From Taylor Sheridan (co-creator of Yellowstone) and Hugh Dillon, the 10-episode Paramount+ drama series Mayor of Kingstown follows the McLusky family in Kingstown, Michigan, where brothers Mike (Jeremy Renner, who’s also an executive producer on the project) and Mitch (Kyle Chandler) are the local power brokers between the inmates in prison and those that are paid to keep them incarcerated. In a town that must maintain a balance of corruption and inequality to survive, the definition of justice is bent to the point of being unrecognizable.
At the show’s virtual junket, Collider got the opportunity to chat 1-on-1 with Renner for this interview, which you can both watch and read, talked about why he said yes to this project without even reading a word, the fun of playing such a complicated character, getting a better sense for who Mike McLusky is, whether he views Mike as a criminal, and having conversations about a long-term plan for the series. He also talked about how the Hawkeye Disney+ series came about and how nice it is to learn more about a character that he’s played for a number of years now.
Collider: I love a good character study and it seems like no matter how many layers you peel back with this show, there are just endless layers underneath those layers. Is it more challenging or is it more fun to play someone like that, where it seems like no matter how many layers you peel back, you’ll never get to the last one?
JEREMY RENNER: It’s more fun. There’s always something. You’re doing this in real time with the audience, which is really interesting because there’s a lot more to explore and there’s always more to do. You’re like, “What’s gonna happen?” The audience is gonna be behind in this form of storytelling for a bit, and then they’re gonna catch up and be like, “Okay, fuck, now what’s gonna happen?” And then, they’ll start to get a little bit ahead of the lead character. That’s always one of the challenges. The writing starts there, and then you have a great cast around to help support all of that storytelling. That’s really such a treat.
How much better do you feel you know this character now? Do you feel like you know him better than you did when you started?
RENNER: Yeah, for sure. There was a lot I had to learn about, within the shorthand of the prison dialogue and what all of this stuff meant because it’s spoken so off-the-cuff and slang-like. That’s where the audience is gonna get a little bit behind, for that. But the more we make sense of it and we show it, then they’ll get what we’re talking about. Taylor [Sheridan] writes it that way because it’s the truth of the matter. We don’t pull any punches. Everything in it is there for a reason. We spend time on that death sequence for a reason. That’s part of what this world is. You don’t just gloss over it. You sit in the room and watch it, and you show the process of the whole thing. It puts you more into that world. It’s unapologetic, but it’s truthful. It’s sometimes harrowing, sometimes uncomfortable, sometimes it’s even funny, but there’s something unapologetic about Taylor’s writing.
When someone that you’ve already built trust with, like Taylor Sheridan, sends another project your way, is it an immediate yes? Do you still want to read it first before committing to it? Do you want to at least pretend like you’re reading it first, so he doesn’t think too eager? How do you gauge that with him?
RENNER: It’s getting enough information about what the story is. When we’re diving into, he spells it out for you very fast and paints the world. I already know his writing so well. I know him as a friend, and we’ve worked together. I said yes without reading one word, trusting that I knew an idea or a fraction of what it was gonna be like. He’s exceeded my expectations about what it is and will be.
One of the characters in this makes a statement that has really stuck with me since watching this. He says, “You’re born, you suffer, you die,” which seems like a fitting statement, especially in a town that’s essentially surrounded by a prison. Does that feel like a fitting representation of the entire season?
RENNER: In some ways, in the perspective of, if you’re blind, you suffer and you die.” Taylor has these one-liners, in all of his writings, about suffering. Suffering is a good thing. Whether it’s through character or actions, he’ll always have that shift, or he’ll force at least a different perspective for the audience to understand. That’s where thematic things start kicking in. If we’re all treading water and in shades of gray, that is something that could be thematic in this. It attacks certain social issues and racism and different inequalities that happen in the prison system. There are gonna be a lot of different things that that are gonna layer throughout this thing, and then solutions that come with them.
At the same time that this is coming out, we’re also getting to see more of you with Hawkeye. Was Hawkeye a character that you’d always hoped you’d get to dig a bit deeper into in some way, or did him getting his own series surprise you?
RENNER: We had talked about that. I talked about it with Kevin [Feige] at Marvel, and I was really excited. He said, “What do you think about doing a limited series on Hawkeye?” I was like, “I think that’s exactly where he needs to live.” He’s a character that we’ve now spent a lot of time with, but we don’t know a lot about.” We can spend a little bit longer in the longer form storytelling of at all, to have a greater understanding of Clint Barton, and why is what he is and who he is and where he comes from, and that type of thing. I was very excited to explore Clint Barton in a six-episode thing.
It’s also the character that you’ve played most on-screen. How does that experience feel, especially when you take someone who’s part of an ensemble and then he becomes the title character? What is that journey like, as an actor?
RENNER: You learn about the world and you learn a little bit about the backstory of things. There’s also a real confidence in knowing the character pretty dang well. It’s nice to know information and it’s nice to know how to challenge the information for the story. There was a comfortability already, going in, so then that was nice.
Is Mayor of Kingstown a story that you see continuing? Have you had conversations about how you could continue to explore this character and this family, in this town?
RENNER: Yeah, Taylor has had all of that stuff in his head. He’s the one that’s in charge of that journey. I’m sure he’s got seven seasons in his brain. How far it goes? I don’t know. But yeah, we’ve spoken about some of the long-term stuff with different characters and stories. But we’ve gotta do these first 10 [episodes] first. That’s what I focused on.
How do you view this family business? Do you see Mike as a criminal? Does he have himself convinced that there’s a line he will never cross, or does that get blurrier?
RENNER: It starts off as an outreach center, as an advocate for inmates. That’s the initial job, but with that, when you give inmates voices, you have to understand other people’s jobs and the prison system itself and incarceration. It’s all swimming in different shades of gray. There’s nothing black and white about any of this. There’s always something looming. Because people also don’t understand why he has this power, or why they would call him the mayor. He was in prison for 10 years. He knows how that works. He has connections with the people in the prison, the leaders in the prison and outside the prison, and the prison guards because he knows everybody and he knows how it all works. He’s just trying to keep the peace. But lines can get blurred at any given moment, which makes it exhilarating to watch.
Mayor of Kingstown is available to stream at Paramount+.