1 of 5 | Season 4 of “Mayor of Kingstown” premieres Sunday. Photo courtesy of Paramount+
NEW YORK, Oct. 23 (UPI) — Avengers and The Hurt Locker alum Jeremy Renner says Mayor of Kingstown may be a drama about addiction, corruption, incarceration and murder, but that doesn’t mean the cast and crew don’t have fun making it.
“Nobody smiles on the show, right?” Renner, 54, said during a cast panel discussion in New York Tuesday night.
“It’s not like it’s the greatest sort of place to come hang out. It’s a prison. But we still do have a good time. We still enjoy each other’s company and it really is a really nice set to be on,” said the star, who is also a producer on the series.
“I think everybody feels really grateful for the job and everybody’s creative with what they do. We have a really great cast and really amazing crew. It’s a well-oiled machine, too. We move fast and we don’t mess around. It’s a good time, man.”
Broadway icon and Season 4 newcomer Laura Benanti confirmed this is true.
“Everybody’s really funny. I feel like I came on to the show not knowing what the ecosystem’s going to be,” Benanti said.
“Pretty quickly, I was like, ‘Oh, it’s everybody just making fun of each other,’ which is my love language. So, that felt really easy and nice. And I think that camaraderie allows, in a way, for one to feel safe in a scene that feels really dark and hard to do,” she added. “People might be surprised by how much humor there actually is on set.”
Viewers might also be shocked to learn how easily the Kingstown family — including Renner — jokes about the actor’s real-life, near-fatal Sno-Cat accident in 2023.
Hugh Dillon, who created the show with Taylor Sheridan, said he grew up in a Canadian prison town and worked at hospital with sick kids, so he was used to gallows humor.
“The surgeons and the people who worked there always had a real killer sense of humor and it’s funny how, to me, history repeats itself, with J.R., who was like: ‘I’m good. Don’t touch me!'” Dillon said.
“He sets the tone for us and we work long hours, and that is real winter and it is cold as hell,” the writer-producer recalled, adding that Renner’s extraordinary recovery and work ethic are inspirational to all who witness it.
Benanti said Renner’s strength made her feel guilty for complaining that she was shivering while filming scenes for the Michigan-set drama.
“One day, we were outside and Jeremy was in a peacoat and I was like, ‘Can I have four blankets and a hat?'” she quipped.
“And, then, I thought to myself: ‘That guy died. I need to get my [expletive] together.’ His eye popped out and he’s out here in the freezing cold. I think that I can not have hand warmers.”
Dillon jumped in saying, Renner can stop people “in a heartbeat” by saying: “I’m cold. Where’s my coffee? I almost died.'”
Renner, who has joked about having a “tin body” after his accident, laughed and hung his head as his collaborators roasted him.
“But it’s a lot of fun, really,” Dillon said. “That’s kind of what brings us together. The work is serious. As soon as we say, ‘Action,’ we’re in it and it’s collaborative and exciting — all the things that I dreamed it would be when I started out.”
Renner said he feels like each season gets better as the cast and crew hone their skills.
“By the time we got the third season, we kind of knew what we were doing, but the accident happened — the damn Sno-Cat stupid thing. We had a good thing going,” he said. “We really had a great season, Season 3, in the end.”
Because he was still recovering from his extensive injuries, a lot of the show’s narrative shifted off of him and onto other characters that season.
“I think that actually really helped open it up a lot for other characters to grow more and I think we learned a lot in that,” Renner said.
“So, it was a blessing in disguise to have taken a ride in that Cat that morning. There’s some good things that came out of it,” he added. “This season is going to even crush Season 3.”
Audience support will have a lot to do with whether the show returns for more seasons after this one.
“I think I’ve got a couple more in me,” Renner said.
Season 4 premieres on Paramount+ on Sunday and Renner describes it as “a downhill roller coaster, out of control, no breaks.”
“If you go to the bathroom while watching the show, you’re going to have to press pause because something will happen and you’ll be like, ‘What?’ It’s insane.”
Benanti, Edie Falco and Lennie James join the ensemble this year, alongside returning stars Dillon, Taylor Handley, Tobi Bamtefa, Derek Webster, Hamish Allan-Headley and Nishi Munshi.
Jeremy Renner attends the Palm Springs International Film Festival Awards Gala in Palm Springs, Calif., on January 5, 2010. Photo by Phil McCarten/UPI | License Photo
