Renner studied Filipino martial arts

Did you know that Jeremy Renner, star of The Bourne Legacy that started shooting in the Malate area yesterday, listed Filipino stick fighting (arnis de mano, I presumed) among the disciplines that he studied (also including world religion, sociology, criminology and Muay Thai martial arts)?

I learned about this from a recent issue the US magazine Details that featured him on the cover.

I’m not sure though if Renner is using his knowledge of the Filipino martial arts in his role as an agent in what the Details article described as the “Matt Damon-less” fourth installment of the Bourne series written and directed by Oscar-nominated Tony Gilroy who, in a report, said that 40 percent of the movie is being shot here in Manila with co-stars, among others, Rachel Weisz and Edward Norton. It was Damon who starred in the first three installments. Renner is playing an entirely different role.

Since Renner is here for more than a month (and there’s a chance that you might cross paths with him, ah, “somewhere”) maybe it will be helpful for you…for us!...to know more about him, more than the fact that he co-stars with Tom Cruise on Ghost Protocol, the fourth in the series of the smash-hit Mission Impossible franchise and the one that catapulted Cruise back to the top of the hit chart.

? The good news is that Renner has confirmed in an interview with MTV News that he’s set to take over the MI series from Cruise, saying, “I can’t predict the future and what they want but that’s certainly the idea.”

? Until he got an Oscar nomination for The Hurt Locker in 2009 for his role as Sergeant First Class William James of the Army Explosive Ordinance Disposal Unit (EOD), Renner was a virtual unknown even if he had been doing movies and TV shows for almost two decades. “A couple of years ago,” noted the Details story, “nobody would have recognized his name at all.” Meaning, he could have stood beside you at a bar and you wouldn’t have been able to tell him from Adam. It’s a different story now. “It’s not normal,” Renner was quoted as saying, not expecting to hit the big time after languishing in anonymity. “It’s just not normal.”

? He’ll be seen next as the arrow-slinging Hawkeye in The Avengers with Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Chris Hemsworth and Samuel L. Jackson; and in the ready-for-release action-comedy Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters.

? At 40, Renner is unattached, quoted by Details as saying, “I never dated, because I couldn’t afford to date,” since his work takes all his time and attention, something that he loves so much that, he added, “The sacrifices I made in personal relationships had the biggest effect on my life. Even now, any woman would take a No. 2 seat to my job.” According to Details, Renner’s longest relationship when he was in his 20s lasted for five and a half years. Marriage is not in his radar because he said he couldn’t see himself as a “solid provider.”

And did you know that Renner used to earn a living by renovating houses with actor Kristoffer Winters, the best friend he refers to as “my brother.” He would live in the house during construction even without electricity and indoor plumbing.

(E-mail reactions at [email protected]. You may also send your questions to [email protected]. For more updates, photos and videos visit www.philstar.com/funfare or follow me on www.twitter/therealrickylo.)