Update: Guillermo del Toro took to Twitter to clarify that Jeremy Renner actually turned down the role of Agent Myers, which wound up being played by Rupert Evans. That makes a little more sense.
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Jeremy Renner may be known around the world as Hawkeye in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but the actor flirted with another comic-book role much earlier in his career. While speaking on the Life is Short with Justin Long podcast, Renner revealed that he was once approached to play Hellboy in the Guillermo del Toro film but that he turned it down.
This took place after Jeremy Renner had starred in DAHMER but before his role in S.W.A.T., meaning that he was by no means well off and was still struggling to keep the lights on. Despite there being "a lot of money" involved, Renner turned the role down. "It never crossed my brain that, 'oh it'd be great to have that money,'" Renner said. "I still had to say no, because I didn't know a way into the character."
I was just reading the script and [thinking] like, ‘I don’t get this…’ I just couldn’t connect to it. 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.
Ron Perlman went on to play the role in HELLBOY and HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY, and I think we can all agree that he was the perfect fit for the character. As far as regrets go, Renner says that he has none. "There’s zero regrets, zero. Most of the time it’s like, ‘Oh, I’m glad I didn’t do it,’ and it made sense to me," Renner explained. "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." When it came to Hawkeye however, Renner saw a way in immediately. "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. "I would 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.' But Hawkeye, I'm like, 'great, I can do that.'" Jeremy Renner was recently seen in AVENGERS: ENDGAME.