Jeremy Renner’s Reality TV Past

Jeremy Renner tackles some seriously heavy subject matter as a bomb defuser in The Hurt Locker. But before he landed that role, he dabbled in…reality TV?

It’s true: before he was Oscar nominated for his role in the Iraq war drama, Jeremy had his life documented on Bravo’s 2002 reality series The It Factor. The show followed several struggling actors as they tried to catch their big break.

Uh, whaaaat? That’s pretty surprising news, because reality TV isn’t the type of medium we would’ve expected from the no-nonsense actor. We get the vibe that he takes himself very seriously, and reality doesn’t usually jive with that kind of outlook.

Last year, Jeremy did an interview blog Reality Blurred, where he talked about his experiences on the show. “I learned a lot about myself,” he said. “I was pretty private and exposing myself to whoever watched it was kind of hard for me, so it was a good lesson to learn.”

Were you surprised that Jeremy was once a regular on a reality series?