Jeremy Renner On 'Mission: Impossible,' 'Bourne' And 'Avengers'

If you don't know who Jeremy Renner is yet, brace yourself; by this time next year, you'll be very intimately acquainted with him.

Breaking out in 2009's "The Hurt Locker," Renner earned his second Oscar nomination last year for his supporting work in "The Town." Those films made him an indie darling, but starting this week, he'll be in three of the biggest films of the next twelve months: "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol," "The Bourne Legacy" and "The Avengers." Not that he planned on such big exposure.

"It started off by me saying, 'Why not be in a movie that will play all over the world, but that still has something that I can do in it?' Why not?" Because of that, other things started to percolate," he told ComingSoon.net. "It wasn't about signing on to big action movies. It just kind of happened to be this way. It was kind of impossible for me to say no. As long as there was stuff for me to do character-wise, selfishly, it's just a bigger setting. A bigger stage. What an absolute blessing to be a part of that."

Renner may not hold on to "Mission" or "Bourne," as Paramount shot down rumors that he was taking over for a departing Tom Cruise, and Matt Damon says he wants to return to the amnesiac spy he made famous. But that's also just fine with Renner; after the fairy tale followup "Hansel and Gretel," he plans on doing some smaller films.

"I love to take risks," he said. "You're not going to see me do another action movie for a while. You're talking to a guy who just did four in a row. I'm looking forward to trying something else now."

For more, click over to ComingSoon.net.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story stated that Renner's Oscar nomination for his role in "The Town" was his first; it was his second.