E-mail a friendJeremy Remmer
airdate July 6, 2009
Jeremy Renner made a comfortable transition from the theater to both the big and small screens. His film credits include the biopic Dahmer, North Country and the war drama, The Hurt Locker. He's also appeared in TV movies and series and is a regular on ABC's The Unusuals. Before his multiple Independent Spirit Award nods, the California native worked as a makeup artist, auditioned and performed in small theaters. Renner also writes, records and performs contemporary rock and continues to perform in L.A.-area productions.
Actor discusses his role as a member of a highly trained bomb disposal team and the dangers these brave soldiers face on the field. (1:49)
Full interview. (9:42)
Jeremy Remmer
Tavis: In the critically acclaimed new film, "The Hurt Locker," Jeremy Remmer stars as a U.S. Army bomb squad sergeant, a job considered to be one of the most dangerous in the world. The film is now open in New York and L.A., and opens in nearly 20 cities this weekend. Here now a scene from "The Hurt Locker."
[Clip]
Tavis: To that scene, right quick, Jeremy, what'd you learn, or what'd you take away from how one stays calm in a job like this amidst that kind of chaos?
Jeremy Remmer: (Laughs.) I can't answer that question. You focus - it's laser focus. You focus on the task at hand. I'm only an actor playing that role, but as an actor I had to have that laser focus to (unintelligible) that IED or what suicide bomber, in that case. It's just laser focus, there is no chaos.
Tavis: When I saw that scene, I was like, if you're going to ever ask me - and nobody should ever do this - but if one's ever going to ask me to diffuse a bomb, you've got to be quiet. (Laughter.) All this screaming and yelling and running around, and that - I can't concentrate.
Remmer: Right. But think about something you're really good at - like are you a good cook?
Tavis: I'm not good at anything.
Remmer: The thing about a skill set that you're really good at, it becomes very easy. These guys, EOD are not afraid. They know what they're doing when it comes to something, like, this size that could vaporize this building. They know it inside and out, backwards, forwards, how it was built before they even walked up to it, a lot of times. That's easy.
The chaos around, that's - there's no distractions because this is your focus, and that's it. The only thing in this room is this cup, it's just that simple.
Tavis: A lot easier said than done, yeah.
Remmer: However, a lot easier said than done. I'm just an actor playing that role. My life isn't on the line. The interesting thing that I found most about EOD was that - and it wasn't the bomb that they were afraid of. It was the guys - it was time on target, spending time down-range, squatting over a 155, let's say. They're worried about the guy in the building, somewhere else, with a gun, shooting at them. They don't like to get shot at.
Tavis: Let me let you give the top line, what the storyline here for the film is.
Remmer: The storyline, essentially, it's a backdrop is Iraq war. It's about the warfare. It's really, to me, three guys doing a fascinating job. It's EOD, explosive ordnance disposal. It's part of the Army, it's a volunteer part of the Army, which makes it even more fascinating, why someone chooses to do what they do.
And these three characters, you follow them in their journey, how they deal with life and death and their job that ends up being I think one of the most fascinating jobs on the planet, and most dangerous.
Tavis: Having played this role, and I recognize you're an actor, what's your take now on why someone would sign up, why someone would volunteer to do this?
Remmer: I asked the question a lot, and I always got a different answer. Some people were career military and just wanted an upgrade in pay, perhaps. Or some - I think a little bit more than others is it's a heightened sense of accomplishment, maybe.
The through-line that they all had was what they did after EOD, and they all became civil servants or stayed still in EOD, still working on base, and I met a few of those guys that were will just render safe ordnance. But police officers - you become the job. Once your life is your job, it's hard to go back to something else where you just punch in and punch out and go home and make some eggs for the kids or something.
Life takes a turn. It's hard to kind of go back. And I think this film kind of touches on that for some of these characters.
Tavis: Tell me more specifically about the character you play.
Remmer: James is - it's a little bit closer to that kind of guy. It's what he was born to do. It's what he's the greatest at. And there are a lot of sacrifices that one has to make, obviously, in doing something like that. He's very complicated. I still don't know all the answers to what makes him tick. There's no decision to be made, I feel like, if you're James, to do what he does. There's just no decision.
Tavis: There is a - how do I put this? There's a lot of buzz on this film, which it's a great film, but there's a lot of buzz on it which caught me by surprise, initially, and only because there have been a number of Iraq films that have not worked. But there's something about this storyline, something about this that's really created some buzz where the others have not done so well. What's your sense of why that is?
Remmer: Initially because I don't think it's really - it doesn't really touch on war at all, or politics at all. There's no sneaking message about loving, hating anything. It's about these people. And I feel like in cinema if you are engaged with the people, you're engaged. It doesn't matter what it is.
So not that - I've seen a few other films about the Iraq war that I thought were pretty decent. This could be about three bullfighters, my friend, it really could -- a fascinating, dangerous job that not a lot of people know about. So it's about these characters and if you fall for these characters then you'll enjoy the movie. And it's something that sticks with you, and it just happens to be that it's prevalent, it's happening right now.
Tavis: I talked to Kathryn Bigelow, the director, on my radio show about this movie not long ago, and I said to her, which I will now say to you, that I was fascinated - and screenwriter as well, whose name I'm blanking --
Remmer: Mark Boal.
Tavis: Mark - yeah. I said to both of them in the radio conversation that I was surprised at how they could do a film that was this complex and avoid the politics. Because it's so hard to do something about Iraq these days and not, to your point, sneak in those political messages.
They did a really good job of staying away from the politics of it. So to your point, I think you do connect to the humanity or the struggle to find the humanity in these characters.
Remmer: Right, right, absolutely. Absolutely. Really, I don't think there's much story. You've seen it, it's a cryptic sort of tale, it's a day-in and day-out, the last 38 days of these three guys, their rotation. And there's hundreds upon thousands of other people doing the exact same thing but it's just these three guys' journey in these last 38 days, and it's sort of - I think Kathryn says it pretty well; it's a boots-on-the-ground feel. You're like the fourth guy on the team in the humvee in this movie.
It's sort of an experience that sort of yanks you in. Doesn't even ask you to come get involved in this movie; it just yanks you in and takes you for a ride.
Tavis: So you got a movie about these guys, and certainly there are more women now than ever serving our country and we certainly - my hat's off to all the women and men who serve our country. And yet you have a woman who's directing this film about these guys, and they're such guys. What do you make of that? What's the experience like?
Remmer: Well as a woman, physically, for her to do the things that we all had to do - everyone had to do the same thing during the 125-degree heat. She astounds me. But she's a filmmaker. She is extremely intelligent, and she's a voyeur, she's a painter, and she just needs to capture. She doesn't need to know much else.
When you're a voyeur you're really good at assessing things, everything going on around you. She knows what conversation's happening over here right now or anything that's going on. She's hyper-aware of everything, and all she has to do is capture.
To direct us was a conversation like I'm sitting with you now, Tavis. It's just a conversation, and then let us go do our thing that we trained to do on our own.
Tavis: But she pulls it off.
Remmer: Yeah, and then she has a career of making pretty stellar action movies. She's just got that in her.
Tavis: It's a special gift, and I was just like in this war thing, it's a really interesting thing to see how she got into that world of these guys, understood it on some level, obviously, brought it to life, and made it happen.
Remmer: Yeah, and I think because of Mark and his experiences, these are pretty detailed and true accounts of the things that do happen and have happened and continue to happen right now in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Tavis: I want to close with something you said earlier in this conversation about the fact that even after having played this guy you're still not sure you understand him. He's still a little complex. What's that like to spend this much time investing in yourself, invested in a character, to put it another way, and finish it and say, "I'm still not sure I understand this guy."
Remmer: That's fulfilling, to never have a finish line. It's fulfilling. It's like a relationship that I've had with this character. It's always growing. I don't think about him too much anymore; only here because I'm talking to you about it, every once in a while when I get a little clip of the film. But yeah, it's fulfilling. That's all I've got to say about it.
Tavis: That's fascinating. Interesting. Jeremy Remmer is his name, of course. The new film is called "The Hurt Locker." It is, as I said earlier, I think, to my mind, at least, probably the most talked-about film connected to Iraq of all the ones that have come out. You might want to check it out and assess it for yourself.
Again, "The Hurt Locker," in theaters increasingly around the country as we speak. Jeremy, nice to have you here.
Remmer: Hey, thanks for having me.
Tavis: Great work, man.
Remmer: Appreciate it.
Tavis: Glad to have you on.
Remmer: Thank you so much, buddy.
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