Jeremy Renner Talks About How Being on the Set of HAWKEYE Helped Him in Making the Series MAYOR OF KINGSTOWN

Jeremy Renner is busy at work bringing two new series to TV before the year is out. This month we will get to see him in the Paramount+ drama Mayor of Kingstown, followed by his MCU series Hawkeye at Disney+. These two series have very different tones, and with Renner making them back to back, it had to feel strange making the jump from lighthearted and fun to dark and depressing.

I got to ask Renner exactly what that experience felt like in a recent press junket for Mayor of Kingstown, and he surprisingly said it helped:

“Both these shows were back to back, and yeah, I didn’t realize it until probably halfway through Mayor of Kingstown, because you know, we were just talking about a scene on death row, someone being put to death, and I’m like, ‘I was just in a scene with a Christmas vibe, in New York,’ and I go, ‘You know, this is really heavy.’ I just remember having a shift, probably not even halfway through Mayor, of just wanting to like shift the energy on set because a lot of the stuff we were doing, it could be heavy, right? And so I remember just shifting the off camera vibe to being a little lighter because it kind of weighs on you a bit, if that’s all you’re living in. But the transition from Hawkeye I think helped transition the set vibe a little bit. I don’t know how you can crack jokes on a set like Mayor of Kingstown, but somehow I did, and we had a really good time shooting it.”

This makes total sense. I thought it might be hard to get into the mindset of a character so different from the one that he just came from, but I didn’t even consider that the vibe behind the scenes can be so heavy when you’re dealing with such a dark and dramatic subject. It’s a good thing Renner was there to lighten the mood and have fun with his co-stars, bringing a little levity to set.

Mayor of Kingstown hits Paramount+ this Sunday, November 14th. Hawkeye hits Disney+ on November 24th. Are you looking forward to these two new series?