Jeremy Renner faked heart attacks as Hawkeye while filming The Avengers in hopes that he would get his character killed.
Renner was speaking at the London Film & Comic Con about how Hawkeye was brainwashed by villain Loki to mindlessly bend to his will in the first scene of the movie. Two hours in and the character is finally free. For his first big break as the character, Renner said he was upset.
"I never really told anybody this, but in the first Avengers…I was just getting to know who Hawkeye was, and then zap, I go round like a zombie, I’m like Loki’s minion," Renner said, according to Radio Times. "I’m still not even sure who Hawkeye was at that point."
Renner would give the filmmakers the opportunity to kill him off. He would start clutching his heart in the middle of scenes and pretend to die.
“I’d just be walking with…Scarlett Johansson, and just like be ugh,” Renner said as he holds his chest. “And they said, ‘what are you doing man?’"
Renner has appeared as the character two more times in Avengers: Age of Ultron and Captain America: Civil War. Now, Renner wants the character to continue on.
"I don't really want him to die now,” Renner said. “I really got to explore him a lot, and I can’t wait to explore him more, and there’s some really cool ideas coming up."
Renner said some of those ideas are a couple of quality deaths.
"Amazing ways to die." Although this is the guy who tried to have his superhero just have a heart attack so I don't know if we can trust him on that.