Jeremy Renner Talks Starring in First-Ever Silk Super Bowl Commercial

Avengers and Mission: Impossible star Jeremy Renner is showing off his superheroics on a whole new stage — the Super Bowl. Renner will star in the first-ever Big Game advertisement for Silk, which marks one of his first onscreen appearances since recovering from his January 2023 snowplow accident. The Silk commercial, which has already been released online in the lead-up to the Super Bowl, stars Renner as he gets inspired by a sip of Silk Protein to, in the words of James Brown “feel good.” He then proceeds to make a breakfast for his real-life daughter, Ava with the help of Silk.

In celebration of his work on Silk’s “Feel Planty Good” commercial, ComicBook.com chatted with Renner about the unique and symbolic experience of working on the campaign amid his recovery. Plus, we spoke about his recent album inspired by his recovery, the upcoming third season of Mayor of Kingstown, and Hawkeye’s next appearance in the MCU.

49ers

ComicBook.com: First off, I know you’re a 49ers fan. How does it feel to be appearing in a Big Game ad when your team is playing in the game itself?

Jeremy Renner: It’s the extra icing on the cake, man. I mean, when we shot this thing, we didn’t know that the Niners — I was always thinking they’re gonna go, but it’s… Everything’s just kind of aligning, right now. All the stars are really aligning. I can’t wait, man. I’ll be there on Sunday. It’s super, super exciting.

Collaboration

How exactly did this collaboration come about? And what made this the perfect Super Bowl commercial for you to star in? 

Yeah, the partnership was on this campaign. It made a lot of sense to me, just because it was honoring, you know, a wink at the wellness in my recovery. And then having a James Brown song, “I Feel Good,” and their whole campaign slogan, and you know, by feeling “planty good.” made sense. What they didn’t know is that I was already using their product, the year prior, in my recovery. So another part of stars aligning and circles crossing and whatever the heck, it was happening here. I was saying, unless they had like some sneaky nanny cam in my kitchen watching me for the last year, how would they possibly know? Because no one knew this outside my family, that that’s what I used. So it just started [with] a natural, wonderful partnership. And then, what they put together as far as the campaign, I felt that was a great honor. And then they asked my daughter would be with me, and then when she said yes, I’m like, “Well, this thing couldn’t do any better.” We were really, really honored and excited to do this together.

Family

On that topic, what was the experience like of working with your daughter on the ad itself?

Look, it’s the craft I’ve been doing for the last 30 years. Not a lot of people get to do something with their child in something they do for work. That was the coolest thing ever. She couldn’t have been more excited, it’s the most important thing. She had one of the best times in her life. She really, really enjoyed it. What we really realized is that working during his commercial for Silk and me feeling good was a great celebration. Almost a year to date is when we shot this thing, on the anniversary of my recovery. We were forced to look back, my daughter and I, to how far we’ve come in the recovery and how good we feel. This is a kind of almost laughable and [joyous] situation to mark this milestone in the recovery. So it ran so much deeper than — obviously, doing a Super Bowl commercial with your daughter for Silk is awesome. But then we’re gonna have a lasting lasting effect of this celebration for us, this milestone in the recovery for us, and [have it] be forever lasting. It’s very, very, very lasting.

Surprises

What surprised you the most about the experience of working on this commercial?

First and foremost, that my joints can move the directions that they were going. [laughs] Dancing on a countertop and doing roundhouse kicks to the almond milk cartons, was probably not on my PT’s list of things to do to get better. I think it’s all the work that I’ve done. I think it’s, when you test your body — and this is like, a big test for me — to kind of start flapping your wings for the first time and see what you can do. It gave me a lot of confidence that I will be better that will get stronger and I will always… I will somehow survive this thing.

Takeaway

You mentioned the personal significance for you, but what do you hope viewers take away from seeing the commercial during the game?

Maybe something along similar lines. I think we can all agree there’s not a lot of good things happening in the planet right now, or at least it’s hard to find things that are good or that feel good. Well, here we go. We got a “feel planty good” campaign. I got some real superpowers in recovery, somehow, some way, and overcame a lot of adversity, along with a lot of love and help and guidance and luck and love. These are all pretty wonderful things to focus on. I hope this makes people feel good. I hope this would be a 30 seconds sort of tribute to wellness and goodness in everybody else’s life, in all of our lives, and celebrate that. I’m happy to be a face and a beacon to inspire somebody, to inspire wellness, and in feeling good in their own life.

Music

I’ve always been in awe of all of your different creative outlets. And obviously being in a Super Bowl commercial feels like an extension of that. How do you feel that freedom has kind of impacted your life, especially in your recovery?

Oh, yeah. I don’t think there’s any one thing in life that’s going to satiate all of our needs. Not one place, not one person. I think there has to be many outlets, especially as a creative person. You know, the music has been a wonderful, cathartic place for me to heal from in this recovery. For instance, music is huge. I think music is big for a lot of people.

You put out some new music relatively recently. What has it been like to see the response to it so far?

It’s been great. This has been a very different musical experience, because the story was already written and what to write about. There’s just different milestones to it. It was an easier thing to write about, even though it’s definitely pretty revealing and emotional, and about these milestones in the recovery. But [it was] wonderfully cathartic and healing for me to do it. And I love that people are… Again, it’s different because everybody else is kind of “in on the joke” or understanding the narrative, before the music comes out. So I think that makes it kind of a different experience. And I’m glad that people are loving and liking it and are connected to it. So wonderful, uniting, overwhelming experience.

Mayor of Kingstown

What can you tease about how the filming experience has been on the new season of Mayor of Kingstown so far? 

We’re two episodes in, we got eight more to go. I’m only reading [one] episode at a time. So I don’t know that much, and wouldn’t tell you anyway. But I think it’s gonna be pretty exciting. There’s a lot of… It’s very Kingstown storytelling. It’s a lot. It’s pretty amazing. It’s pretty exciting. I can’t wait. We’re just about to start Episode Three tomorrow, so let’s see how we go.

Hawkeye

If and when you get the opportunity to play Hawkeye next, what would you be most excited to explore with his character?

Flexibility. [laughs] I’m stretching as we talk about this, right? Like, no joke. Yeah. I don’t know. I leave the storytelling and the narrative to the writers and all that. But I do love the character, and if they called and asked for me to do it, I’ll be prepared. Feige, I’m stretching right now, my guy! 

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Silk’s “Feel Planty Good” advertisement will air during the Big Game on Sunday, February 11th.