Photo: Arturo Holmes/WireImage
Last week, Chinese filmmaker Yi Zhou accused Jeremy Renner of sexual misconduct and threatening to call ICE on her. In a series of Instagram posts and interviews over the past week, Zhou claimed that Renner sent her “unsolicited pornographic images” of himself in June. Shortly after the alleged messages, she says, Zhou and Renner began working together on two film projects: Chronicles of Disney, a documentary, and Stardust Future, an animated movie made with AI.
In addition to the film collaborations, Zhou and Renner became romantically involved, she said, recalling that Renner had “convinced me of his sincerity.” The pair’s relationships — both romantic and professional — apparently quickly soured. In an interview with the Daily Mail, Zhou said she went to Renner’s home for a meeting about their documentary in August, during which she claimed he “drank a bottle of wine alone and got angry” and was “yelling for two hours.” Zhou said she was “scared for [her] life” and locked herself in a bathroom, apparently texting a colleague that he was “violent.” At some point, Zhou wrote on Instagram, she “called him out privately about his past misconduct and asked him to behave properly, to respect me as a woman and as a filmmaker.” “He threatened to call immigration/ICE on me, an act that deeply shocked and frightened me,” she claimed. Zhou also said Renner has “refused” to promote their shared projects, instead “denying any personal relation or professional collaboration,” which she said has caused her “personal and reputational harm.”
In a statement to The Cut, a spokesperson for Renner called Zhou’s allegations “totally inaccurate and untrue.” Renner’s attorney, notorious Hollywood lawyer Marty Singer, also denied the allegations in an interview with People, calling them “false, outrageous, and highly defamatory.” According to Singer, Renner and Zhou shared a “brief consensual encounter” at a hotel in Reno in July before meeting for a second time in August. Singer claimed Zhou is now retaliating against Renner after he “rejected her romantic advances” and didn’t promote her projects. Asked about Zhou’s claims that Renner threatened to call ICE on her, Singer accused Zhou of “relentlessly harassing and threatening my client with hundreds of unsolicited and unwanted messages.”
On Friday, per People, attorneys for Renner sent Zhou a cease-and-desist letter that demanded she stop making any “defamatory communications” or spreading “false, fabricated and salacious lies.” Like Singer’s statement, the letter also reportedly claimed it was Zhou who “aggressively pursued a sexual/romantic/sexting relationship” and claimed she “has manufactured fake and outlandish claims … to generate publicity.”
In her statements on Instagram, Zhou said she was speaking out because Renner’s alleged actions are “unacceptable and emblematic of the imbalance of power that continues to harm women in our industry.” “If we don’t reveal what’s behind the curtain, can there ever truly be justice in this industry or in this world?” she wrote.
