“I would never have had the balls to do what he did”: The Superhuman Stunts Jeremy Renner Did for a $154M Movie Were Impossible for Even Batman Star Ben Affleck

The recent years have not been kind to Ben Affleck and Jeremy Renner. After their fiercely successful respective Hollywood careers spanning 25+ years and each enjoying a spot at the peak, for such tragedy and misery to befall both actors within 2 years of each other is nearly unheard of.

For Ben Affleck, his misery pertains more to the romantic/personal aspect of his life, as reports of his second breakup and first divorce from Jennifer Lopez flood the internet exactly 2 years after the celebrity couple got hitched. For Jeremy Renner, his fate is a bit more tragic and much more deserving of the public’s undying sympathies.

And yet, beyond the haze of nightmarish accidents and déjà vu breakups, one thread ties both Oscar-worthy actors together under a single title: The Town.

Jeremy Renner Leaves Ben Affleck Baffled in The Town

Despite being born in Modesto, California, there is something in the innate manner of Jeremy Renner‘s laid-back familiarity as a born-and-bred Bostonian in The Town that just makes one wonder why he didn’t nab the Oscar after all. The Ben Affleck crime thriller starring a who’s who of A-listers first took Hollywood by storm, not simply because of Affleck’s prodigious talent behind the director’s lens but also for capturing all the moody gloom and hardboiled noir of a blue-collar Boston.

In the district of Charlestown, once recognized as the bank robbery capital of America, the fates of two star-crossed lovers and a group of thieves, cops, and rivals intertwine in a tense standoff between the film and its audience. The brilliantly written plot, realistic character study, and incisive dialogue all round up in an amalgamation of one of the best crime thriller adaptations ever made to date.

However, what makes this film stand out even more is Jeremy Renner’s utter dedication to giving his character the send-off he deserved – a bold, daring, and original one. In a September 2010 interview with The Guardian, Ben Affleck reminisced about an action scene involving his co-star that almost foreshadows what Renner would go through on the sets of Tag 8 years later:

When Jeremy [Renner] runs across the street, those cars were stopping inches from him. I would never have had the balls to do what he did. I thought he was going to get hit every single time he did it.

In the end, The Town redeemed Ben Affleck for his former lackluster box office disappointments and catapulted Jeremy Renner to greater heights of A-list fame. The film starring Rebecca Hall, Jon Hamm, Blake Lively, Titus Welliver, and more, earned $154 million worldwide (via Box Office Mojo) against a production budget of $37 million. The Town currently holds a 92% rating on the film critic website Rotten Tomatoes.

Ben Affleck and Jeremy Renner Find Their Own Way

Even before Jeremy Renner began to gain widespread recognition for being the guy with the bow and arrow in a world full of gods, monsters, titans, and multiversal threats, he was doing wildly well for himself in Hollywood. The unconventional-looking actor first made ripples in the industry with his eerie role as the titular lead in Dahmer (2002).

Soon after came two consecutive Oscar-nominated performances from the actor in Katherine Bigelow’s universally acclaimed The Hurt Locker (2008) and Ben Affleck’s The Town (2010). Although the former exposed the audience to the grim truth of a war-torn world where comfort isn’t necessarily synonymous with safety, The Town reveals a side of Boston that breaks through the barriers of romanticism in a movie and exposes the ugly aspects of life and survival.

It is in this movie that Ben Affleck and Jeremy Renner first worked together as director and actor. Adapted from Chuck Hogan’s 2004 novel Prince of Thieves, the crime thriller brings out the best in Affleck, replacing his movie star slump (Gigli, Daredevil) with an Oscar-worthy turn as a director worth his salt. In return, Renner rose – once again – as an Oscar-recognized actor for a role that gifted modern pop culture with several quotable one-liners like, “Whose car are we gonna take?”

The industry pushed both actors toward their individual paths since then, as Renner ended up being one of the central characters shaping up the Marvel Cinematic Universe, enjoying the CBM juggernaut in its heyday and relishing in its old glory. Ben Affleck, meanwhile, made a mark as Batman during Zack Snyder’s controversial reign at DC, failing to launch his gritty and ambitious Caped Crusader solo, and repeating his Y2K-era Bennifer experience that once subjected him to much mockery and ridicule.

The Town is available to buy/rent on Prime Video.