While I attended an expense paid trip by Disney to the press events for Avengers: Age of Ultron and Monkey Kingdom, all opinions and views expressed are 100% my own.
Ready for more Marvel’s AGE OF ULTRON interviews? Hopefully you’ve been following along my #AvengersEvent coverage here on the blog! Today I have another interview for your reading enjoying… Below is the chat us bloggers had with Cobie Smulders, who plays Agent Maria Hill, and Jeremy Renner, known as Hawkeye! Though let’s recap first. Be sure to check out interviews with Captain America and Thor aka Chris Evans and Chris Hemsworth, Marvel newcomers Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Quicksilver) and Elizabeth Olsen (Scarlet Witch), director Joss Whedon, and Kevin Feige, the President of Marvel Studios.
I previously participated in a group interview with Cobie Smulders for the film DELIVERY MAN (in which actually during that interview she hinted that she was potentially shooting THE AVENGERS sequel). She was super friendly and personable then, and I was happy to see she is still just as down to earth. Jeremy Renner was great to interview too! When he first walked in the room, I think the amount of bloggers might have shocked him! He immediately quipped “Ooh, I feel like a fox in the hen house!” Cobie was quick to point out to him that it wasn’t all “mommy bloggers.” She spotted the two “daddy bloggers” in the room.
Photo Credit: Jana Seitzer / MerlotMommy.com. Text edits by me.
** WARNING: THIS POST MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!**
(To Jeremy) I saw you as a great role model for dads. How do you see that as your character?
Jeremy: As far as like a role model I don’t know. I think you’d have to ask my daughter if I’m a good daddy role model! I think it’s a cool aspect to the character that was brought up. It was brought up actually for the first Avengers, but not even nearly as cool because they were gone. In this one, it’s a fantastic sort of reveal that he’s a daddy, and that’s what he fights for. I think it’s a very emotional for me personally, it’s a very emotional thing. I think just in general that the audiences can kind of grab on to that. It’s something very real.
I love the scene where you’re coughing ‘testosterone’!
Cobie: There is a lot!
How was it to film, to be this awesome woman agent with all men?
Cobie: 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. But maybe it’s because this is our second (film)… We all get along so well. I don’t feel that divide on set. All the guys are really great and nice and handsome. Every single one of them, some more than others.
Jeremy: (Jokingly) In the dark.
Cobie: But it is fun. We have some strong females, Scarlett and now Lizzie. It’s just nice seeing more women coming into these films.
Jeremy: It’s good for us too. Seriously. I mean I love Hemsworth. But… you know…
Photo Credit: Jana Seitzer / MerlotMommy.com. Text edits by me.
(To Cobie) You previously mentioned for this role you thought you were just going be serving coffee in the very beginning. So you’ve been in several movies since then. So how did you feel about entering the role for this movie?
Cobie: (Jokingly) Well, I feel like I might still be making coffee! But at Stark Tower there is really nice espresso machine. So it’s like really fancy coffees. But no, I don’t think I’m serving coffee anymore. In the comic books Maria Hill has her own story line. She’s very smart. She’s very independent. She’s very controlling. It’s cool to see how, now that this team is sort of under Tony’s protection and sort of funded by him, is working in terms of privatizing security, and her dealing with that. So it’s fun to sort of be a part of the team, but also to be managing everybody as well or trying to anyway.
Did you have a favorite scene to shoot for the film?
Jeremy: No, I don’t believe in favorites. I think they’re all equally torturous and wonderful.
Cobie: I shot all of my scenes in Stark Tower or the Avengers Tower now it’s called. I’m sure you guys all saw the movie. How amazing was that set? It was all one set. I mean anytime that anyone was in the lab that was still on the same set.
So where Tony was working on his suits was right below it. Then the bar was just a few feet away thank goodness. To me, it was really cool to play all these scenes out in one location. It really sort of helped with performance as well.
Photo provided by Walt Disney Publications. Text edits by me.
How did you physically prepare for the movie? What was the hardest scene for you both to film?
Jeremy: We train. We’re in the gym lifting weights, hurting our bodies. The hardest scene to film? I don’t know. They’re all quite difficult I think. The first scene we shot was the end of the movie in Italy where the chaos is going. When there’s a lot of moving parts that’s where it gets a little tricky. Then the moving parts aren’t really there in real life. So that’s a little trickier. You’re stabbing things with arrows that don’t exist and then firing arrows that don’t exist to things that don’t exist.
It’s a little tricky. And also to be precise with it and the camera angles. It’s just technical. That makes it quite difficult because all moving parts. But to me I think it’s fun because it’s like a dance. There’s a technique to all that stuff.
Cobie: Every time these movies come up, a couple months before you start working out. I did a few stunts in this one, not as much as the super heroes in the film. But it’s good to get in shape. In terms of the most difficult scene, I feel like in this movie there’s a lot of scenes where we’re all in the scene together…
Jeremy: Those are all difficult scenes, right?
Cobie: We have a lot of fun together. So it’s a hard group to wrangle as well. But these scenes… we take multiple days to shoot them because there’s so much coverage. So on the third day you’re ‘Wait, what are we doing?’ and like ‘What is the scene? And what did I say?’ You sort of feel like you’re in this Groundhog Day where you’re just playing, you’re doing the same thing over. But you’re trying to remember exactly how you did it the day before. So that’s challenging. I mean that’s not a hard thing. But it can get a little bit tiring at times.
Photo Credit: Jana Seitzer / MerlotMommy.com. Text edits by me.
(To Jeremy) You had a bigger role in this movie. I have a feeling that as soon as it comes out and all the kids and parents will see it, and your character is just going to explode. How do you feel about that? Are you ready for that?
Jeremy: (Jokingly) I don’t know what that ultimately means! I think the greatest thing that I get out of this whole experience of being in this giant movie and the one prior, is that artistically it doesn’t like really hit a lot of like nerves in my body. But it certainly 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. That’s amazing… And then here comes his dad in the same costume. (Jokingly) A little creepy. That’s the creepy part!
But like when the little kids come on up to you, it just crushes me. I mean I’ll stop and do anything for a little creature, man. I’m crazy about them. So I welcome that, if it’s the little kids. (Jokingly) The grown a** people, stay out of the costume, man. Come on, I love you. I’ll see you at Comic-Con. That’s okay then!
Photo provided by Walt Disney Publications. Text edits by me.
Where do you want to see each of your character’s go in the subsequent movies?
Cobie: There’s so many different directions. There’s a plethora of comic books and cartoons and all these things that they could pull from. So for me personally it’s hard to say. It’d be cool to learn more about Marie Hill’s past and sort of how she came to be, where she is. But it’s hard to say. It’s very much under Marvel’s control. They’re very great at choosing great storylines. So we’ll see.
Jeremy: Yeah, I think for me, I have a lot of ideas. But it doesn’t really ultimately matter. I think the relationships are kind of what are interesting in this world with others. I’d just like to see the new ones start and others fade or deepen. I think that would be interesting. That’s what I’d be curious about the next upcoming ones.
(To Cobie) Agent Hill’s pretty great at shooting.
Cobie: She always hits him. I mean it’s like magic. That’s the great thing about being in these movies. You can shoot over here and that guy dies. Always hit your mark. It’s very exciting.
We get to see that on even SHIELD. We also get to see that in movies. Do you get to go to the gun range and practice before filming?
Cobie: I did a lot of that for the first one. I did a lot of training because I was actually quite terrified of guns. So I did a lot of that. I kind of got over that fear through doing the first one. Then the second one you always have a day or two with whichever crew member is in charge of that training beforehand. So I did that. I mean it’s very much just shoot in this direction. I hope I look like I knew what I was doing.
So we got to see Hawkeye at home. I think we’re all ready for Maria Hill at home.
Photo Credit: Jana Seitzer / MerlotMommy.com. Text edits by me.
Do you have an idea of what you think Maria Hill is doing when she’s off?
Cobie: 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 I don’t think that getting out into the world very often.
After the group interview, Cobie and Jeremy took a group photo with us bloggers. They were both super sweet and it was a great interview.
Photo provided by Walt Disney Publications. Text edits by me.
Of course after the interview I jumped on Twitter to start letting you all know how the interview went and little teaser tidbits. Much to my pleasant surprise… I saw the below tweet from Jeremy Renner! Yay!
Well hopefully you saw the film *hint hint nudge nudge*. Just in case you didn’t though, of course I included the trailer!
Avengers: Age of Ultron Trailer
Be sure to connect with the AVENGERS on Facebook and Twitter!
Marvel’s AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON is in theaters now!
Want to check out my Avengers inspired recipes?
Brooklyn Rueben Burger
Hulk SMASH Burger
M&M’s® Captain America Shield Pie
Captain America Berry Shield Tart
Thor Mighty Stuffed Burger
Want a glimpse back on my trip to Los Angeles? Be sure to check out my Twitter (@AshBG) and Instagram (@ashb4211), and look for the hashtags #AvengersEvent, #MonkeyKingdom, #LAZoo, #ABCTVEvent, and #AgentsOfSHIELD.
I can’t wait to start watching these movies. I’ve not seen one but with all these Marvel posts I want to start now.
my husband and son are really looking forward to this movie
I think I’ll plan a surprise for my husband and take him to the movies to see this. I really love Cobie Smulders and looking forward to seeing her in this role.
We saw the movie over the weekend! Although Maria Hill has only a small part, it was neat seeing her in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. also!
This was a great interview. I love how they addressed the whole male/female ratio thing. The thing about The Avengers is that in the comics there are a ton of female members, and Marvel has a HUGE well to draw on.