During the Avengers press event a few weeks ago, we had the pleasure of interviewing Cobie Smulders and Jeremy Renner of Avengers: Age of Ultron. Cobie (Agent Maria Hill) and Jeremy (Hawkeye) provided a great interview session. Jeremy even admitted via tweet that he’d never heard of “mommy bloggers.” but had an amazing time with us.
If you’ve seen the movie already, you know that Jeremy’s character, Hawkeye, had a great storyline in this feature film. If you haven’t seen the movie yet, please note that parts of this interview may contain spoilers, so feel free to bookmark it to read after you’ve viewed the film.
Q: I saw you as a great role model for dads. How do you see that as your character?
I think you’d have to ask my daughter if I’m a good daddy role model. It’s a cool aspect to the character. It was brought up actually for the first Avengers, um, but not even nearly as cool because they were gone. And […] in this one, it’s (a) fantastic sort of reveal that, you know, he’s just– he’s a daddy. And that’s what he fights for ’cause I think it’s a very emotional– for me personally it’s a very emotional thing. I think just in general I think that audiences can kind of grab on to that. Because it’s something very real.
As one of the female lead characters in the film, Cobie was asked quite a few questions about her character’s development.
Q: How was it to film, to be this awesome woman agent and all men?
It’s fun. It’s very fun. I mean it’s interesting because people talk about that a lot with these films that there’s few females. And it’s a male driven film. But maybe it’s because this is our second one. We all get along so well. I don’t feel that divide on set. All the guys are really great and nice and, um, handsome. [LAUGHTER] Every single one of them, some more than others. [LAUGHTER]
We have some other strong females, Scarlett and now Lizzie. And it’s just nice seeing more women coming into these films.
Q: I have a question for Cobie as well. The last time we talked about the first Avengers in New York, you had said that you thought that you were just gonna be serving coffee in the very beginning. So you’ve been in several movies since then. How did you feel about entering the role for this movie?
Well, I feel like I might still be making coffees. But at Stark Tower there might be just a really nice espresso machine. So it’s like really fancy coffees. No, I don’t think I’m serving coffees anymore. […] I mean in the comic books Maria Hill is– she has her own story line. And she’s very smart. She’s very independent. She’s very controlling. And it’s cool to see now that this team is sort of under Tony’s protection and sort of funded by him, how that’s working in terms of privatizing security and her dealing with that.
Cobie even shared a cool fact about the filming of the movie…
How amazing was that set (In Stark Tower)? And it was all one set. Anytime that anyone was in the lab that was still on the same set. And where Tony was working on his suits was right below it. And then the bar was just a few feet away thank goodness. So that was really cool to play all these scenes out in one location. And it really sort of helped with performance as well.
So cool! There were so many scenes filmed in the tower. It’s difficult to imagine that all of those were filmed on the same large set.
Q: Jeremy, you had a bigger role in this movie. And I have a feeling that as soon as it comes out and all the kids see it, and all the parents see it, that your character’s just gonna explode. I mean I can see it being, you know, big. How do you feel about that? Are you ready for that?
I think the greatest thing that I get out of this whole experience of being in this giant movie and the one prior is artistically it doesn’t really hit a lot of nerves in my body. But as soon as a five year old ran up to me that changed the game. I’m like, oh, wow, I have a five year old (fan). And that’s amazing. When the little kids come on up to you, it just crushes me. And I mean, I’ll stop and do anything for a little creature, man. I’m crazy about them.
Finally, we asked Cobie about Agent Hill’s personal life, or lack there of.
Q: So we got to see Hawkeye at home. And I think we’re all ready for Maria Hill at home. I was wondering. Do you have an idea of what you think Maria Hill is doing when she’s off (duty) if she ever really (is)?
Oh, I feel like she sleeps in the Avenger’s Tower. Like her desk just kind of converts into a bed. And she gets her two hours. And then she springs back up and gets back to work. I don’t think she gets a lot of time off. I don’t think she has much of a personal life. It’d be an interesting thing to explore for sure. But yeah, I don’t think that she’s getting out into the world very often.
