There are plenty of reasons why Jeremy Renner is walking through life with a smile on his face.
The 40-year-old actor picked up acting Oscar nominations the past two years and in 2012 he replaces Matt Damon as the new face of the Bourne action films.
Next year Renner will also play Hawkeye alongside Robert Downey Jr's Iron Man and Chris Hemsworth's Thor in the all-star superhero film The Avengers and as Hansel in the comedy-action fairytale Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters.
Renner, however, jokes his most impressive achievement took place while making Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol.
The achievement?
While Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol's number one star Tom Cruise was hanging outside the world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, located in Dubai, for what some are calling the most dangerous stunt performed in film history, Renner and his other co-stars Simon Pegg and Paula Patton were safely tucked away inside the 829.84m structure.
"We just had to sit inside and sip on some tea," Renner laughs in an interview with AAP.
"We didn't have to do all of that."
Cruise demanded to perform the stunt on his own so when audiences buy their popcorn and sit down for the latest chapter of the Mission: Impossible franchise they will not be seeing a stunt double hanging off the Burj Khalifa.
It is Cruise risking his life.
"Oh yeah," Renner, when asked if Cruise was enjoying himself, responds.
"He was having fun. He was smiling from ear to ear between takes.
"It is the tallest building in the world and twice the size of the Empire State building.
"That's a good comparison for Americans.
"I don't know if there's a building like that (the Empire State building) in Australia, but let's just say it's tall."
Renner plays Will Brandt, the chief analyst of US espionage agency the Impossible Missions Force (IMF).
When a terrorist bombing in Moscow destroys the Kremlin and the IMF is blamed, agent Ethan Hunt (Cruise), Brandt and IMF colleagues Benji Dunn (Pegg) and Jane Carter (Patton) are forced to initiate an independent operation known as "ghost protocol".
"Things go awry," Renner, born in Modesto, California, explains.
"Then everything shuts down, we become rogue agents essentially and hence ghost protocol.
"We are thrust together to overcome great obstacles and within that dynamic of the four agents you realise that not everybody is who they say they are or who they appear to be.
"It's a spy franchise and you never know with spies if they are good, bad or where their allegiances lie."
Renner first came to the attention of Hollywood executives and film critics with his Independent Spirit Award nominated performance as American serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer in the 2002 biopic, Dahmer, but it was not until 2009's The Hurt Locker, playing a member of a US bomb squad unit in Iraq, that catapulted Renner to the next level.
Renner received his first Oscar nomination for the performance and The Hurt Locker went on to beat Avatar for the best picture Academy Award.
In February Renner had to find himself another tuxedo after the Academy honoured him with a second consecutive nomination for his performance as a crook in the Ben Affleck bank heist film, The Town.
As the new face of the Bourne films, sharing the screen with Cruise in Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, The Avengers role and as the lead in Gretel: Witch Hunters, Renner finds himself being tagged as a movie star.
He is not sure about the label.
"If that's what that is, I have no idea," Renner shrugs.
"I have certainly enjoyed working. I can tell you that.
"There have been a lot of wonderful of opportunities I have seemingly stumbled across with Mission being the first big monster out of the gate.
"I enjoyed the heck out of that and ever since then it has been more action movies after that.
"Who knows what the future holds.
"Maybe a nap."
Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol opens in Australian cinemas on December 15
