Oh, YES. Jeremy Renner covers the December/January issue of Details Magazine, all to talk about the slew of films he has coming out in the coming months. There’s Misson Impossible: Ghost Protocol, The Avengers, and Renner got the coveted Jason Bourne role after Matt Damon left the project. Now… I’m hot for Renner. I think he’s an amazing actor and a compact, sexy little dude. I get that not everyone feels the same way, although those of you not down with the Renner should just prepare yourselves for the Renner explosion coming in the next year. It’s going to be a whole lotta Renner, and I can’t wait. Anyway, you can read the full Details Mag piece here, and I’ve included some highlights. I like Renner’s interviews, by the way. He’s not full of himself, and his success came later in life and he wears his fame with an easy grace.

He loves his dog: He’s religiously unsentimental (“I don’t give a s–t about the past”) and unabashedly devoted to his cream-colored miniature French bulldog, Franklin.

How The Hurt Locker changed his life: “I feel blessed to be working these past 20 years in this business,” Renner says. “But when The Hurt Locker came around, it became another thing. And all it was is opportunity. I’ve been waiting for a role like that for a long time. I wasn’t getting any sign that said, ‘This is gonna turn out amazing for you,'” he says. “I wasn’t super-happy being so poor. Eating on $10 a month—probably not very good for you. But I loved what I was doing. Not every actor gives their life to do this job. Some just do it as a job. Well, it’s my life.”

His side-business renovating houses: “Me and my brother… would tinker around, and then someone would pay us twice what we put into it. So when I walked into an audition, I could just think about: ‘Can I contribute to this movie? If not, f–k it, I’ll go build a house.’ Building a house is like producing a movie. There’s no right way to do it but a lot of wrong ways. You have to be flexible and creative. You have to move fast, be prepared—or it quickly becomes costly. These sound like life lessons. It’s certainly affected how I approach my life.”

Big-budget action films and a diss at Transformers: Armchair casting directors are eager to place him in future Mission: Impossible films, hoping that his character, Brandt, rises from Cruise sidekick to inherit the franchise. Renner’s not so sure. “Other people can think ahead all they want,” he says. “I just focus on the task at hand and try to move on.” Despite the physical fun (and hefty paydays) that comes with big action series, he wants to keep doing the smaller, more personal films he’s always enjoyed. “I’m blessed to have cool roles in these big movies. Because nothing against Transformers, but thank God I don’t have to do a monologue to a robot. I don’t know how Shia, God bless him, does that.”

He’s friends with Charlize Theron & Colin Farrell: “I had to ask Charlize Theron, a very good friend, about going through an Academy Award campaign. She told me to take it moment by moment. Don’t f–king freak out, just have fun.” From his pal Colin Farrell, he learned to look everyone in the eye, treat everyone as an equal, and try not to let the whole nuttiness overwhelm him. “Colin had an interesting trajectory,” he says. “Not too dissimilar to what’s been happening to me, but he was much younger. He had five movies come out in one year. He exploded, then sort of imploded. One night I was talking with him—mind you, with some drinks in us—and he said, ‘I look at it this way: I could f–king always go back to Ireland and drink my f–king Guinness anytime.’ I hold on to that.”

Work is vacation: “This is the vacation. Work is trying to get a damned job. I skip to set every day.”

Tom Cruise on Renner: “Here he is, he’s a musician, he’s interested in design, he’s got a curiosity about life, and he’s just, in every way, an incredible dramatic actor.” For good measure, Cruise adds, Renner is “dynamic and an amazing athlete and very graceful with his action… A funny thing happened when we were shooting in Dubai,” Cruise says. He discovered that Renner has a little jig he does when he gets nervous, a spazzy little dance to loosen himself up. “I can’t even describe the Renner Stretch. He’s got a copyright on the Renner Stretch. I laughed so hard when he did it for me. I said this has gotta go in this movie. I said you gotta show [director Brad] Bird. You gotta show Bird! It’s gotta go in right before this tunnel sequence we do. So it’s in the movie. I don’t think I could do the Renner Stretch justice, but he’s an actor who’s not afraid to do that and go there.”

On dating: “I never dated, because I couldn’t afford to date. I didn’t even have electricity. You try to put a positive spin on it, like, ‘Hey, this is so sexy—look at all these candles!’ But I loved what I was doing. 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.” His longest relationship lasted five and a half years. That was in his twenties. Marriage was off the table because he couldn’t see himself as a solid provider. Or, as he puts it, “‘What the hell are you doing next week, motherf–ker, let alone 40 years from now? And are you willing to wipe my ass when we get old?’

He’s not seeing anyone now: “There’ve been a handful of girls over the last years. But it’s been very difficult. How does it go any further? I have a wonderful life, but it means nothing if it cannot be shared. That’s all I’m missing right now. It’s a little unbalanced for me. Right now the only thing consistent in my life is that little dog. That’s why I got it. I was getting really lonely. I needed somebody or something to be there with me through the whole journey.”

[From Details]

And yes, when asked directly about the gay rumors, Renner denies it, saying he doesn’t “pay attention to that horses–t.” At first I thought his comments on his lack of a dating life were oddly pronoun-free, but then he started talking about girls. I don’t know… at this point, I do buy that he’s straight. That’s mostly wishful thinking, though, because I love him so much.

Photos courtesy of Details.