Jeremy Renner embraced the chance to continue the Bourne franchise.
August 3, 2012
Giles Hardie
"How do you make a Bourne movie without Jason Bourne, the central character?'' It's not an unexpected question about The Bourne Legacy, the fourth instalment in the saga, yet it's surprising to hear it coming from the film's star, Jeremy Renner.
Renner plays Aaron Cross, very much the Clayton's Bourne - the Bourne movie hero you get when you don't have Jason Bourne (or Matt Damon).
"There are certain challenges with the acting side of it, but that was really refreshing ... the physical side was more of the challenge."
Jeremy Renner
Cross is another chemically enhanced soldier of a secret CIA program whose life is turned upside down when the program turns on him. Yet the film is neither a reboot, nor quite a spin-off.
Renner's Bourne-free Bourne concerns were alleviated in the best fashion - by a clever script.
''Like any fan - because I was a fan of the franchise - I was concerned,'' Renner admits, ''but once I got the script and talked to Tony [Gilroy, the film's writer and director], it became very, very exciting.''
Damon's image and character are regularly referred to, and events and characters overlap those of the first three films. Yet Cross is an entirely new character from an entirely new CIA program, designed to be more spy than assassin.
There is precedent for a Bourne-saga reboot. Having started as a 1980s spy novel trilogy by Robert Ludlum, the first book was adapted into a faithful 1988 telemovie. Then the Matt Damon films borrowed the title and central premise before shooting off on an entirely different narrative. Ludlum's second and third book titles were the only parts that made it into the sequels.
More books have since been written - though not by Ludlum - with The Bourne Legacy the fourth, but you could read it cover to cover without risk of a single film spoiler.
''To me, it feels like a continuation,'' Renner says, ''a very natural progression, really opening up and widening the lens here a little bit and taking a step back and seeing that there's a little bit more going on.''
Damon, who lambasted Gilroy in a GQ magazine interview, describing his work as writer on The Bourne Ultimatum as ''a career-ender'', still maintains an interest in returning to the role of Jason Bourne. But for now the series rests on Renner, who is quietly confident.
''I think of things as an audience member when I look at a script,'' he says. ''My barometer is always the truth, and that's all I have from page 1 to 120.''
The truth is a theme with Renner, who is very much a straight shooter in this interview. His unaffected candidness is refreshing; honest performances and honest self-analysis seem to be the true arsenal of this action star.
He's also forthcoming about his co-stars, such as Shane Jacobson, who plays a factory manager who tries to stop Cross. ''He's hysterical to me, man,'' Renner says. ''He's Oompa-Loompa orange - he's fantastic!'' He's frank about success. ''When someone Googles your name and the first thing that comes up is 'Jeremy Renner gay', that's when you know you've made it,'' he laughs. And his response to that? ''In a sense, 'well, you can go f--- yourself!' But all right, I guess I've made it if people want to know if you're gay or not.''
For Renner, who in the past 12 months also starred in Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and The Avengers, it's a lifetime away from the jobbing actor who also worked as a make-up artist and house builder to make ends meet in California. ''From where I'm sitting it's been, over the 20 years, a slow trajectory of different sorts of milestones that have gotten me to the next step,'' he explains.''It's like climbing a big mountain where there [are] little plateaus, where you can take a breather and feel proud of what has happened, and reflect back on how far you've come up, and look up the mountain and know you've got a long way to go.''
Renner does his share of climbing in this film, from snow-topped mountains to scaling the outside of three-storey houses, the latter done entirely by Renner in a single take. ''I remember doing it like 23 or 24 times. I think we ended up using the second take of it. It's a little tricky because you've got to get it all done in one, there's no editing to it.''
We might not see the unsuccessful efforts as deleted scenes on any DVDs, though. ''There are a few,'' he admits, coloured with ''profanities of frustration''.
According to stereotype, Renner is meant to suggest the character scenes were the toughest to film. Once again, he's honest.
''There are certain challenges with the acting side of it, but that was really refreshing and welcome. So I suppose the physical side was more of the challenge.''
Should The Bourne Legacy succeed, its lead actor could find himself attached to three successful franchises with multiple sequels. ''For the next decade it could be slightly crowded,'' he admits. ''It's great to know you might be working in the future. And on something I'm happy with and lucky to be a part of and proud of. I'm excited about the idea of stepping into the shoes of any of these past few characters.''
Renner is an actor doing what he loves who sees no reason to alter course. ''I don't want to stretch out too far away from things here,'' he admits at the suggestion of trying a new genre. ''I think there [are] a lot of great people who do that well. Why do you need me doing it?'' So he's doing an action movie next, and ''probably the next one after that''.
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