We’ve all heard about celebrities taking unusual jobs before they hit it big. Jeremy Renner is certainly no exception.
The “Hawkeye” star worked as a makeup artist early in his career to help pay the bills.
Renner, 51, got the gig after he had worked in a mall in the early 1990s as a fragrance model with a friend during the Christmas season.
“And, so after that was done and we made some good money, also made friends within the department because we’re pretty much the only guys in that sort of cosmetic department,” he told the “Armchair Expert” podcast.
Opportunity struck again quickly after the new year arrived.
“So, at the end of that gig, come January, there’s an opening at the Lancôme cosmetics counter,” he said. “I’m like, ‘Oh, I’m going to go over to the gals. I already know them.’ I’m like, ‘What’s going on? Let’s talk about this.’ And they already love me in a way, right? I knew nothing about cosmetics. So, I sit down and have a meeting with them. It’s like, ‘Tell us about your experience with makeup.’ I’m like, ‘Well, I do my own makeup.’”
The two-time Oscar nominee proceeded to say how he applied makeup while doing theater and then asked the two women who interviewed him why they wore makeup and why they wanted to look beautiful before explaining how he could offer a unique perspective.
“‘Wouldn’t it be interesting to get a man’s opinion on how a woman looks like with makeup on?’ he said. “So that was my gangster psychological way in. So I got the job.”
He wasn't too focused on skin care, electing to hone in on cosmetics to achieve his goal of showing women how to achieve the look they wanted.
"I was interested in more like the makeup part of it, only because of that statement, how I ended up applying makeup, ‘cause I wouldn’t touch a woman’s face unless she felt comfortable and realized I asked her the right four or five questions, first, and it’s not me trying to do anything else besides witness her and understand her," he said.
“‘How do I make this woman feel beautiful?’ because beauty comes from within, right here in your heart. This is only going to express that. That was my job as a makeup artist, in my eyes.”