Jeremy Renner says Robert Downey Jr. suggested breaking Chris Hemsworth's knee when they first met for 'Avengers' because he was too tall and good-looking

• Jeremy Renner recalled working with Chris Hemsworth on the set of the 2012 movie "The Avengers."
• Renner said Robert Downey Jr. jokingly suggested breaking Hemsworth's knee.

Jeremy Renner said his Marvel costar Robert Downey Jr. jokingly suggested breaking Chris Hemsworth's knee when they first met the Australian actor because they thought he was too tall and attractive.

"If you've ever played any sport, you're kind of joining a new team," Renner said during a new interview for the podcast "Armchair Expert" of being part of an ensemble cast in 2012's "The Avengers."

Renner actually made his Marvel Cinematic Universe debut as Clint Barton/Hawkeye in an uncredited appearance in Hemsworth's first standalone "Thor" film, released in 2011. Renner appeared in a scene midway through the film as S.H.I.E.L.D. agents infiltrated the satellite crash site where Thor's hammer landed.

Renner's archer was properly introduced the following year in "The Avengers."

In the superhero film, Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury reactivated the "Avengers Initiative" and assembled a group of extraordinary people to stop Loki (Tom Hiddleston), Thor's brother, from invading and conquering Earth with an army called the Chitauri.

The original Avengers team comprised Hawkeye, Thor, Tony Stark/Iron Man (Downey Jr.), Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans), Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), and Bruce Banner/Hulk (Mark Ruffalo).

"I knew Downey and I knew Scarlett before," Renner told the podcast hosts Dax Shepard and Monica Padman. "I just didn't know Hemsworth."

"From what I hear, he's a pretty great guy," Shepard responded.

Renner agreed, calling Hemsworth "amazing," but he explained that he didn't know that when they first interacted.

"On the first day, we're all kind of parading around in our costumes," the actor recalled. "So it looks like it's Halloween. We're excited and equally feeling ridiculous. I feel like we all kind of knew each other, somehow, some way. Except we didn't know this Hemsworth guy, because he comes from Australia."

Renner continued: "He's the tallest, he's the most good-looking. Downey was like: 'We've got to break his knee. We've got to take him out. This guy's too good-looking. He's too tall. He's too charming. Fuck this guy.'"

Renner, Downey Jr., Hemsworth, and the rest of the cast ended up becoming friends and costars over the next decade, starring in multiple MCU projects. To commemorate their long friendship, the actors (minus Ruffalo, who Renner said chickened out) got an Avengers tattoo with a design that paid homage to the six main characters.

Renner said their tattoos were a symbol of "our bond and love."

"The greatest thing that ever came from the last 11 years of the Marvel world, for me or even all of us, is the original 'A' six have been along the whole journey," he said. "There have been marriages and divorces and kids born and a lot of shifts and changes in our personal lives as well as our acting lives that we all share together in a very specific way."

Renner also described his costars as "family," adding, "You can't replace that or quantify it."

"Everyone's a celebrity in their own right," he said. "But a Marvel celebrity, especially as the original six, has just been a different kind of journey."