“I wasn’t giving him a freebie”: Taylor Sheridan ‘Baited’ Jeremy Renner to Sign His Movie After Marvel Star Was Tired of Playing Hawkeye for Years

While his scripts and movies perfectly speak for just how brilliant he is, Taylor Sheridan’s excellence doesn’t stop there.

Though his ingeniously developed storylines and character arcs are one thing, what further sets him apart from nearly all the other mastermind legendary filmmakers and showrunners in Hollywood’s entire entertainment industry are his immaculate convincing skills.

This was especially evident with his 2017 crime/thriller masterpiece, Wind River, which featured Jeremy Renner in the lead. But surprisingly enough, Renner never wanted to take on the script because he was tired of playing a superhero for years.

In fact, had it not been for Sheridan’s genius operating tactics and convincing tricks, the MCU star just may have never signed on!

Taylor Sheridan Geniously Convinced Jeremy Renner for Wind River

Entertainment buffs know for a fact that Jeremy Renner has led one too many successful projects, with his mind-blowing performance as Hawkeye aka Clint Barton in projects from the MCU widely considered one of his best ones to date.

However, when it came down to Wind River, the actor seemingly had had enough.

According to Esquire, when filmmaker Sheridan sought him for the iconic role of the protagonist Officer Cory Lambert for his 2017 crime/thriller masterpiece, Renner was already “worn out from too many superhero flicks” and reportedly wanted to go on a break from acting.

But being the mastermind that he is, the Yellowstone showrunner had the perfect way to bring him on board.

As per what he shared in that interview with Esquire, Taylor Sheridan sent the script for the movie to The Avengers actor and told him that if he read even the first ten pages of it, Sheridan would deliver him “the finest bottle of his choice” and Renner could “pass with no hard feelings.”

But that wasn’t all there was to it.

There was a catch in this proposal, and this catch was that before accepting or passing on the script, the Mayor of Kingstown actor would have to answer a quiz to Sheridan based on what he had read from those first 10 pages of the script.

As the mastermind filmmaker said in the interview while talking about this offer to Renner:

I wasn’t giving him a freebie.

Needless to say, this trick seems to have perfectly worked because of how unpredictable Sheridan’s storylines are, and before he knew it, Renner was on board to give an outstanding performance as Cory — one that baffled even a veteran like Steven Spielberg.

Even Steven Spielberg Loved Jeremy Renner in Wind River!

While his performance was truly immaculate enough to leave just anyone starstruck, what’s amazing is that even legendary veteran and genius brains Steven Spielberg loved just how perfect of a masterpiece Wind River turned out to be.

According to that same coverage by Esquire, not only did the Jaws director call the 1883 show creator and runner that he saw his 2017 Oscar-winning piece and loved it, but also had a question for him: Did Renner’s Cory actually “blow away a coyote with his sniper rifle?”

Esquire even cites Spielberg as having said to Sheridan:

I don’t think you did, but I can’t see your homework.

To his assurance, Sheridan laughed and confirmed that no coyote was harmed, and the scene was just the result of Renner’s immaculate acting chops and the filmmaker’s pristine directing ones.

All of this being said, it seems now that using that tricky offer to get Renner immersed in his story was truly one of the best ideas by Sheridan to date, considering how, now, that performance ranks as one of the actor’s most star-studded performances to date!

You can watch Wind River on Prime Video.