no gender biases here

Jeremy Renner Said Hollywood Lacks ‘Strong, Badass Female’ Roles, to the Delight of His Publicist

Photo: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images

Jeremy Renner was on stage at CinemaCon with Amy Adams for the trailer presentation of Story of Your Life, Denis Villeneuve’s alien movie in which the government enlists Adams to translate alien messages and Renner plays a theoretical physicist. But that’s not even the unbelievable part! “The main reason why I did [the film] was because of this awesome woman standing next to me,” Renner said of his co-star. Then he added, “It’s Amy’s story, and there’s not enough cinema in Hollywood where we have a strong, badass, intelligent female lead. I think that’s important.”

Yes, this is the same Jeremy Renner who called Black Widow a “slut” and a “whore” during the Avengers: Age of Ultron press tour, said that his favorite curse word was “cunt,” and that fighting for equal pay between men and women in Hollywood was “not [his] job.” (Also for the record, Renner never actually apologized for the Black Widow thing, merely releasing a sorry-you’re-offended statement and defending his remarks on Conan by saying he was calling a rock a rock.) But this is a new Jeremy Renner guys, a man willing to point out that basic gender inequality exists in Hollywood. Publicists: not so bad after all.

Renner: Hollywood Lacks ‘Badass Female’ Roles