For director Tony Gilroy, finding the ideal performers to give life to the screenplay was the most crucial element in putting together ‘The Bourne Legacy’. “Everything else can be pushed and fixed or wrangled in some way,” he says. “Acting is magic. I learned that a long time ago.”

To play the part of Aaron Cross, the filmmakers turned to Oscar nominee Jeremy Renner, a performer as comfortable with drama as he is with action. “The reason Jeremy’s such an amazing actor is that he is a complicated guy,” underscores Gilroy. “He’s sweet and he’s hard, and he lets himself draw on all of that, all the time.”

The director says that he’s a longtime admirer of Renner’s work: “I must’ve watched ‘The Hurt Locker’ 18 times. In every scene, he is molecularly involved with the physical aspect of what’s happening at the moment. This integrity that he has, this feet-on-the-ground awareness and this surprising, explosive intelligence, made Jeremy the perfect cousin for Bourne.”

Any concerns that the filmmakers might have had about Renner’s ability to transform into an action star were instantly assuaged. In fact, the director calls his leading man a “movie athlete.” Gilroy says: “Jeremy came to us at a really high learning curve. When they took him out to the track the first time, the reports were: ‘Oh my God. Wow. He can do this and this…and this…and this. We don’t have to double this!’ Jeremy’s so good that he actually was at the level where the insurance company got nervous.”

“Jeremy is an actor of such intensity and intelligence,” adds Smith. “We’ve seen in his performances that he comes out of the screen, grabs you by the throat and takes you on an incredible journey.”

After his Academy Award-nominated roles in both ‘The Hurt Locker’ and ‘The Town’, Renner went on to make his mark as an action hero in the blockbuster ‘Mission: Impossible—Ghost Protocol’ and this summer’s global juggernaut ‘The Avengers’. He says that he was a fan of the Bourne series and of one man’s performance in particular: “What Matt Damon did, and what the previous directors have done, was great.

For those who love the franchise, I’m not replacing Matt, nor would I want to. It would never have been interesting if I was taking over and playing the same character. Matt is always the face of Jason Bourne and always should be. I liked this script because it was a very interesting way of continuing the story while honoring what came before.”

The performer elaborates on Gilroy’s underlying premise that, although Cross travels in a world that is parallel to Bourne’s, Cross is not aware of Bourne. Renner reflects: “They don’t know each other, so this has a whole new spin on why these supersoldier spies are the way they are now. I hope I can bring a fresh perspective to it.”

Renner goes on to share that ‘The Bourne Legacy’ retains the realistic tone of the earlier films. “It doesn’t veer into the CGI world or massive explosions,” he says. “It stays authentic. It was important for me to want to find humanity within this character.” He found his filmmakers were just as interested in these concepts. “What matters is that there is believability in everything we do in the film. No matter what the stunt is or the setup, it’s all based in reality, truth and the potential of science. As an actor, that’s easy to grab onto.”

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