. “They are the ones who make these movies big box-office success. If you don’t try to meet their expectations in a small way, you miss the mark.”

One of the biggest reasons why all the Marvel movies have become huge successes can also be attributed to the passion and dedication of Marvel president Kevin Feige who spent nearly a decade setting up Marvel Studios. According to him he went from one studio to another trying to sell movie ideas for characters (like Fox’s X-Men and Sony’s Spider-Man) that have already been bought before realizing that he had some of the most popular Marvel characters in his catalog that are in need of a movie treatment.

The journey for The Avengers started more than five years ago when Marvel decided to produce the first Iron Man movie. That movie reestablished Robert Downey Jr.’s career and launched Marvel Studios as a big player in the business. When The Incredible Hulk, Captain America and Thor hit theaters soon after, fans knew it was only a matter of time before they will see their beloved Marvel superheroes banding together in one movie.

Helping Kevin realize his dream of assembling seven Marvel characters in one movie was writer-director Joss Whedon, who is very popular among science fiction fans for his TV series Buffy, The Vampire Slayer and the cult favorite Serenity.

Joss wrote a screenplay that manages to provide the right tone and balance of a massive action movie and the awareness that each of the characters are still going to have their future individual adventures in their own movies down the road. “You have to take them on a journey but then still leave them in a place where they can go on another one,” he remarked.


Iron Man 3 starts filming in June. Captain America 2 will go into production later this year. And, who knows, there might just be a sequel to The Avengers soon, like real soon!

If the sequel does start filming soon, the cast couldn’t be anymore excited.

“It was great — we got along so well,” Chris offered when asked how it was like on the set. “We really got lucky. When you sign up for this multi-picture contract you know you are going to be working with these people for a potentially long time. It is a blessing when it happens and you get along with these people. We had a good time, it was like summer camp.”

With the popularity of superheroes at an all-time high, I asked the actors if there is still a need for superheroes in today’s very modern world.

Mark, who fans feared could barely talk as The Hulk, offered the most interesting reply: “This is mythology. This is no different to saints in the past. This is part of our culture. This is a way we work out things in our storytelling. I definitely think we need this kind of storytelling. There are some ideas that are timely and cloaked inside this movie and that people love these movies for a reason.”

True. I love this movie! And I don’t need to cite any particular reason only that I spent some of my best two hours watching this movie. No, make it four hours, because I am watching it again when it starts its regular run in theaters.

My 2nd interview with Amanda Seyfried (Gone)

What Amanda is scared of (But definitely not Lea Salonga, inset, who is her idol) By Raymond de Asis Lo L.A. Correspondent (The Philippine Star) Updated April 22, 2012 12:00 AM Comments (0)

Amanda Seyfried plays a kidnap survivor in the thriller Gone.| Zoom

MANILA, Philippines - If you think Hollywood star Amanda Seyfried’s eyes can’t go any bigger then you are quite mistaken.
This writer saw recently just how more beautiful she looks when she becomes really amazed — her innocent expression of surprise is a delight to behold.

Amanda’s big and pretty doll-like eyes widened when I mentioned Lea Salonga’s name during a brief chat we had after our roundtable interview with her in early February. This writer met with the star during the junket for her current movie, Pioneer Films’ Gone.
Apparently, Amanda is a big fan of the Tony-winning Filipino actress. I asked her if she knows Lea personally but she said she did not. “Do I know her? No. Am I obsessed with her? Yes,” she exclaimed. “She’s Eponine! Oh, God, I love her!”

2012 is shaping up to be one particularly good year for the 26-year-old actress. With her solo starrer Gone now showing in theaters, she already has another movie in post-production — the highly anticipated biopic of Linda Lovelace, the iconic star of Deep Throat. And currently, she’s filming one of the biggest movies scheduled for release in December, the star-studded film adaptation of one of the well-loved Broadway musicals of all time, Les Miserables, the musical which Lea holds the honor of being the first Asian to be cast in two roles written for a Caucasian actor — Eponine and Fantine.

During the roundtable, even if we were there for her movie Gone, a thriller in which she portrays a survivor of a kidnapping who discovers one night that her sister was missing and may have been abducted by the same killer who tried to murder her the year before, the actress spent most of the 30 minutes we had talking enthusiastically about her casting as Cossette in the Les Miz adaptation.

“My favorite musical in the world is Les Miz,” Amanda gushed. “It’s always been that way. I saw it when I was 11. I was obsessed with it and I know every song.”

Amanda shared that she moved temporarily to New York last year to take voice lessons before she embarked on a month-long series of auditions that had her flying between L.A. and London.

“There was a point when I thought I wouldn’t get it,” she confided. “I was exhausted. I’ve been to London twice. I auditioned in LA. I spent so much money on this audition that I can actually say that I did my best and my hands are clean — and a month after I auditioned Tom Hooper (the director) called me.”


She said she was getting bitter about the process and the call from the Oscar-winning director of The King’s Speech just before Christmas last year was one of the best news she ever received — only she can’t tell anybody yet about it. She was told to keep it a secret until all parts have been cast and the director has made the formal announcement.

“It’s so hard!” she exclaimed. She had a cover interview for Glamour magazine earlier this year and she had to “lie” to the journalist when she was asked if she got the part already because she was still taking singing lessons. Fortunately, the announcement came four days later and the magazine was able to insert the piece of good news in their story.

She won the part over Taylor Swift. “I auditioned with Samantha Barks (the British actress who got the plum part of Eponine) and she was incredible. That’s all I am gonna say.” Also in the cast of Les Miz are Hollywood biggies Russell Crowe, Hugh Jackman and Anne Hathaway.

“People trust me to do these things so that must mean something — that gives me confidence. But at the same time, it’s a responsibility… playing these characters and straddling around from movie set to movie set is really about just the experience for me,” she added.

Who knew that after only seven years, she would be a bigger star than Lindsay Lohan? Amanda’s big break came in 2004 when she was cast in a small part in Lindsay’s Mean Girls. Her star continued to shine brightly after, while Lindsay struggled with drugs and alcohol.

And while Lindsay is still trying to settle all her legal troubles, Amanda is on her way to become a much bigger star — and if the stars truly align, she could even be an Oscar contender next year!

After Gone, her new movie Lovelace is set for release in the fall and the buzz all over Hollywood is about her revealing performance in Lovelace and the sizzling scenes she shared with her co-star Peter Saarsgard.

“She has an amazing story,” she said when asked about the biopic. “I think it is amazing how far someone can go on a journey that is so negative. It’s a powerful story.”

And because Lovelace is based on the woman that brought pornography out from the seedy video shops and into the mainstream, people are wondering if Amanda would be as daring as the real-life Linda Lovelace.

“If it’s necessary I would do it,” she replied. “But I don’t want to show my vagina and it has nothing to do against anybody that has. It’s wonderful but if you work with a good filmmaker anything goes.”

But before moviegoers get to see her naked in Lovelace and singing in Les Miserables, Amanda is set to keep audiences on the edge of their seats in Gone.

Those who will watch the movie will be amazed at her dedication to her craft. In Gone, she is in almost every frame of the movie. From the first shot of her scouring a forest to the last shot of her with that knowing grin on her face. (No spoilers here, sorry.)

“It’s hard,” she revealed when asked if it was a difficult shoot. “I wanted to be every part of every frame… It’s like a puzzle and you want to keep the audience with you at all times. You don’t want to lose them at any point.”
The main challenge for her was how to stay warm in the cold. She was also on guard to not let her character’s paranoia get to her.

“I am not that paranoid but I am scared of the future. I am scared of death. I am scared of sickness. I am scared of the decline of the people I love.”

But she did have a story to tell about a wannabe stalker who tried to ask her out on a date one time. Good thing, the guy was sane enough to leave her alone after. She added that she feels most relaxed when she is on the set.
And when asked which among her three big movies this year would she consider her most favorite, she immediately proclaimed Lovelace because, according to her, she got to work with Peter.

“Peter Saarsgard is the best actor I’ve ever worked with,” she declared. I reminded her that Gary Oldman, who was her co-star in last year’s Red Riding Hood, may not like her saying that but she only smiled and this time, her eyes did not grow wide anymore.