Jeremy Renner was almost the fiery crusader known as Hellboy.
The actor joined Justin Long on his podcast “Life Is Short” and revealed he turned down the lead role in Guillermo del Toro’s 2004 film “Hellboy”.
“I was just reading the script and [thinking] like, ‘I don’t get this…’ I just couldn’t connect to it,” he said.
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“I said, ‘I can’t find a way in [to this character], I don’t know what I’d be doing,’ so I had to say no,” he continued.
However, Renner has “zero regrets” since turning down the role. “Most of the time it’s like, ‘Oh, I’m glad I didn’t do it,’ and it made sense to me. Not just ‘Hellboy’ or whatever it was, and I’m not saying that it’s a good or bad movie, it’s not about that… I just wouldn’t have fit there,” he said.
Thankfully, he hit the bullseye when he was cast as Hawkeye in the “Avengers” films.
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“When they showed me my character… it’s like, ‘Oh, that’s great, it’s just a guy with no superpower — he’s just got a high skill set.’ I can actually attach to that,” Renner said, adding, “I’d have passed on [the role of] Thor all day long — not that I’d ever be cast in that — but like, that kind of thing I’d be like, ‘I don’t know how to do that, I’m sorry.’”
Ron Perlman went on to play Hellboy in the 2004 film and its sequel, while “Stranger Things” star David Harbour took over the role in the 2019 reboot.
