There are some movie plot secrets revealed in this talk with Cobie Smulders and Jeremy Renner. Got that? There be mild spoilers ahead. Read at your own risk. Really, you’ve been warned. Now mind you, they’re mild spoilers. I’m not telling you here who makes it to the next film. I’m not giving away any major plot points. But still…I don’t want you mad at me if you get something out of this you wish you didn’t know because you haven’t seen the movie yet. And if you haven’t seen it yet, why not? It’s kind of a big deal.
Cobie Smulders and Jeremy Renner were our first interviews on the official Avengers: Age of Ultron press junket day. Jeremy said he felt like a fox in the hen house as soon as he walked in, then later compared it to a “Mommy & Me” class.
Just sat with an army of “mommy bloggers” Didn’t know that was a thing til now, but I LOVED it!! #aou #marvel
— Jeremy Renner (@Renner4Real) April 11, 2015
And then he tweeted about us. Sure, there were some men in the room. And some non-moms. But still…how cool is that?
And speaking of cool…I had the chance to talk to Robin Sparkles. I suppose since we’re talking about Age of Ultron I should think of her as Maria Hill…but come on. Robin Sparkles? OMG.
[bctt tweet=”A slightly spoilery chat with @CobieSmulders and @renner4real #AvengersEvent #AgeofUltron #AOU”]
Does Jeremy see himself as a role model for dads?
Jeremy: Yeah, I don’t know. It’s, as far as like a role model I don’t know. Those those are always hard to talk to. I think you’d have to ask my daughter if I’m a good daddy role model. I think it’s a cool aspect to the character that that was brought up. It was brought up, actually, for the first Avengers, but not even nearly as cool because they were gone… In this one, it’s [a] fantastic sort of reveal that he’s a daddy. And that’s what he fights for because I think it’s a very emotional, for me personally, it’s a very emotional thing…that audiences can kind of grab on to that because it’s something very real.
What’s it’s like for Cobie to be an awesome female agent surrounded by all of those men?
Cobie: It’s fun. It’s very fun. I mean, it’s interesting because people talk about that a lot with these films that there’s few females. And it’s a male driven film. But maybe it’s because this is our second one. We all get along so well. I don’t feel that divide on set. All the guys are really great and nice and handsome. Every single one of them, some more than others.
Jeremy: In the dark.
Cobie: But it is fun. I mean, we have some other strong females, Scarlett and now now Lizzy. And it’s just nice seeing more women coming into these films.
Jeremy: It’s good for us, too. Seriously. I mean I love Hemsworth. But, you know…
Cobie joked that she thought Maria Hill would be serving coffee to the Avengers in her first film. How does she feel about her role now?
Cobie: Well, I feel like I might still be making coffees. But at Stark Tower there might just [be] a really nice espresso machine. So it’s really fancy coffees. No, I don’t think I’m serving coffees anymore. It’s really cool. In the comic books Maria Hill has her own storyline. And she’s a very smart. She’s very independent. She’s very controlling. It’s cool to see how-now that this team is sort of under Tony’s protection and sort of funded by him-how that’s working in terms of privatizing security and her dealing with that. So it’s fun to sort of be a part of the team but also to be managing everybody as well. Or trying to, anyway.
Do they have a favorite scene?
Jeremy: No, I don’t believe in favorites. I think they’re they’re all equally torturous and wonderful.
Cobie: I shot all of my scenes in the tower-in Stark Tower-in the Avengers Tower now it’s called. I’m sure you guys all saw the movie. How how amazing was that set? And it was all one set. I mean anytime that anyone was in the lab that was still on the same set. And where Tony was working on his suits was right below it. And then the bar was just a few feet away thank goodness… It was really cool to play all these scenes out in one location. And it really sort of helped with performance as well.
How did they physically prepare? What were the difficult scenes in the film?
Jeremy: We train. We’re in the gym lifting weights, hurting our bodies…. [The] hardest scene to film? I don’t know. They’re all quite difficult, I think. The first scene we shot was the end of the movie in Italy where the chaos is going [on]. There’s a lot of moving parts, that’s where it gets a little tricky. And then the moving parts aren’t really there in in real life, so that’s a little trickier. You’re stabbing things with arrows that don’t exist and then firing arrows that don’t exist to things that don’t exist. It’s a little tricky to be…precise with it and the camera angles. It’s just technical. That makes it quite difficult because [of] all [the] moving parts. But to me, I think it’s fun because it’s it’s like a dance. And there’s a technique to all that stuff. But it is quite arduous.
Cobie: Every time these movies come up, you know, a couple months before you start working out. And, I did a few stunts in in this one-not as not as much as the the super heroes in the film. But it’s good to get in shape. And, in terms of the most difficult scene, I feel like in this movie there’s a lot of scenes where we’re all in the scene together…
Jeremy: Those are all difficult scenes, right?
Cobie: Yes, we have a lot of fun together. So it’s a hard group to wrangle as well. But these scenes…we take multiple days to shoot them because there’s so much coverage. So there is like on the third day you’re like, wait, what are we doing? And what, like what is the scene? And what did I say? And you sort of feel like you’re in this Groundhogs Day where you’re…doing the same thing over. But you’re trying to remember exactly how you did it the day before. And so that’s challenging. I mean, that’s not a hard thing. But it it can get a little bit tiring at times.
Is Jeremy ready for Hawkeye’s popularity to explode after his larger role in Age of Ultron?
Jeremy: As soon as a five year old ran up to me, that changed the game. I’m like, “Oh, wow…” And that’s amazing. And then here comes his dad in the same costume… That’s the creepy part. But when the little kids come on up to you, God, it just crushes me. I’ll stop and do anything for for a little creature, man. I’m crazy about them… I welcome that. If it’s the little kids. The grown ass people, stay out of the costume, man. Come on, I love you. I’ll see I’ll see you at Comic-Con. That’s okay then. Like we’re at Starbucks, dude.
What do they want to see for their characters in upcoming movies?
Cobie: There’s so many different directions. There’s a plethora of of comic books and cartoons and all these things that they could pull from. So for me personally it’s hard to say. I mean it’d be cool to to learn more about Marie Hill’s past and sort of how she came to be where she is. But yeah, it’s hard to say. It’s very much under Marvel’s control. And they’re very great at choosing great storylines. So we’ll see.
Jeremy: I have a lot of ideas, but it doesn’t really ultimately matter. I think the relationships are kind of what are interesting in this world with others and I’d just like to see the new ones start and others fade or whatever…and deepen. I think that’d be interesting. That’s what I’d be curious about.
Did Cobie practice at the gun range for this film?
Cobie: She always she always hits him. It’s like magic. That’s the great thing about being in these movies. You can shoot over here and that guy dies. Always hit your mark. It’s very exciting. I did a lot of that for the first one. I did a lot of training because I was actually quite terrified of guns…I kind of got over that fear through, doing the first one. And then the second one you always have a day or two with whichever crewmember is sort of in charge of that to do some training beforehand. So I did that. Um, but, like I said, I mean it’s very much it’s very much just shoot in this direction. And, you know, I hope I look like I knew what I was doing, but…most of the training came the first time around.
So what is Maria Hill doing when she’s not at work?
Cobie: Oh, I feel like she sleeps in the Avenger’s Tower-like her desk just kind of converts into a bed. She gets her two hour and then she springs back up and gets back to work. I don’t think she gets a lot of time off. I don’t think she has much of a personal life. It’d be an interesting thing to explore for sure. But yeah, I don’t think that she’s she’s getting out into the world very often.
Avengers: Age of Ultron is in theaters now.
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