A year ago, I was a much bigger fan of Jeremy Renner. So much has happened in that year though. His marriage spectacularly imploded and the divorce became a he-said/she-said of sketchiness, drama and bad feelings. Then Renner became one of the worst offenders during the promotional tour for Avengers: Age of Ultron. All in all… damn, Renner. I still think he’s a talented actor, but his personality isn’t so great. Anyway, Renner is the newest “Playboy Interview” and if you have a solid 20 minutes, you should just sit down and read the full thing because it is basically the most readable and enjoyable thing of the week because Renner… well, he has stories. He has thoughts. He’s not some vague “Kit Harington Says Words” pretty-boy whining about his life. You can read the full piece here. Some highlights:

Whether he’s afraid of guns: “A gun is a really easy and terrifying thing to be afraid of. I like guns now, but I have only a couple—a couple at this structure and one at another. I got good at them, and then I found a love for them.”

He doesn’t carry a gun: “No. For me it’s for home protection or sport shooting or target practice. I’m not a hunter. I spent a lot of time training for movies, shooting and getting comfortable with weapons. There’s no fear for me ever in a weapon now. I also have a few swords, but that’s because of what they mean to me; there’s a lot of history behind them. They’re all tucked away and hidden now that I have a baby.”

His altercations: “I’ve been in altercations, and there have been a few moments when I had to put someone down….A drunk guy in a bar—it’s always that scenario. A guy got really drunk and pushed Julia Stiles, my co-star [in the 2005 movie A Little Trip to Heaven]. I kindly choked him out and remedied the situation. I’ve also had to choke people out because they pushed my mom or knocked my sister down, but I’ve never felt like a badass.”

The gay rumors: “As a general rule I don’t respond to questions about my personal life. I’m not going to try to prove what I am or am not. It’s silly, right? When you google yourself and the first thing that comes up is “Jeremy Renner gay,” it’s like, “Oh, now you’ve arrived. You’re now a giant movie star.” So I just had a big laugh about it. I don’t care, ultimately, if that’s what people want to think, read and care about. F–king say whatever the hell you want about me. Look at where we’re at socially—leaps and bounds ahead of where we started. That’s an amazing thing. To suggest that it’s negative, that being gay is a terrible thing, a perversion or whatever—I just don’t get it. Don’t you wish we were in a world where we’re not shaming, judging and boxing people in?”

His Golden Globes “joke” about Jennifer Lopez’s “globes”: “I’d just watched the show’s opening monologue, thinking, Those girls, co-hosts Amy Poehler and Tina Fey, are so funny, awesome and pretty racy. So I went out, and then that happened. It’s my sense of humor. I don’t take things too seriously. I didn’t watch any of the Globes. I went to have a drink at the bar, and I kept hearing people all night saying, “Dude, that was the funniest thing,” “Bro, that was the best part of the show.” I was like, What are you talking about? I was clueless.

He says J.Lo was turned on by the joke? “Actually, Jennifer thought it was f–king funny and got a little sweaty and maybe even turned on by the whole experience. We partied at a couple of events afterward and had a good time. Other people started running their mouths about it. Everybody’s entitled to an opinion, but I can’t be bothered. We gave zero f–ks. I would have made a public apology if it really hurt her feelings. It was the complete opposite, and she’s gone on record as saying she thinks Renner’s hysterical.

His divorce: “I haven’t slept more than four hours a night in the past week. My skin’s breaking out. I’ve got dark circles under my eyes. I’m dehydrated. I look like shit. I felt pretty insecure walking into a photo shoot this morning, and I was running late because I had just gotten out of my fourth deposition for the divorce. I see anything that takes me away from my daughter, whether it’s something good like making Mission: Impossible 5 or something bad like my divorce, as a distraction and an obstacle. Now, if anything takes me away and I don’t get to see her, I just won’t do it. I don’t care what you pay me. All my energy goes toward her and her well-being. We split the time with Ava equally now. When it’s Daddy and Ava time, that’s all I do.”

[From Playboy]

There’s a ton of stuff in there, like how he lost his virginity or maybe the first time he ever used a condom, which involved Renner as a high school senior having sex with a high school freshman on his dad’s waterbed. That story is… not helping. As for the rest of it… some of you think Renner is gay, some of you don’t believe it. What I’ll say is that I like the way Renner talks about the gay question – considering his attempts to be seen as hyper-masculine with his “kindly chokings,” his answers about the gay questions could easily border on the offensive. But he’s consistently managed to sort of shrug his shoulders and act like there’s nothing wrong with being gay and if he was gay, he’d probably tell you.

Photos courtesy of WENN, Fame/Flynet.